Bank Deals, Checking Accounts, Money Market Rates, Uncategorized

EverBank has been advertising an intro-APY rate special for checking and money market accounts for several years now. Savers may even remember that the rate was high as 6.01% at one time. Of course, that seems unreal now. EverBank has done a good job of keeping their intro-rate at the top of the rate leaderboard. In that vein, Everbank increased their rate recently on both their Money Market and Checking account to 3.01% from 2.51%.

Checking Account

The EverBank high interest checking account pays a first-year APY of 1.96% on balances from $50,000 to $99,999 after you factor in the bonus rate for the first three months. Even if your average balance is below $10,000, you would still earn a first-year APY of 1.52%. Terms of the Everbank checking account include:

-  No monthly fees

- Free online bill payment service for accounts with an average monthly balance over $5,000

- $1,500 minimum opening deposit

- $6 per month in ATM reimbursements

Money Market Account

The money market account offered by EverBank has the same intro-rate, but varies in a few account details and features. First, the intro-rate only applies to the first $50,000 on deposit in the money market account. A depositor with less than $50,000 in their account will earn a first-year APY of 2.00% after factoring in the 90-day bonus rate. A second difference is that the account can be opened as an IRA for savers looking for retirements options. A monthly fee of $8.95 will be charged to your account if the balance averages below $5,000 for a month. Similar to most money market accounts, transfers and withdrawals are limited to six per month.

Everbank is a FDIC-insured bank that remains committed to being a deposit rate leader. While seeing a 3.00% intro-rate from Everbank is great, let’s hope we can return to the days of those 6% checking accounts.

Woori American Bank is a Korean-American bank based out of California. The FDIC-insured bank has a Korean-version and an English version of their website with the same products advertised on both. One of their products is an automatic savings plan called the One Heart Savings Account. This account pays a high rate of interest to savers who contractually agree to make regular monthly payments for deposit in the savings account. The minimum contract amount is $1,000. If you opened a 5-year $1,000 One Heart Savings account with Woori America Bank, your monthly payment would be $14.43.  After five years your total payments plus interest would equal the contract amount of $1,000 and you have full access to withdraw the funds. You can make your monthly payments by check or automatic bank transfer.

One Heart Account Features:

- All payments must be current to obtain stated APY

- Minimum contract amount is $1,000

- Penalties apply for early withdrawal

Savings Rates:

48-month 5.50% APY

60-month 5.75% APY

120-month 6.25% APY

The automatic savings plan from Woori American Bank is tempting because of the high rates offered. Although it should not replace an emergency savings account because of the costly penalties for early withdrawal, many Americans could use an organized savings plan. It is a simple and effective way to take advantage of monthly savings and compound interest. Automatic savings plans can also be used retirement savings. Best of all for investors, if you make all your payments the bank can tell you with certainty how much money you will have at the end of the contract. There are probably more than  a few General Motors (GM) stockholders and bondholders who might have liked a deal like that.

A pure online bank has no branch offices. The idea is that the overhead needed to build, maintain, and staff branch offices could be saved and passed on to customers with higher deposit rates and lower fees. NewdominionDIRECT.com is an online bank based out of the Charlotte, North Carolina region that fits the bill. The online bank has aggressively grown their deposit base over the last couple of years by offering high rates on CDs, money market accounts, and savings accounts. Typical of most online banks, fees are kept to a minimum. But is the bank profitable and viable? NewDominion Bank reported an increase in first-quarter net income to $75,205 from $30,912 a year ago. That’s not a huge profit, but it’s not too bad in a day-and-age where the nation’s largest banks record million dollar losses regularly. Listed below are the current CD rates at NewDominion Bank

3 Month CD 1.50% APY

6 Month CD 1.90% APY

9 Month 2.31% APY

12 Month 2.40% APY

18 Month 2.72% APY

24 Month 2.76% APY

30 Month 2.75% APY

36 Month 2.75% APY

48 Month 2.75% APY

60 Month 2.75% APY

Certificates of deposit from New Dominion Bank require a minimum opening deposit of $3,000 for a regular account and a $500 minimum opening deposit for an IRA account. Early withdrawal penalties apply for any withdrawal prior to the maturity date of the CD.

More details about the rate deals at NewDominion Bank are available at newdominiondirect.com.

GMAC Bank was a longtime leader in offering some of the highest rates on savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit that were available online for savers.  This month GMAC Bank shed their old name and is now operating online as the newly minted Ally Bank.  Despite the name change, the bank is still offering competitive rates and deposits are still insured by the FDIC. You might consider that more important than the bank name anyway. Today’s rates from Ally Bank include:

2.25% APY for an online savings account

2.10% APY for a 6-month CD

2.60% APY for a 9-month CD

2.80% APY for a 1-year CD

2.90% APY APY for a 2-year CD

3.10% APY for a 3-year CD

3.25% APY for a 4-year CD

3.50% APY for a 5-year CD

There is no minimum balance requirement for either the online savings account or the CDs offered by Ally Bank. The bank is also offering a special  ”no-penalty” CD. This CD allows a full withdrawal of funds for a customer anytime after the first six days of funding their account. No-penalty CDs are gaining popularity because they allow CD investors to grab higher rates should they become available.

Ally Bank advertises that they do not charge any fees on their deposit accounts. This is always nice to hear from an online bank considering just how many banks have increased maintenance fees and service fees over the last few years. Customer service also appears to be a priority for Ally Bank, as they have posted the current wait time to speak to a live customer representative posted on their website. Checking twice today revealed a wait time of 0 minutes in both cases. Not too bad for an online bank.

General Motors and GMAC were once names that were iconic symbols of strength and American power. In the age of bankruptcies and government takeovers banks are not looking to emphasize their past. New or old, Ally Bank has the rates that beat most of the other banks. What else does a saver need?

Center Bank is a FDIC-insured bank with branches in both California and the Chicago, Illinois area. It appears that Center Bank is marketing their banking services to Korean-Americans because there exists a Korean-language section of their website. This is nice to see of course and if you know a Korean-speaking person you may mention it to them. Along with being bilingual, Center Bank offers a full suite of online banking services. Of special note are the standard CDs and Flexible CDs which offer competitive rates and terms as listed below:

Standard CD Features:

Terms from 7 days to 5 years available

Minimum balance to open $1,000

Early Withdrawal Penalties:

Over 1 year : 3 month’s simple interest
32 days to 1 year : 1 month’s simple interest
7-31 days or less : whichever is greater of the following
- Accrued interest for half of the term
- All accured interest

Flexible CD Features:

Minimum balance to open is $5,000

You may make additional deposits into your account before the maturity date of the Flexible CD. The minimum amount of any additional deposit is $1,000. The total amount of any additional deposits during a term cannot exceed the initial deposit at account opening or at renewal. There are no limitations on the frequency or timing of additional deposits, except that no additions can be made in the last seven days before maturity. In addition, you may make two penalty-free early withdrawal penalties after the first 7 days you open the CD and before the last 7 days before the maturity date of your Flexible CD.

Flexible CD Rates:

12-month CD 3.40% APY

6-month CD 3.30% APY

Apply online