The Sun's Financial Diary

HSBC Direct is extending its 3.50% APY promotion by one more month. Are you in? In early June, HSBC Direct rolled out a promotion for its online savings account with 3.50% APY. While the rate was decent, it’s only good till August 15, that’s less than one and a half months. I don’t really know [...]

IndyMac Bank, the California-based bank specializing in mortgage lending, became the latest, yet largest so far, bank to fail in 2008 after the bank’s customers withdrew more than $1.3 billion since June amid crisis in the financial and housing market. Last Friday, July 11, 2008, IndyMac Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance [...]

I am always on the lookout for better banking deals. Recently I opened my fifth online savings account with Capital One after considering the move for a long time. At the time when I opened the account, the interest rate was at 3.75% APY which was pretty good given how much bank interest rates have [...]

For the second time in less than two months, E*Trade Financial decided to make its Complete Savings Account competitive by increasing its interest rate from 3.15% APY to 3.30% APY, starting July 2, 2008 (current rate 3.01% APY as of 12/28/2008). It made a similar rate adjustment in early May. With the Complete Savings Account, [...]

WT Direct became the latest online bank to increase the interest rate of its online savings, following similar move early from E-Trade, HSBC Direct, and FNBO Direct. The increase is 0.10%, from 3.16% to 3.26% APY with a minimum requirement of $1o,000. After 60 days if the minimum balance is below $10,000, then the interest [...]

After having been cut rates continuously since last September when the Federal Reserve began the current rate reduction campaign, some banks seem to start to reverse course in order to compete for our money even when the Fed is idle. Since April, E-Trade Financial and HSBC Direct each bumped up the interest rate of their [...]

I almost forgot I still have a HSBC Direct account until I received an email notice this Monday from HSBC regarding the change of their HSBC Direct Online Savings Account rate. The new rate, effective June 2, is 3.50% APY with no minimum balance requirement (well, technically you do have to have at least $1 [...]

I have been considering getting a new online savings account with a better rate for quite a while. The banks I am using right now (IGoBanking and FNBO Direct) are OK, but their rates are not as competitive as they used to be. After looking around and evaluating potential candidates such as Countrywide Bank, Provident [...]