This is just a quick note to let you guys know that ING Direct, which is the top online bank amongst FiveCentNickel readers, has rolled out a new feature to making logging into your account even easier. [more]

I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating… When you’re getting your financial house in order, the first step should be to build up an emergency fund. The purpose of this fund is to allow you to navigate rough patches in your life without completely derailing your finances. Just be sure that you reserve it for true emergencies. [more]

This is just a quick note to let you know that I’ve posted a fresh batch of ING Direct referral links (click through to get them). In case you’re not aware, ING Direct is considered to have the best online savings account according to FiveCentNickel readers, and these links get you a $25 account opening bonus (assuming that you deposit at least $250).

If you’re interested, simply visit my self-service ING Direct $25 referral page, find a link in the list that hasn’t been used, and then open your account with a $250 minimum deposit. If you’re not going to deposit a minimum of $250, then please use this link instead.

I frequently receive e-mails asking my opinion as to which online bank has the best high-yield savings account. With that in mind, I decided to ask FiveCentNickel readers to list their favorite online savings banks. Even though the interest rate landscape is constantly changing, I thought that it would be worth compiling the results into a handy list of the best online savings accounts. Here goes… [more]

How’s this for conflicting data? Just yesterday I wrote about Bank of America being among the worst “big” banks when it comes to fraudulent incidents per billion dollars on deposit, and yet… [more]

Update: I’ve put together a list of the best high-yield online banks based on reader feedback.

I just ran across an interesting bit of data over on the NY Times Bits weblog. In talking about how well different corners of corporate America do when it comes to protecting customers from identity theft, they put together a rundown of the estimated annual number of “incidents” related to identity theft per billion dollars in deposits for each of the 25 largest banks in the United States. [more]

During our vacation last week, we spent some time on Grand Cayman. Aside from the excellent snorkeling and diving, the Cayman Islands are quite interesting from a financial perspective. For example… [more]

When I was a kid, my parents went to the bank to get traveller’s checks before every major vacation. And yet… Now that we’re in the final stages of planning for our Disney cruise, it struck me that my wife and I never get traveller’s checks before we travel. And I suspect that we’re not alone. As a wise man once told me, travellers checks are so 1987…

I’m guessing that the big difference is the prevalence of credit and/or debit cards now vs. then. Since we put pretty much everything on our reward credit cards, there’s little need to carry much in the way of cash or traveller’s checks. And yet… While the situation will be much the same on our cruise in that we’ll be able to charge pretty much everything to our cabin and/or pay with a credit card, I still find myself thinking about picking up some traveller’s check before we depart.

What about you? Do you use traveller’s checks? Why or why not?

A reader named Tony wrote it with the following question:

My grandmother found among her papers a certificate of deposit (CD) from 1984, with a 9.5%(!) interest rate. The bank, of course, is no longer around. Is there any way to find out how to claim this? What would you do?

Short of trying to figure out if the bank has been bought by someone else, I’m afraid that I don’t have a good answer for him. What if the bank went out of business? Is there a statute of limitations on FDIC insurance? How would one go about trying to get their money back? I’m not sure. I therefore thought that I’d throw this out there so you guys can take a whack at it. If you have any suggestions as to how to proceed, please post them in the comments.

Time for another quick, informal poll…

Last time I asked about your favorite credit cards. This time I’d like to find out about your favorite online banks. So…

What’s your favorite online bank, and why?

Please leave a comment, below…