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Best Online Savings & Money Market Account Rates 2024

Best Online Savings & Money Market Account Rates

Recent Articles


Christopher Dodd's Regulatory Reform is An Act of Courage

Christopher Dodd just held a news conference to explain his new blueprint for sweeping financial reform.

The Dodd Bill that was just unveiled does several things:

(1) It enables greater control over banks,

(2) It enables the government to orderly unwinding of those banks that were previously believed to be too big to fail,

(3) It facilitates some supervision of large hedge funds, and

(4) It implement some level of consumer protection where highly complex derivative instruments are involved.

It is not a bill to destroy the financial industry. However, it is not regulation which would ever gain the support of the financial industry. The regulation therefore can only be put through by someone who does not need to answer to the banking lobby in a re-election campaign.

As Dodd said, this regulation isn't going to stop the next crisis. It however may help to prevent it and it will certainly help to limit the consequences of it.

I applaud Dodd for taking a bold step.


Top Savings Rate Stays at 2% - Average Down to 1.4% APY

Rate information contained on this page may have changed. Please find latest savings rates.

Savings rates dipped very slightly this past week with the average dropping from 1.41% APY to 1.40% APY. Despite this drop, the top savings rate remained at 2% (ReadySaver.com from Southern Community Bank). Everbank also continued to offer their promo rate of 2.25% APY for the first three months on new money. After three months, the rate drops to 1.26% APY for a 1-year blended APY of 1.51%.

Savings rates dipped very slightly this past week with the average dropping from 1.41% APY to 1.40% APY. Despite this drop, the top savings rate remained at 2% (ReadySaver.com from Southern Community Bank). Everbank also continued to offer their promo rate of 2.25% APY for the first three months on new money. After three months, the rate drops to 1.26% APY for a 1-year blended APY of 1.51%.

Other notable rates include Franklin Synergy Bank at 1.75% APY and EBSB at 1.67% APY.

For those of you looking to deposit your money into a larger bank, student lender Sallae Mae just opened an Internet bank and is offering a 1.25% APY savings account. It was 1.35% APY last week. American Express Federal Bank is offering a 1.30% APY.

The table below shows the trend with savings rates as well as select cd rates. For savings, the trend is generally down.

Compare the top savings rates.


U.S. Banks Closing Branches

For the first time since 2002, bank branch networks in the United States are getting smaller.

The days of having a banking branch on every corner of every street are over.
According to SNL Financial, a research firm that tracks data filed with bank regulators, the total number of retail branches in the U.S. is on pace to decline this year for the first time since at least 2002.
Several banks are taking the knife to their operations and national presence in order to close down branches that are viewed as unattractive. Banks such as JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and PNC Financial Services (PNC) are cutting down on overlapping branches and reducing their branch count for the first time in 8 years. Apparently banks that are expanding are doing so at a much lower pace than initially planned.
According to SNL, the number of bank branches in the United States has declined by about 300, or 0.3%, since June 2009. There are currently 98,913 bank branches across the nation. The FDIC says there are 6,839 commercial banks in the country, meaning each bank has, on average 14.46 branches.
The current number of branches is still 15% higher than in 2002, but the persistent increase in banking branches driven largely by profits generated from investment banking and derivative securities has come to a close.
Despite the retreat in banking locations, people are depositing more money into U.S. banks, mainly because of higher deposit insurance limits introduced by the FDIC. Retail investors still remain in cash after the credit and liquidity crisis of 2008.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says that in 2009, the 8,012 banks and savings institutions in the U.S. had just $12.5 billion in combined profits, down from $100 billion in 2007. A total of 140 banks failed (which is only 1.74% of the total), while 179 disappeared through mergers and acquisitions, and 702 (a troubling 8.76%) are considered by the FDIC to present significant risk. One of the reasons banks are expanding their branch networks less is the lack of lending activity these banks are engaging in, leaving the firms with less money for capital expenditures such as new branches.
According to the an article by Robin Sidel, J.P. Morgan is scooping up former Blockbuster video-rental stores as the bank increases its retail presence in Florida. In Jersey City, NJ, a former Washington Mutual branch inherited by J.P. Morgan was transformed recently into a 7-Eleven convenience store. About 30 miles away in Morris Plains, N.J., a former WaMu location converted into a Chase branch is directly across the street from another Chase branch. Such cannibalization will inevitably lead to smaller branch networks. Chase has 377 branches in New York City with 1,862 ATMS. With a total area of 303 square miles in New York City, that’s one Chase branch every 0.8 square miles.