The Sun’s Financial Diary

People always say good things will come to an end, but for Ally Bank, the good things lasted too short and the end came a little too fast.
Just two days ago, I praised Ally Bank for offering very attractive rates for its products, including savings account, money market account, and CD, when the trend for [...]

EverBank, one of the banks that I talked about quite often here, has increased its bonus rate for its Money Market Account from 2.51% to 3.01% this week. The bonus rate is good for the first three months after the account is opened and funded. The current rate after the introductory period is 1.83%.
EverBank has [...]

Do you still remember to what happened to Washington Mutual last year?
On September 22, 2008, WaMu surprised many people by offering one of the highest interest rates for its savings account. At 4.0% APY, the yield was very attractive and competitive. However, that didn’t last long. On September 25, WaMu was closed by the Fed [...]

Good bank deals are rare these days.
You are lucky if your bank pays you 3.0% or more for your money, unless you use one of those high-yield rewards checking accounts that always have a cap on how much money you can put into the account to earn the sometime 5+% yield. And, as you can [...]

Online banks are not idle when it comes adjusting interest rates for their savings products even when the Fed is.
This week, a number of popular online banks rushed to lower their already low interest rates. Now it’s hard to find a decent bank that pays above 2% APY at the time when people are increasingly [...]

As online banks keep slashing rates, it’s getting harder and harder to find to find a decent rate from popular banks, whose rates are mostly in the mid-2% range now. To find a good rate, you will have to beyond those banks that we used most often.
Recently, I noticed a few such banks which are [...]

A couple of days ago I was feeling pretty good about Dollar Savings Direct (Dollar Savings Direct reviews) and their seemingly unbeatable 4.00% APY. Today, I am feeling a little disappointed when they finally decided to follow what other banks have done already, cutting their rate to 3.50% APY. From the bank’s point of view, [...]

Is anybody using this bank?
I didn’t pay much attention to Bank of Internet until recently when I noticed their interest rates: Checking 2.80% APY and Savings 3.51% APY, the combination of the two could be the best for those who need both products (exclude those so-called reward checking of course).
Bank of Internet at a Glance
For [...]

Though I no longer actively use HSBC Direct any more (my account is still open, but with no money in it), I have been keeping an eye on its rate changes, especially after other popular banks, such as FNBO Direct, etc., lowered their rates to below 3.0% recently. I want to see how long HSBC [...]

2008 shaped to be a very bad year, if not the worst ever, for financial institutions, big or small alike. Big companies such as Citigroup, American International Group, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed billions of dollars from Uncle Sam to stay afloat, as losses from band loans, which triggered the current global financial [...]