Monthly Archives: November 2013

Current High Interest Saving Solutions

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(Updated as of Dec 21, 2015)

Though current high interest saving accounts aren’t what it used to be at it’s peak, but they are still relatively a lot higher than typical saving accounts. So check here often to make sure you are making the most out of your nest of savings.

Saving Accounts

Ally Bank is offering a 1.00% APY on their Online Savings and 0.85% APY on their Money Market accounts.

 

American Express is offering a 0.90% APY in their online savings account with no minimum deposit.

 

Discover is currently offering 0.95% APY on theirdiscover online savings account with no minimum deposit.

 

Santander Bank has a promotion on their extra20 checking account that gives you a total of $20 if you have $1500 in direct deposit and 2 bill payments monthly.
Certificate of Deposit (CDs)

Ally Bank still has a higher rate at 2.00% APY on a 5-year CD. 

New Ally Bank CD Early Withdrawal Fees

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I just received notice from Ally Bank that they will be changing the early withdrawal charges on their CDs. If you’ve followed any of my CD posts, you will see that I have created a CD ladder at Ally Bank. I chose Ally Bank because of it’s low early withdrawal fees, making long term 5 year CDs a little more “liquid” than other long term CDs. But unfortunately it looks like Ally Bank can’t keep those rates anymore and decided to increase the early withdrawal fees.

Here’s a breakdown of the new fee system: (taken from Ally website)

Before 12/07/2013
All CD terms 60 days of interest
After 12/07/2013
2 years or less 60 days of interest
3 years 90 days of interest
4 years 120 days of interest
5 years or longer 150 days of interest

This means a 5 year CD can make you lose 5 months of interest! With a 5 year CD rate at 1.60% and high yield savings account at 0.86%, it might be more worth it to just keep a high yield savings account. With higher early withdrawal fees, my CD ladder seems to make even more sense to me now.

 

 

 

In Support for Typhoon Haiyan Relief and Recovery in the Philippines

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Typhoon Haiyan Aftermath

Typhoon Haiyan Aftermath (credit: scubatechphilippines.com)

Donations are in great need after Typhoon Haiyan created such devastation in the Philippines. Please help the relief effort by donating to some charities.

Time World has a comprehensive list of active charities and their focus. After reviewing the efficiency ratings of the charities at charitynavigator.org I decided to skip American Red Cross and instead donated directly to the Philippine Red Cross [wiki] as suggested by the Time World article as well as Slate. I feel that the Philippine Red Cross will do what is best for their people and I’ll have less worry about where my money went. Continue reading →

Cashback for Holiday Shopping

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Updated 2013 – You might have noticed retailers starting the holiday season already. A large portion of sales occurs in the holiday season and with Thanksgiving is arriving much later than past years, this year everybody is trying to get a head start. Just a quick reminder to help you save a few extra dollars for your holiday shopping using cash back sites like below.

I never thought I’ll have to write a post like this since many people have become savvy shoppers in the eCommerce market but in lieu of the holiday shopping frenzies I realize terms like Ebates and BigCrumbs mean nothing to my coworkers. So I thought I’ll share here my little rule of thumb: before you checkout at ANY online shopping website, do a quick search at evreward.com and see how much cashback you can get on your purchase on top of coupons! And yes, this is also on top of the cashback that you receive from your credit cards (does not include the shopping portals from your credit card carrier.)

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