HSBC Drops APY, FNBO Direct and WaMu Hold Steady
Over the past couple of months, HSBC Direct has been offering a promotional rate of 3.5% APY*. As of this week, however, they’ve dropped their rate to 3.25% APY*. That means that WaMu and FNBO Direct are at the top of the heap amongst the major online banks.
For their part, WaMu is offering an attractive 3.75% APY*. While has had their share of troubles, they’re FDIC insured, so there’s no real risk as long as you respect the FDIC insurance limits.
Alternatively, you might want to check out FNBO Direct (here’s a link to my FNBO Direct review). In fact, Bankrate considers FNBO Direct to be the safest online bank, edging out ING Direct for the honor.
*All rates are current as of 09/16/08, but may have changed since then.
Published on September 16th, 2008 - 3 Comments
Filed under: Banking
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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September 16th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
dollarsavingsdirect.com (part of emigrant direct) is offering 3.75% also
September 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
With the drop in HSBC’s APY, I think the service and ease of use factors now make ING Direct the better choice for most prospective customers. Don’t know if FNBO is better than ING in the longer term…time will tell.
On a seperate note credit tightening and potential Fed interest rate cuts will pressure savings account APY’s for the rest of the year. This means I would be wary of companies like WaMu offer higher than average market rates.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I’m curious about something. Now it’s Thursday, there’s talk of a WaMu purchase or merger.
If I signed up for a one-year CD from WaMu, and another bank goes ahead and then buys or merges with WaMu, does this new entity have to honor the WaMu CD?
Or can they say, “we’re terminating this because we don’t want to pay 5% interest so here’s your deposit and whatever interested you earned to date, have a nice day?”