Cash Reserves & Best Interest Rates Update – June 2014

Posted on June 25, 2014 // 19 Comments

percentageOur family keeps a full year of expenses put aside in cash reserves; it provides us with financial stability with the additional side benefits of lower stress and less concern about stock market gyrations. Emergency funds can actually have a better return on investment than what you see on your bank statement.

Interest rates are still depressingly low, and I haven’t made any changes to how I hold my cash reserves in the past 12 months. However, I figured an update is in order as some of you may not be aware of the many options besides your too-big-to-fail megabank savings account paying 0.000001%.

My Cash Reserves
First, a quick recap of how I have our cash reserves split up. Keep in mind that most of the rates that I locked in are no longer available, but I did blog about them at the time.

  • Ally Bank Online Saving (0.87% APY of 6/24/14) as a no-fee overdraft backup to my Ally Interest Checking (0.10% APY on balances under $15k, 0.60% APY over $15k of 6/24/14), that way I can keep minimal balance in checking. Ally checking also has unlimited ATM fee rebates and no fees. I know there are some savings accounts paying a tiny bit more, but not worth the trouble for less than 0.1% difference on $10,000.
  • Ally Bank CDs earning between 1.84% and 3.09% APY. These are old 5-year CDs with a short 60-day interest penalty. Current CD rate of 6/21/14 is 1.60% APY with 150-day early withdrawal penalty.
  • PenFed CDs earning 5% APY. Long gone, although earlier this year PenFed did offer 5-year CDs at 3% APY (no longer available). Current rates are yawn-tastic.
  • I also have several US savings bonds that I now consider part of my retirement portfolio as opposed to cash reserves, as I don’t think I’ll ever want to cash them in before full maturity. More info below.

Best Currently Available Interest Rates
If I wasn’t already invested as outlined above, here are the FDIC-insured or government-backed opportunities that I would be looking into based on my needs.

  • Everbank Yield Pledge Money Market and Everbank Interest Checking account both offer 1.40% APY guaranteed (up to $50k each) for the first 6 months for new accounts. Since it is fixed, this is essentially a 6-month CD with a higher rate than any other 6-month CD rate out there and with no early withdrawal penalty to worry about.
  • “Series I” US Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation. “I Bonds” bought right now will earn 1.94% total for the first six months, and then a variable rate based on ongoing inflation after that. You must hold them for a year, and if you redeem them within 5 years you lose the last 3 months of interest. While future rates are unknown, the net rate after a year is likely to be higher than any 1-year CD. More info here.
  • Rewards checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but only if you to jump through many hoops. Make a mistake and you’ll forfeit your interest for that month. Rates can also drop quickly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling. If you’re up for it, a recent example is Consumers Credit Union where you can earn up to 5.09% APY on up to a $10k balance, although 3.09% APY is probably a more reasonable expectation (there are a lot of hoops).
  • Certificates of deposit. If you have a large cushion, it’s quite likely to just sit there for years. Why not put some money in longer-term investments where you can still take it out in a true emergency and pay an early withdrawal penalty. Synchrony Bank (formerly GE Capital Retail Bank) is offering a 5-year CD paying 2.30% APY for $25k+ balances (2.25% APY for $2k+) with an early withdrawal penalty of 180 days interest.
  • Willing to lock up your money for even longer? Tobyhanna Federal Credit Union has a 7-year CD paying 3.04% APY, however the early withdrawal penalty is a full 2 years of interest. More info here.
  • Even looooonger? “Series EE” US Savings Bonds are not indexed to inflation, but they have a guarantee that the value will double in value in 20 years, which equals a guaranteed return of 3.5% a year. However, if you don’t hold for that long, you’ll be stuck with the normal rate which is quite low (currently a sad 0.50% APY). You really want to be sure you’ll keep it for 20 years.

All rates are believed current as of writing, 6/24/14.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Citibank Checking Billpay and Mobile Check Deposit $100 Promotion

Posted on June 3, 2014 // 5 Comments

Citibank is running a $100 bonus promotion good for existing checking account customers. You have to first enroll in the offer by 7/31/14, and then you can earn $10 per month for doing each of the following activities from 6/1/14-12/31/14:

  • Online bill payment
  • Mobile check deposit
  • Outgoing Popmoney person-to-person money transfer

So you could technically get $30 a month, but the total possible bonus over the entire 7 month period is only $100. I don’t think this promotion is juicy enough to warrant opening a new Citi checking account, but it’s a pretty easy $100 if you already have one. Bonuses arrive within 60 days after a month with qualifying activity, and will only get reported on a 1099-MISC if you earn over $600 in miscellaneous taxable income from Citibank in a year.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Most People Still Prefer Cash And Debit Cards Over Credit Cards

Posted on May 29, 2014 // 36 Comments

The Federal Reserve recently released a report about about consumer payments [pdf], and it had some interesting results (at least to me). Via Business Insider. Here are the distilled highlights.

Cash is still the most frequently used form of payment, as measured by number of transactions. This is partly due to the fact that cash totally dominates for payments less than $10. In terms of value, electronic payments (online billpay and ACH payments using bank account numbers) have the largest share.

realdebitcards5

This next chart shows that debit card use is actually growing faster than any other form of payment:

realdebitcards6

Overall, debit cards are also the most preferred form of payment… but it does vary with income. 55% of consumers with household incomes less than $25,000 per year prefer cash over anything else, while 66% of households making more than $200,000 per year prefer credit cards over anything else.

realdebitcards4

People seem to have an either/or relationship with debit cards and credit cards. You either use one or the other predominantly.

realdebitcards3

Initially, I was surprised by the popularity of debit cards. (I prefer credit cards and am one of those people who haven’t used a debit card in years.) My hunch is that people think of debit cards as the closest thing to electronic cash. The money gets zapped out of your checking account and your balance decreases instantly. As long as you decline overdraft “protection”, if you hit zero your purchase will be declined. I admit it does have the appeal of simplicity.

Although I treat my credit card purchases the same as cash and always pay in full each month, credit cards do come with more complexity and the knowledge that the credit card company is lying in wait in case you feel like taking on a little debt. But in return I earn cash back rewards, get better consumer protection against fraud, and enough sign-up bonuses to fly me around the world once in a while.

Filed Under: Banking, Credit Cards //

Everbank 5 Year MarketSafe Treasury CD Review – FDIC Insured Principal, Rising Rate Participation

Posted on May 13, 2014 // 4 Comments

marketsafe2Interest rates remain very low, but at the same time we are constantly being warned that they could spike up soon. What is a conservative investor to do?

Everbank’s lineup of MarketSafe CDs are a new wrinkle on FDIC-insured bank CDs that try to take advantage of these current low interest rates. They are basically a hedged bet on something like currencies, precious metals, or commodities. If things don’t work out, the principal you put in is protected with FDIC insurance so you’ll always get that back, just with no interest in the worst case. If your selected market bet does pan out, you’ll get an interest payment based on that upside.

Their newest product is the 5-yr MarketSafe Treasury CD which bets on rising interest rates. I don’t pay much attention to gold or currency prices, but interest rates are easier to understand. Here’s the pitch:

With this latest MarketSafe CD, seek 3.3 times any upside growth in the 10-year Treasury yield during the CD term.3 Full protection of your deposited principal comes standard.1 Act by June 11, 2014 to take advantage.

Sound intriguing, but as usual let’s dig into the details.

The CD has a term of 5 years. You must fund it by 6/11/2014 and the maturity date is 6/21/2019 where you’ll get your principal plus any interest accrued (“market upside payment”). You can’t make any early withdrawals (well, technically you can but you lose the principal protection and are subject to penalties). The minimum opening deposit is $1,500. No monthly or account fees. Available for IRAs.

The market upside payment is based on the following formula using the 10-Year US Treasury yield:

(yield at maturity - initial yield) x 3.3 x deposited principal

Comments:

  • While the formula multiplies the rate difference by 3.3, this includes all the interest you’ll get for 5 years. As an example, if you had a 5-year CD paying 2% annually, that’s a 10.4% total return at the end of 5 years. (You can find a 5-year CD at 2.25% APY at GE Capital Retail Bank).
  • The current 10-year Treasury yield is roughly 2.6% (this could change by issue date). If you want a 10% return after 5 years from this MarketSafe CD, 10-year yields would have to rise by 3% to 5.6% in June 2019.
  • If the 10-year Treasury yield stays constant or drops between the initial date and maturity date, you will only get back your original principal.

I won’t make a rate prediction because I have no idea where rates are headed. Here’s a historical chart of the 10-year Treasury yield over the last 20 years (FRED):

fred10ust20yr

The last time the 10-year yield was near 5.5% was around 2002. Rates would have to go higher than that to beat a top 5-year traditional CD. However, keep in mind that with this product you are getting both upside potential and principal protection. In exchange for such risk reduction, it can’t be a slam dunk. If rates do rise up to say 5.5%, then the people who actually bought 10-year bonds today would be looking at a significant loss of principal.

Filed Under: Banking, Reviews //

Manilla Shutting Down. Online Bill Management Alternatives?

Posted on May 12, 2014 // 36 Comments

checkappA few readers e-mailed me to let me know that bill management website Manilla.com announced that they will be shutting down. Surprising, as they were just mentioned in Money magazine last month!

Manilla will be closing on July 1, 2014. This was a hard decision given that, over the past three years, Manilla has won many awards […] but was unable to achieve the scale necessary to make the economics of the business viable.

As noted in my now-useless Manilla review, many people enjoyed having all of their bills located in a central place. It was also nice that they offered to store all your old bills forever… or in this case September 30, 2014 after which they will be destroyed.

What are good Manilla alternatives? Here are several services that offer similar features in no particular order, please feel free to add more in the comments. I haven’t gotten to try them all out yet, so share your experiences as well.

  • Finovera – “Our mission is to make the process of receiving, managing, paying and organizing household bills and documents simple, automatic and effortless.”
  • Enfold – “Enfold is a free-for-life virtual filing cabinet where you can safely store and organize all your important documents and account information.”
  • MoneyStream – “Not just an organizer or bill-payer, MoneyStream brings everything together in one secure place—and then shows you a future view of your money so you can see at a glance where you stand and where you’re going.”
  • Check (formerly PageOnce) – A free smartphone app that both organizes and tracks balances, with the added feature of letting you pay your bills through the app. I don’t think it stores past statements past a certain time period.
  • Mint – Owned by Intuit, Mint is more budget-centric and tracks all of your transactions. You can’t pay bills through the software (although it will send you bill reminders) and it doesn’t store actual monthly statements.
  • Mobilligy – “Mobilligy puts all of your bills in one app that lets you review, manage and pay your bills for free – anytime, anywhere.”
  • FileThis – “FileThis is like a personal assistant for your paperwork. It automatically collects, files, tags, and organizes your online documents in a digital filing cabinet. Never lose another bank statement, legal paper, tax form, insurance document, or other important piece of paperwork.”
  • Doxo – “All your provider accounts and information together at last. Back up all your critical documents automatically to your personal cloud storage. Receive and pay bills from connected providers with doxoPAY.”
  • Personal Capital – similar account aggregation focus as Mint, plus some investment portfolio analysis features.
  • Zumbox – “Your postal mail delivered online. Your documents stored securely, forever.”
  • Intuit Paytrust = “PayTrust’s all-in-one online bill pay allows you to easily receive, track, and pay all your bills online.”
  • MyCheckFree – “Receive and pay your e-bills at one easy, secure location.”
  • Yodlee Labs – “This is a site where Yodlee will launch (and test) all of its latest (account aggregation) products before they are launched anywhere else in market.” If you just want most recent, most-refined version, sign up at Yodlee Moneycenter.

With Manilla and Everpix, I am reminded that any offer to store your stuff “forever” really means “as long as we keep making enough money”. Personally, I’m still using my bank’s Online Billpay service along with AutoPay with credit card where possible. For archival purposes, I download any paperless bills in PDF format to a folder on my computer, which is automatically backed up daily to my external hard drive and also instantly synchronized with my free Dropbox.com cloud account. However, if I can truly view and pay all my bills in one simple mobile app and a few taps, I’d be up for that.

Filed Under: Banking, Budgeting //

Pentagon Federal Offering 3-Year CDs at 2.02% APY

Posted on November 4, 2013 // 3 Comments

Pentagon Federal Credit Union is now offering 2.02% APY rate on it’s 3, 4, 5, and 7-year CDs (they call it a Money Market Certificate). The minimum opening deposit is $1,000. Early withdrawal penalties are as follows:

  • For terms from 6 months to 4 years, you will lose the last 180 days of interest. If you haven’t earned 180 days of interest yet, you lose all the interest and get back only your opening amount.
  • For terms of 5 years or longer, you will lose the last 365 days of interest. If you haven’t earned 365 days of interest yet, you lose all the interest and get back only your opening amount.

As a credit union, you must meet their eligibility requirements to join. Basically all members of the military and their immediate families are welcome, as well as many other military-related groups. Otherwise, simply become a member of the organization Voices for America’s Troops. Membership costs $15/yr, and you don’t need to renew to remain a PenFed member. “Voices for America’s Troops advocates for a strong national defense, including sustaining and improving quality of life programs for America’s troops, their families and survivors.”

(I ran a search through the blog archives and found a post about PenFed offering 6.25% APY 3-year CDs back in late 2006. I wonder how long until we see rates like that again?)

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Ally Bank CD Early Withdrawal Penalty Change: Details & Analysis

Posted on October 27, 2013 // 7 Comments

Ally Bank LogoAlly Bank just announced that they will be changing the early withdrawal policy on their CDs starting on December 7, 2013. Found via Ken Tumin’s DepositAccounts post, the details are now officially outlined in the fees tab of their certificates of deposit page. A screenshot:

I have several 5-year Ally CDs earning between 1.8% APY and 3.1% APY, bought largely due to their uniquely short 60-day interest penalty as it meant that I could effectively have access to my funds if required and still earn an interest rate that was higher than anything any other bank CD.

For example, let’s look at their 5-year CD currently paying a 1.60% APY (as of 10/27/13) with no penalty, a penalty of the last 60 days of interest, and a penalty of the last 150 days of interest. Here’s how your actual annualized interest rates would look like based on time of withdrawal:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //

Citibank Checking Account Promotion: 20,000 ThankYou Points

Posted on September 12, 2013 // 17 Comments

Update: Citibank has a new checking account promotion for new customers. You can get up 40,000 ThankYou points if you can maintain a $50,000 balance, but the more accessible option can still get you a nice 20,000 ThankYou points. I’ll only focus on how to get the 20k offer below. This would combine well with the 30,000 ThankYou point bonus from the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. Don’t forget to maximize the value of your Thank You points.

First, you must open a Basic Banking package either through the link above or by calling 1-866-583-6706 and using promo code CZC2. As long as you make 1 direct deposit and 1 bill payment each monthly statement period, you’ll pay no monthly service fee. Alternatively, keeping $1,500 in the account by itself will waive the $10 monthly service fee.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Capital One 360 Financial Independence Day Promo 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 // 5 Comments

Update – This promotion is now EXPIRED

Capital One Consumer Bank has their annual Financial Independence Day promotion which boosts the usual bonus for their Consumer Bank Savings and 360 Checking accounts. (Artist formerly known as ING Direct.) Offers good until Wednesday, July 3rd 11:59PM ET.

Consumer Bank Savings $76 Bonus

  • Open a no-fee 360 Savings account between July 1st and 3rd ($500 minimum deposit) and snag $76.
  • This has to be your first Consumer Bank Savings account (includes Orange Savings Account).
  • The bonus starts earning interest on day 1, but you can’t take it out for at least 30 days.
  • 0.75% variable Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective 6/30/2013.
  • For more, check out my Capital One 360 Savings Account Review.

Consumer Bank Checking $100 Bonus

  • Open a fee-free 360 Checking account between July 1st and 3rd (with a deposit of $500 or more) and grab $100.
  • This has to be your first Consumer Bank Checking account.
  • Make a total of 5 purchases (either signature of PIN-based) using your 360 Checking Debit Card, make 5 CheckMate deposits or any combination of the two within 45 days. Your $100 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50.
  • Variable APYs effective 6/30/2013: 0.20% Balances under $50,000 / 0.80% Balances between $50,000 and $99,999 / 0.85% $100,000+.
Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

MYGA Deferred Fixed Annuities: Maximize State Guaranty Coverage Limits

Posted on June 18, 2013 // 6 Comments

A recent article by Scott Burns talked about investing in deferred fixed annuities with CD-like qualities, an example offered a 3% yield guaranteed for 5 years plus no surrender charges (similar to early withdrawal penalty) after 5 years. This is a better rate than current bank CDs offer, and annuities can grow tax-deferred for those saving for retirement (withdraw as early as age 59.5)*. After the 5 years, you roll the annuity over to another company if the new rate is no longer good enough. These are also referred to as MYGAs (multi-year guarantee annuities). The catch? The annuities that have the best rates often don’t have the highest credit ratings.

A possible solution? Make sure you stay under the coverage limits of your state’s Life & Health Guaranty Association. From NOHLGA.com:

State life and health insurance guaranty associations are state entities (in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia) created to protect policyholders of an insolvent insurance company. All insurance companies (with limited exceptions) licensed to sell life or health insurance in a state must be members of that state’s guaranty association.

These are not federally-backed like FDIC insurance. Instead, all the member insurance companies agree to cover each other in cases of insolvency up to the policy limits. In order to be a licensed insurer, you need to maintain a certain level of financial stability. But just like banks, some insurers are stronger than others. So if you’re going to go over the limits, the standard advice is to go with a top credit rating from AM Best, Moody’s, or S&P. However, credit ratings can go down over time, and you may be holding these annuities for many years. Therefore, it’s still safest to stay under the limits.

(You may not hear much about these guaranty associations because it is illegal for insurance brokers to use them in advertisements as a reason to buy annuities. I find this somewhat ironic, considering all the misleading statements they are allowed to make about equity-linked or equity-indexed annuity products.)

While they vary from state to state, virtually all states offer at least $100,000 in coverage for withdrawal and cash values for annuities. (Connecticut and Washington offer $500,000 in coverage. In California, the limit is 80% not to exceed $250,000.) Look up your specific state’s limits here or here.

In order to maximize your coverage, the process is similar to that for FDIC insurance – spread your money across different institutions and use different ownership titles. Let’s say you have $100,000 in state annuity coverage. The details may vary by state, but for many states that number is per owner designation, per company. The Mr. Annuity website has a helpful article [pdf] about how to structure your annuities to maximize your coverage.

If a client has $300,000 and wants to make certain all the money is protected, including future interest earnings, while taking advantage of the highest rate possible, we set up 3 contracts in Company A for $80,000 each. In annuity 1, the husband is the Owner and Annuitant. In annuity 2, the wife is the Owner and Annuitant. In annuity 3, the husband and wife are Joint Owners with the husband as the Annuitant. Then, we’ll put $60,000 in the next highest rate we can find in Company B, normally with the husband as Owner and Annuitant. That way, as the money grows, it will be protected under the guaranty laws because they are covered up to $100,000 per owner designation, per company.

I made a quick illustration of this theoretical example:

annuitysafe

Notice that you need to leave some room for growth, that way your future earnings are covered as well.

* I’m not saying these annuities are a great deal for everyone. If you are in a situation with a high-income and are already maxing all your other tax-deferred accounts like IRAs, 401ks, and are still looking for safer retirement investments with steady growth then this might be an option to consider due to the ability to get tax-deferred growth with rates competitive with current bond yields. I’m still in research mode.

Filed Under: Annuities, Banking, Investing //

Savings I-Bonds May 2013 Upcoming Rate: 1.18%

Posted on April 16, 2013 // 8 Comments

New inflation numbers for March 2013 were just announced, so it’s time for the usual semi-annual update and rate predictions.

New Inflation Rate
September 2012 CPI-U was 231.407. March 2013 CPI-U was 232.773, for a semi-annual increase of 0.590%. Using the official formula, the variable component of interest rate for the next 6 month cycle will be approximately 1.18%. The new fixed rate is nearly guaranteed to be zero, so the total rate will be 1.18% as well. If you have an older savings bond, your fixed rate may be different.

Purchase and Redemption Timing Reminder
You can’t redeem until 12 months have gone by, and any redemptions within 5 years incur an interest penalty of the last 3 months of interest. A known “trick” with I-Bonds is that if you buy at the end of the month, you’ll still get all the interest for the entire month as if you bought it in the beginning of the month. It’s best to give yourself a few business days of buffer time though, since if you wait too long your effective purchase date may be bumped into the next month.

Buying in April

If you buy before the end of April, the fixed rate portion of I-Bonds will be 0.0%. You will be guaranteed the current variable interest rate of 1.76% for the next 6 months, for a total rate of 0 + 1.76 = 1.76%. For the 6 months after that, the total rate will be 0.0 + 1.18 = 1.18%. Let’s say we hold for the minimum of one year and pay the 3-month interest penalty. If you buy on April 30th and sell on April 1, 2013, you’ll earn a 1.28% annualized return for an 11-month holding period, for which the interest is also exempt from state income taxes. This is better than any 1-year bank CD that I can find right now, keeping in mind the liquidity concerns and the purchase limits. If you hold for longer, you’ll be getting the full 1.47% over the first year.

Given the combination of current low rates and the fact that you lose the last 3 months of interest (again, for holding less than 5 years), it might be better to wait long enough to grab 12 full months of interest by holding for 15 months (14 buying late). If you buy on April 30th and hold until July 1st, 2014, you’d achieve a annualized return of ~1.26% over 14 months. After that, you can see what the new rates are and decide whether to keep holding them.

Buying in May

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking, Savings Bonds //

Cash Reserves Update: Best Available Interest Rates – March 2013

Posted on March 27, 2013 // 25 Comments

Our family keeps a full year of expenses put aside in cash reserves; it provides us with financial stability with the additional side benefits of lower stress and less concern about stock market gyrations. Emergency funds can actually have a better return on investment than what you see on your bank statement.

I’ve been slacking in terms of updates on this topic. While I still like to maximize my interest, there just hasn’t been many new developments that make me want to jump from one bank from another. However, if you haven’t optimized your cash recently, you may be stuck in a money market fund or megabank saving account paying 0.05% or less. You can definitely still do better than that! Here are what I consider the highlights of the best currently available interest rates.

Certificates of Deposit

If you have a large cushion, it’s quite likely to just sit there for years or more. Therefore, you may wish to put some of it in longer-term investments where you can take the money out in a true emergency and paid an early withdrawal penalty.

  • Everbank’s Yield Pledge Money Market and Interest Checking account both offer 1.10% APY guaranteed for the first 6 months for new accounts. Since it is fixed, this is essentially a 6-month CD with a higher rate than any other 6-month CD rate out there and with no early withdrawal penalty to worry about.
  • Ally Bank Raise Your Rate CDs have a rate bump feature; the 2-year term pays 1.05% APY and the 4-year term pays 1.30% APY (as of 11/1/13). You can change your rate after your account is opened — if their rate on this CD goes up, yours can bump up to match it (one interest rate increase with the 2 year term, two interest rate increases with the 4 year term).They also offer traditional Ally Bank High-Yield CDs with 3-year CDs at 1.20% APY and 5-year CDs at 1.60% APY (as of 11/1/13) currently. Early withdrawal penalty is only 60 days.
  • Discover Bank CDs are currently offering 3-year CDs at 1.25% APY, 5-year CDs at 1.65% APY, 7-year CDs at 1.80% APY, and a 10-year CD at 1.90% APY. Early withdrawal penalty varies from 6 months for the 3-year to 15 months on the 7 and 10-year CD.
  • PenFed Credit Union CDs are currently offering 3-year CDs at 1.60% APY, 5-Year CDs at 1.65% APY, and a 7-Year CD at 1.75% APY. Early withdrawal penalty varies from 6 months for the 3-year CD to 12 months on the 5 and 7-year CD.

Ally Bank’s Flexible Certificates of Deposit

Ally Bank LogoLet’s focus on the Ally Bank certificates of deposit, where you can still access your money as long as you pay a early withdrawal penalty of 60 days interest – significantly less than at other banks. Why is this good?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking, Monthly Updates //
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