Got the email this morning. Here’s the text from the email with the pertinent info:
*Effective July 1, 2019, the interest rate and annual percentage yield (APY) on your Northern Bank Direct Money Market account will change. The tiers are changing as follows and the blended APY will no longer apply. You will earn the stated APY on your total account balance of the tier that your account balance aligns with.
Average daily balances less than $250,000.00 will earn an interest rate of 2.47% and APY of 2.50%.
Average daily balances $250,000.00 up to $999,999.99 will earn an interest rate of 1.24% and APY of 1.25%
Average daily balances $1,000,000.00 and above will earn an interest rate of 0.25% and APY of .25%
After December 31, 2019, the interest rate and APY may change. Fees may reduce earnings on the account. The minimum to open this account is $5,000.00
I was just going to ask, what is the current so-called “blended rate”? From what I can remember, this “change” is just different words that say the same thing.
And NBD no longer offers the Money Market account online. Their only accounts available to open are CDs.
Yup. This is great news, even though widely forecast. 2.5% is a decent rate for liquid funds these days. OK, sure: Grow is higher. But not everyone has one of those Grow accounts.
Northern is quite competitive as well with the PurePoint NPCD rate, which is also 2.5%.
So 0-249,999 earns the 2.5% APY and only the money above it goes down to the crappy rate right? Why they want to give people incentive to pull the interest out is beyond me but then it would keep people at the FDIC limit if they had that much in the account.
Wealthfront now offers 2.51% APY with no fees, unlimited transfers and FDIC insurance covering up to $1M. It takes $1 to open and no additional deposit requirements.
edit to add I am not very familiar with wealthfront and have no opinion of the company. I do know that they were recently fined $250k for violations of SEC rules, so if you’re interested in this deal, you may want to do some homework first.
How can they offer $1M in FDIC insurance? And unlimited transfers? That doesn’t sound right. Does anyone have any experience with them? There’s nothing on depositaccounts about Wealthfront.
They’re a brokerage/Investment firm, who use sweep accounts for cash balances. And sweep the cash into 4 separate banks, thus $250k FDIC coverage per bank.
Sounds good… But the interest rate 2.51% is a variable rate & can change any day. Great FDIC coverage, because it is guaranteed through 4 different Banks.
I don’t bank with Variable rate companies. So that takes care of Wealthfront for me…
And according to their website, they are planning on keeping their rate competitive…I just opened with them…it’s a rather interesting setup and different then conventional accounts…I like what i am seeing so far…
My favorite features are: you can transfer up to $250,000 per day in or out…Although it’s called a Savings Account, you don’t have the “6 per month limit” The 1 million FDIC Insurance Coverage (because they sweep the money into 4 fdic banks)…and plan on adding debit cards, checks, bill
pay, mobile check deposits in the near future…And the high rate of course…LOL
Up to 3 external bank accounts can be linked to it…They are actually a brokerage firm…not a bank…
As previously stated, CIT Bank has a history of inventing new liquid savings products that are identical except in name to existing products, so that they can attract new customers with a higher rate without paying it to existing ones (unless they call in to complain).
Now comes a new tactic I’ve just experienced with them. If you have a Savings Builder account that has been inactive for some time (i.e. not meeting the threshold for the 2.45% APY interest rate), then there is a penalty of up to one full month when do you make deposits to meet the threshold for 2.45% APY, during which time you earn about 1%, not the advertised rate. Update: After some back and forth via chat, they finally agreed to pay the advertised rate on the funds from date of deposit, and that has been posted. I should also note that they also make an exception the first month an account is opened.
Edit: Also, they’ve lowered their interest rate to 2.40 % APY. Wiki updated.
Just a quick comment with Navy Federal. If they come out with a great deal on one of their “special certificates” keep in mind their rules state a max of 100K TOTAL across ALL their special certificates. Very Frustrating.
I recently had to sever my relationship with Wells Fargo due to repeated issues with them and am looking for a “local bank” to simplify depositing checks, getting things notarized etc…I already have several internet banks via recommendations from this thread and the cd thread but I’ve got the sell of a house coming up in my future and Ally would require me to mail in the check. Do you have any recommendations with low to no fee’s that you’ve had a good relationship with? I’m in the southeast part of the USA if that helps.
