As you stated, I’m unaware of checking at PurePoint. I do use their savings and, yes, Reg D is omnipresent in my thinking every darn month. Also, PurePoint does not operate my account on the calendar month, so one must be aware, too, of that wrinkle.
But I manage to make it work because, principally, of PurePoint’s willingness to pay me interest on money they do not actually have. I move a LOT of money around constantly. That “instant interest” feature at PurePoint is a wonderful moneymaker.
Northern Bank increased to 2.5% APY. Although that may or may not be limited to accounts already grandfathered under their 2.25% rate, as opposed to the 1.51% shown on their website for new accounts.
Yes, here’s the text from the email they sent out this morning! New rate is also guaranteed through June 30, 2019!!
Is there anything better than watching your Northern Bank Direct Money Market Account grow? What about an increased interest rate?
Well, we’re giving you both! Because you’re a valued and loyal customer, we have increased your interest rate to 2.47% with a 2.50% APY for balances up to $250,000.00.
So sit back, relax, and watch your account grow with your new interest rate.
Wouldn’t you know, my luck… I just moved funds out of Northern Bank. Transferred the money over to EBSB 2.5%. So I’m ok, but it never fails. Hard to keep up with these rates.
Hmmm. Looks as if I need to ACH some money from PurePoint over to NBD. Probably will wait until Friday, though. PurePoint might up their own rate as February commences. We shall see.
@shinobi
Perfect timing for me…got funds transferring to Ally from closed CD…will then send them to Northern. 2nd cd matures on 30th. I set a one year reminder on google the day I opened it so not sure about the closing date discrepancy but that money may go to purepoint or stay in ally’s NP cd till another rate hop. I kept hoping some of the banks I already maintained accounts with would get on the band wagon.
@zzz and @glitch99 Thanks for pointing it out because even though I got the email I might have missed it.
@pattyb3 " Hard to keep up with these rates." is a good problem to have.
Northern’s ACH system is limited to $5k (I think), but they do credit deposits much like Purepoint. “Pull” funds on Friday and the deposit posts Friday, while the withdrawal doesnt post in the source account until Monday. I’m generally against rate chasing every fraction of a percent increase, but progressively moving the money this way makes it slightly more worthwhile.
That is entirely possible. But I dunno because I do not use Northern Bank’s facility. I operate at PurePoint where the limits are quite generous.
Decided to push what I could into NBD from PurePoint, while pulling new funds into PurePoint from Ally. Closed several Ally no-penalty certificates which were paying me only 2.3%. Even at PurePoint the interest rate is higher than that, and PurePoint also gave me a day of double interest to boot.
I like NBD and am happy to let them watch over my dough at 2.5% APY. However, in the spirit of “trust but verify”, I telephoned NBD anyway just to make absolutely certain they were not going to pull a Virtual Bank on me and delay payment of interest by a day on ACHed funds. The rep assured me my funds, which arrive via ACH, will commence earning interest on the day of arrival. I was satisfied. However:
Just out of curiosity I went on to ask about funds which arrive at NBD in the form of an old-fashioned paper check. I’ve no intent whatsoever of sending NBD a check, however my inquisitiveness got the better of me.
The answer was the same, even for a paper check. The moment the check arrives and is credited to your NBD account, interest commences being paid.
So, OK, I was fine with NBD. And did I mention I cleaned out my Virtual Bank account while I was at it? All except for $100 of course. The moment they told me they delay paying interest on ACHed funds I was done with 'em. Was just waiting for the right time to pull out my dough. Today was the right time.
Guess I did miss your point. But if NBD is imposing a $5k limitation, where is the benefit? Anyway, I’ve not really taken seriously the idea of using NBD’s ACH facilities so have not explored whatever it is they offer. I continue to use only PurePoint and Alliant for ACH.
For arguments sake, if both banks credit deposit instantly, do you simply pull from each bank $5k each Friday to get double interest on $10k each weekend?
Nice idea but not workable unless you had an extra $10,000 in both places. They credit instantly but do not allow you to move/remove the funds for up to 5 days depending on what bank we are talking about.
For those putting there funds into Northern Bank I did note the rate was only guaranteed until 06/2019.
From ken’s site:
Northern Bank Direct (internet bank) has increased the promo rate on existing Money Market Accounts to 2.50% APY on balances up to $250k. Guaranteed through 6/31/2019
Good point. Right now I’m waiting on EBSB phone line. I will ask when they finally answer.
But my real call is about funds that were transferred yesterday to EBSB. Funds have been removed from Advancial & still not showing at EBSB. That makes me angry!!
I just talked to a Supervisor at EBSB & I’m even more angry. My funds that left Advancial yesterday may not show up for 3-4 days. So I’m going to transfer funds out of EBSB & into Northern Bank. So then she told me I had to leave funds for 180 (?) days to avoid a penalty for closing acct… In my anger I may have missed out on the exact amount of days I had to leave funds there. But I have $75K in EBSB that have been there for a long period of time.
I forgot to ask about how long is the 2.5% rate locked.
Should I just forget it & leave my money in EBSB?
First you need to contact EBSB again but not until AFTER you have calmed down a good bit.
Second, closing accounts is not generally a great approach. I, and others, at NBD for example had left a small “keep alive” deposit at NBD. That way when the rate jumped we were enabled easily to add funds.
Find out how much you must leave at EBSB to avoid penalty and/or fees, leave that much in the account, and pull out the remainder.
I just did that at Virtual. Pulled out thousands, but left $100 in the account simply to keep it alive. You never know what’s around the next corner.
