In the past, I’ve put together rundowns of the best online savings accounts (based on reader feedback) and the safest online banks (based on Bankrate ratings). I thought I’d round things out by compiling a list of current interest rates for the most popular online savings accounts. Here goes:
Note: The list below has been getting [...]

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This is just a quick note to let you know that Washington Mutual has raised the rate on their online savings account to 4.00% APY, effective Tuesday, September 22nd. As far as I know, this is the highest available rate for an FDIC insured online savings account. In fact, it even beats out CD rates [...]

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Over the past several weeks, I’ve received a number of comments and e-mails from readers wondering what would happen to their mortgage if their banks fails. Is the loan terminated? Do they have to pay it back immediately? Or do they get to walk away free and clear? In short, the answer to all three [...]

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Here are some of my favorite FCN articles from a year ago this past week: Dealing With Found Money Bonds Ball is Up For Voting Dealing With Found Money, Followup And here’s what was going on two years ago: Hidden Costs of Home Ownership Money Saving Tip for the Recently (or Soon-to-Be) Unemployed Solving Customer Service Problems Skip Lunch, Save $100k And finally, here’s what was going on three years ago: Buying Term Life Insurance, Part IV Buying a New Car Misguided Money Fears Buying a New Car, Part II Car Buying Mistakes

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As much of a roller coaster ride as we had this past week, here are some things to consider:

This week, Dow experienced drops of nearly 450 and over 500 points, but…

The Dow finished the week down just 34 points
In the past month, the Dow is up 40 points
Over the past 5 years, the Dow is [...]

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The big news today was that the White House is pushing for a so-called “Rescue Package” for the economy. While details are still being fleshed out, the Treasury Department will apparently seek authority to spend “hundreds of billions” of taxpayer dollars to purchase illiquid assets from U.S. financial institutions.
These buybacks will be managed by a [...]

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Last night, I decided to login to Vanguard to check out the damage from the recent market turmoil. Their Portfolio Watch feature actually makes this very easy, as I can now see our entire portfolio (including non-Vanguard investments) on a single screen.
Surveying the damage
What I learned upon logging in was mildly depressing. Not surprisingly, our [...]

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With all of the recent financial turmoil, I’ve received a number of questions from readers on topics ranging from the safety of their bank to whether or not their money is FDIC insured, etc. While I’ve written about these topics in the past, several of the questions that I’ve received have outlined very specific scenarios, [...]

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Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand, you’re aware that United States financial system is in the midst of an ever-worsening crisis, and that the stock market has gone a bit haywire. In fact, we experienced the largest single-day drop in the stock market since the markets re-opened after the September 11th attacks.
Why? [...]

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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 [...]

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