"It's very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old fashioned way because I'll tell you what, no computer is safe." Donald J. Trump, December 30, 2016, Mar-A-Lago, Florida
Donald Trump announced last weekend that he favored returning to the past – turning off the computer, writing it down and having a courier deliver it. I’m sure, he would also favor markets no longer driven by algorithms and millisecond transactions, returning instead exclusively to floor agents and floor trading.
In fact, following all this to its natural conclusion, Trump might also champion banks, once again, offering toasters to those who would open new accounts.
Any of this would be a hard sell today. Trump is going to discover quickly that there is no turning the clock back. He will be surprised, once he leaves Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, that the world has changed dramatically. Typewriters and fountain pens are hard to find: couriers are few and far between and toasters as incentives have gone the way of prizes in Cracker Jack boxes.
That said, he might be on to something here. One could imagine, with interest rates finally on the rise and increased attention now on safety in very volatile markets, that banks might want to ADD toasters again to their menu of options. Who knows? It worked once, and with Trump as the champion, it might just work again.
Banks have always used the end of the year as a time to cut rates on savings accounts or allow promotional rates to expire, and/or to reduce benefits. For the last eight years, rates have been falling and the lack of competition has offered depositors little recourse but to accept these changes.
Several banks have also recently reduced their rates from competitive rates to ones that aren’t. Even if your bank has given you some sort of great first year interest rate (Salem Five) or great 3 month rate (EverBank), you should not sit by and let them quietly reduce your rate to one that isn’t competitive.
And, if you are a business customer at a bank like Chase which is using the turnover from 2016 to 2017 as an opportunity to strip benefits that they have always offered you, it is also not OK.
Following the Fed's movement of the Fed Funds rate to 50 basis points last week, we are finally seeing competition for your hard earned cash. Here are a couple of neat offers that caught our eye.
Here are some neat offers that have just come to market that may indicate that the long period of low interest rates may be ending, and competition among banks for your money may be picking up.
Savings Bonus – Up to $200 from CIT Bank
CIT Bank is offering depositors up to a $200 bonus for funding a savings account with new money between now and the end of 2016. You can learn more about this offer here. BestCashCow finds this offer particularly attractive as discussed in this article, especially as CIT Bank always has outstanding customer reviews.
CD – 11-Month No Penalty CD from Ally Bank
Ally Bank is offering depositors an 11-Month No Penalty CD paying 1.25%. The rate is not particularly compelling as we have seen 1-year CDs paying 1.25% and over for some time now (see the best one year CDs here). What is attractive about this offer, however, is that the CD can be terminated without penalty at any point following six days of opening. Quite simply, there is no reason not to move your cash on deposit in an Ally savings account to their 11-Month No Penalty CD, even if you think you might need to access the cash over the next 11 months.
Online 2-Year CD Rates Cross 1.50% and Credit Union 5-Year CD Rates Cross 2.50%
