When I was updating rates yesterday, I noticed a good CD deal at Golf Savings Bank. It’s a 15-month bump CD with a 2.19% APY. Minimum deposit is $10,000. The rate actually goes down to 2.09% APY for deposits over $90,000. These rates are listed in the bank’s CD rates page as of 11/22/2009. At the bottom of the table, it states these rate were last changed on 11/16/09. Hopefully, this 15-month rate won’t be lowered tomorrow.
When I last contacted Golf Savings Bank in August, I was told that people from any state can apply for the accounts. The online application uses the Cashedge service, and it allows ACH funding from your existing bank account.
According to the CSR, the rate locks when you submit your application. The rates are usually updated on Mondays. The grace period at maturity is 10 days.
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Tags: Bank, Golf Savings, Golf Savings Bank, Savings Bank
Mexico’s richest man, one of the richest men in the world, Carlos “Slim” Helu, was on CNBC the other day claiming that Mexico’s banks and overall financial system are in excellent shape, especially when compared to the still troubled state of many American banks.
Meanwhile, three of the four biggest banks in the world are headquartered in China.
The increasing prominence of foreign banks begs the question:
Would you buy a jumbo CD from a Mexican bank? Or a Chinese bank?
If not, why not?
Jumbo CDs Express a Desire for Perfect Safety
The question about buying CDs from Mexican banks is a bit misleading because the great majority of Mexican banks are actually foreign-owned. Banorte
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Tags: Bank, Mexican Bank
Chase Bank gets the honor of being the first major bank to have an iPhone application. We here at Online Banks Blog had to look at it, of course, and tell you what we saw.
The icon that goes with the Chase iPhone app is beautiful and simple. It’s a nice rendering of the Chase Bank logo and the simple blue color is carried throughout the iPhone app for Chase. It uses a secure login sequence, data transfer protocol, and has other features to keep it locked down for you.
Most of that is in the background, however, and the user interface is simple. The Chase Bank iPhone app has a simple login screen that lets you call or just look for ATMs without logging in. Once you log in, all of the features of online banking that you expect to see on your desktop are right there on the Chase iPhone app too.
You can transfer or wire money, check balances, access bill pay, etc. H
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Tags: App, Iphone App
Wells Fargo agreed to pay $1.4 billion to investors to settle a lawsuit by California Attorney General Jerry Brown that claims that the bank lied about the strength of its auction-rate securities.
Wells Fargo
A Settlement
By agreeing to pay the settlement, Wells Fargo is not admitting to any wrongdoing, but instead simply reimbursing the investors who were unable to cash in their securities after the auctions markets froze back in February 2008. The bank will also pay the attorney generals office for its fees, but will not pay any civil fees or fines.
For many investors, this money will be the first return on the auction-rate securities that that they have seen. The securities were marketed as highly lucrative investments by Wells Fargo, but the lawsuit claims that the bank ignored or even purposefully withheld industry warnings about the true risks involved.
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Tags: Securities, Wells Fargo
I received confirmation that the FDIC’s new rate cap rules are starting to impact reward checking accounts. In May the FDIC issued a final rule “to prevent banks that are less than well capitalized from soliciting deposits at interest rates that significantly exceed prevailing rates.” The FDIC now publishes weekly national deposit rate averages and rate caps that will be used to enforce this new rule. As I explained in this May post there was concern about this new rule affecting reward checking account rates. It’s now happening. A reader forwarded me the following email she received from Libertad Bank which had been offering a 3.50% APY nationwide reward checking account:
Dear Libertad Bank Amazing Checking Customers,
Unfortunately with all the new banking regulations being passed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has decided to implement a new rule that effectively limits the interest rate we can pay on our Amazing Checking Account.
Because of this new rule; effective at the end of the November Amazing Checking account cycle we will be lowering the interest rate on our Amazing Checking account to 0.75% APY regardless of account activity.
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Tags: Accounts, Checking Accounts, Reward Checking, Reward Checking Accounts