The Sun's Financial Diary

It has been more than four months since I last updated my little interest rates table. During this four-month period, the rate picture of online banks has changed a lot, going down 5% something to mostly in the neighborhood of 3% APY, as the Fed cut interest rates every time they met. However, the latest [...]

In a sign that interest rates may stop falling and start rising, E*Trade Financial sent me an email this afternoon with a surprising update: Start May 8, they will increase the interest rate of their Complete Savings Account from the current 3.01% APY to 3.15% APY, though the Fed has cut interest rates by another [...]

Not long ago, you can easily find an online bank that pay above 5% APY for your money. For example, from my last rate update at the end of 2007 (I didn’t update the list since them because banks kept lowering their rates even , you could get a 5.12% APY from UFB Direct or [...]

When I wrote about the RevolutionCard back in last September, I didn’t pay much attention to the other product, RevolutionMoneyExchange, from the same company. The reason for me not feel excited by the new product was 1) I didn’t use a lot person-to-person fund transfer and 2) I already have a Paypal account which is [...]

I am and I can’t think of any reason why not using it as long as I have a bank account. It’s safe (I don’t have to worry about losing the check) and it’s fast (there’s no delay for the money to show up in my account). However, it appears that not everybody is using [...]

After the latest rate cut by the Federal Reserve early this month, we are seeing many banks followed suit in the past by lowering the interest rates of the online savings accounts. As of today, UFB Direct offers the highest savings rate at 5.22% APY among banks I tracked. Update: Go to this post to [...]

FNBO Direct recently introduces a new savings tool, FNBO Direct BillPay Account, which is more like an interest checking account (except no check-writing ability). The product currently is only available to existing Savings account members and it pays 3.50% 1.25% APY (rate as of March 10, 2010). Other features of the new account include: No [...]

While I don’t use 4-week T-bills as a short-term saving vehicle any more, I still keep an eye on the rate changes, though I don’t expect the rate to become competitive any time soon after the sharp drop in September, especially after two consecutive rate cuts. The latest 4-week T-bill rate is at 4.008% APR. [...]