Speaking hypothetically whats the general thoughts on the FDIC limit of 250K. Consider it a hard limit (ie eliminate joint accounts and other methods of increasing this amount). When you find a good deal like Northpointe do you go over that limit and risk losing it if something should happen with the bank (maybe the bank not collapsing but what about if they get hacked and lose a bunch of money…does that go against the 250k limit too?) or still stay at it and potentially let other money earn a lower rate?
Do not understand what this means
I thought Popular Direct was dropping my 2% savings to 1.85% a couple days ago.
I decided to open Northpoint 2.05% Ultimate Savings… I started the Northpoint application on 5/18, charged the $100, & faxed my Drivers License. So I imagine tomorrow 5/21 the account will be open. I’ll call first thing to get the account number to start my small deposits for ACH transfers later.
Problem is I will now have 2 savings accts. I think I will just leave the Popular Direct with the funds that are now there & add new money to the Northpoint Bank.
Makes sense to me, pattyb53. Since you now have an account with a rate lock, if Popular Direct lowers their rate you just move those funds to Northpointe. If the Popular rate holds you are good to go, at least for the next year.
Only God knows where rates will be in May of 2019.
Ditto for me 
I must have messed that up in editing…I meant “When you find a good deal like Northpointe do you go over that limit…”
I will edit it for clarity.
Gotcha, famewolf. Now I understand.
It is a personal decision. I would never exceed the FDIC/NCUA limits, even though I have done so in the past . . .
Famewolf: What the heck is that supposed to mean? It makes no sense, shin!
Agreed. It makes no sense. I have broken my own rule in the past for the sake of convenience and after checking Ken’s website to determine the condition of the financial institution. But rest assured, in the overwhelming number of instances, I remain within the FDIC/NCUA deposit limits for the sake of safety.
If you are going to exceed those limits be incredibly careful and realize you could lose money!
Do you check the condition every month? Because the condition can change before your CDs mature. Just a little more than a year before WaMu collapsed, they had some of the best CD rates. So if a bank needs an infusion of cash, they’ll offer rates higher than everybody else. The corollary is if they are offering higher rates, they may need the cash, because there may be a risk of collapse.
I don’t think I would ever risk exceeding the insurance limit. It’s pretty easy to at least double the FDIC limit with a POD designation (I’m pretty sure the payee doesn’t even need to know, but you may need their SSN).
The majority of my accounts will go to charity so I spent time googling this weekend to verify whether a POD could be assigned to charity and what happens if the charity for some reason doesn’t exist at time of passing (a judge makes a ruling on where best it should go to honor the deceased’s intentions). It looks like it can so I may go that route the next time a killer deal comes along.
That being said I called Virtual Bank this morning and told them I wanted to cancel the process due to lack of response to my secure messages/lack of action (money was still in account)…apparently customer service forwarded it to whoever was supposed to initiate the account on thursday but she “didn’t have a chance to contact me” and they don’t work on the weekend. I think I had to end up saying I wanted to cancel the application 9 times over the next several minutes to actually get it done because she was happy to “initiate it now”. Will try with northpointe and do the $100 cc deposit then transfer after the fact via ach.
You were right…opening an account with Northpointe was ridiculously easy compared to the mess at virtualbank. I’ll only get $2 for opening the account (Citi Doublecash). Does the account show the date opened? I’m trying to figure out what day to put on my google calendar to remind me the rate guarantee has expired.
Just got that Northpointe Bank, Ultimate Savings 2.05% opened.
I have a couple CD’s that mature the middle of June. I’ll probably deposit the funds in Northpointe Bank. I’m not sure if the Ultimate Savings is good for the year, but hope so. If not there’s Popular Direct 2% waiting.
I’m still waiting for those 4%, short term CD’s to start popping up…
Have you considered a Charitable Donor-Advised Fund instead.
Fidelity is the largest, but not the only one:
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Thank you for your reply! I was not aware of this alternative and will look into it as time allows shortly. Good time to get with the attorney to do estate planning as well I suppose. Of course that would only allow for one POD as opposed to more with multiple charities.
So we expect rates to go up but what rate would it have to be for you to lock yourself in longterm? Longterm being hmm 5-10 years I suppose. When andrews had the 7 year 3% deal I planned to keep it a couple of years but as time passed it continued to look like a winner…We’ve seen one 4% deal.
Where oh where is the reasonably secure 5% of yesterday?
Not too surprising. VirtualBank is part of a relatively small bank in Louisiana. I tried to open an account with their parent bank and it was a disaster too.
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I think we all are, pattyb53. Two schools of thought appear to be emerging currently:
First school is just what you’ve heard before, that the Fed will continue to hike the Federal Funds rate throughout 2018 and possibly into 2019, with another 2-4 0.25% hikes likely.
Second school is saying “not so fast”. Belief is the Fed might be hesitant to invert the yield curve, therefore allowing more time between hikes, if they eventuate at all.
Inverted yield curves are prickly. And there is surely market resistance when it comes to rate hikes at the longer end, which the Fed does not control.
Myself? In the words of Sergeant Schultz: “I know nothing!”. But I’m entitled to my opinion just like everyone else. I expect a June hike, now less than one month away. But I will be following the Fed’s June forward guidance closely for any indication of yield curve concern. At this point, it seems to me, the Fed is pushing on a rope.
And let’s not mince words. The real determinant of where things are heading will not become manifest until November.
My view on this has changed. Admittedly I had serious difficulty at the get go. I thought the account was down the drain and I was annoyed at the time lost with nothing to show for it . . . . or so I thought.
But they straightened things out. My account is up and running after all. I made a pretty penny in the process and have myself a 2% liquid account, guaranteed for a year.
So I withdraw my earlier criticism. Sometimes there are surprises on the upside.
Probably also noteworthy that Virtual will pay that 2% regardless of balance. Several other providers of high interest liquid accounts require quite a lot of money be in the account before you benefit from the advertised high rate. So Virtual has that advantage, which is worthwhile to have.
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Good deal!
Looking at the list of liquid accts, I don’t see VirtualBank listed. If so you just got in under the wire before they dropped that 2% rate. Anyway sometimes these things happen. You start an application & get way laid & never finish (you think). A couple weeks later everything went through. It has happened to me.
Back to 2% savings… Northpointe Bank got my small deposits today & I immediately added $25K from Alliant to start gaining the 2.05%. Money can set in these 2% savings until 4% begins. 
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You got my attention there, pattyb53. Like pronto!
I shot over to the Virtual Bank website licketty split because I had not heard of a rate drop.
Sure enough, upon arrival there, their 2.01%APY e-money market special deal remains standing strong and proud. And the rate is guaranteed for one whole year. Here is a link:
Virtual Bank deal still going strong at this moment
I see there you must keep the account funded at $100 or more to avoid the service charge. I can live with that.
I didn’t mean to get your attention, that they had dropped that good rate. But I didn’t see it listed here on Best High Liquid accts.
? here. How does a person get the list of High Liquid accts without having to go to the side of this page & click backward. I know there must be a quicker way.
Added VirtualBank to the Wiki.
I’m not sure I understand the question. If you are reading the latest messages on a thread and you want to get to the wiki, you can:
- Scroll the message counter (one that currently says “199 / 199”) all the way to “2 / 199”, and that should place you at the wiki.
- Hit the “Home” button on your keyboard.
- Click on the thread title at the top of the page.
- Change the URL in the address bar – the last value is the message number. Either remove it to get to the first message or change it to 2 to get to the wiki (which is the 2nd message in the thread).
Thanks scripta.
Hit the “Home” button is quick. (that’s for me) There is so much on this computer that I can’t manage. You all are pro’s as far as I’m concerned. But I learn something new every day.
I hope this is not too far astray from the topic of liquid accounts and their interest rates:
Of all the liquid accounts out there, PurePoint is the only one known to me having the “instant interest” feature. “Instant interest” is just a name I made up, a shorthand way to describe PurePoint’s payment of interest from the moment you schedule, at their website, an incoming ACH transfer of funds.
I frequently am moving large sums of money via ACH. “Large” here means thousands of dollars, NOT millions of dollars. Regardless, saving a full day of interest is something I view as good. In fact there actually is always at least one day of double interest, which is even better.
[Pro note: Double interest fans pay heed. A holiday weekend is nigh. It’s our opportunity for FOUR days of double interest. Sweet!]
So even though I now have higher-yielding accounts at both Virtual and at Northpointe, PurePoint will continue to play an important role in my liquid money management.
I really enjoy the “instant interest” feature. Is anyone aware of other high interest liquid money account providers that offer this feature?