The battle between Wells Fargo and Citi for Wachovia is over and Wells is the winner. Citi walked away citing concerns over Wachovia's loan portfolio. Wells gets to greatly expand its banking franchise but also inherits billions in bad loans.

For customers of Wachovia, the transition to Wells Fargo should be like any regular bank acquisition. Wachovia is offering some relatively high rates for a large bank including their 3.5% APY High Performance Money Market account and a 1 year CD that ranges anywhere from 4.10% APY to 4.30% APY depending on your state of residence. Both the money market account rate and the 1 year cd account rate are competitive.

As we saw with Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide, and Chase's purchase of WaMu, these competitive rates generally don't last long. Look for Wells to lower them in the next couple of months, if not sooner.

Was this a good deal for Wells? In the plus column Wells gains control of $448 billion in deposits in 21 states for the low price of $12 billion. On the minus column it inherits Wachovia's $498 billion loan portfolio, which includes about $122 billion of option adjustable-rate mortgages. These option adjustable-rate-mortgages have been defaulting at high levels and analysts estimate as many as $40 billion could go bad. The number could climb higher if the economy continues to deteriorate.

I'd have to assume Wells has had a chance to take a look at Wachovia's loan portfolio and feels comfortable with the risk they are taking. But if the economy continues to deteriorate they could be on the hook for more than they originally estimated. Overall though, I think Wells got a pretty good deal and now becomes the largest bank by branches in the United States.

From the moment JP Morgan Chase acquired Washington Mutual we knew it was only a matter of time before WaMu's saver-friendly rates started to drop. That day is today. Washington Mutual cut its savings and cd rates to such an extent that they are no longer listed on the BestCashCow rate tables.

Until today, WaMu was offering a 4% APY savings account that was tied for #1 as the best savings or money market rate in the country. That rate is now 3% APY. Their 1-year CD was paying 4% APY, also the best in the country and a great deal but the rate has been dropped to 3% APY, removing it from the best 1-year cd rates table.

For savers, it's a sad day. WaMu offered an easy account opening process and we hardly heard any complaints about the bank. There is little chance that under Chase, WaMu will return to its pro-saver days. With rates expected to drop, we hope everyone who wanted to got the getting while it was good.

RIP.

Capital One is offering a clandestine $50 bonus to open their high yielding savings account and fund it with $25,000 within 30 days of account opening. The offer only seems to have been marketed in san Francisco although nothing in the language would prevent anyone from another location from opening it. Banks often test regional offers and while they are open nationally, they simply don't advertise them. The Internet though means that once words gets out, an offer is national.

The Capital One Savings Account is one of the best savings rates available. If you open the account with $10,000, the account yields a 3.55% APY. If you are a Costco member, you can get a 3.75% APY,

To get the $50 offer you must:

• Open the account by October 31, 2008 and deposit $25,000 within 30 days from account opening. It does not say you have to keep the money in the account, although to receive the highest possible APY you w/ill need at least $10,000.
• Fund the account with money not already in a Capital One account.
• Use the offer promo code BONUS50 at the time of account opening.

Capital One received 3 1/2 starts out of 5 from Bauer Financial for its safety and soundness. That's a decent score and you can see how this compares to other high yielding banks on the BestCashCow rate table.

Thanks to Banking Guy at Bankdeals for finding this offer.