Oh the Joys of Banking!

Oh Lucky Me!

Hubby & I had a CD that matured on Monday.  So I got to spend this morning doing 'banking stuff'.
First I got to get the NEW RATE we would be earning if we kept our money in that CD and rolled it over.
The new rate?.....is even more of the joke than the rate we had.
The rate WAS 4.07%.
The new rate?....  .55%
Yep...that's actual AND annual yield.

After I finishing rolling on the floor laughing over that one I told the gal, "Thanks but no thanks!" 
We'll be moving the money this week.

Then I got to research current rates of financial products(cds & savings accounts) at other banks.
Before anyone writes about putting my money into riskier products(stocks, mutual funds, etc.)let me state that we do have money in other types of products that have more risk.  This pool of money needs to stay in safer instruments. ;-)

For the most part, I don't feel very comfortable putting this stash of cash into remote(not local)banking institutions.  I had a bad bad experience with this $ before in a WaMu CD. If you live out west, you can easily deal with them locally but we are in PA so not so easy to drop by a local branch.
For some weird reason I could NOT access the account via internet and none of the emails they SAY they sent me concerning the account showed up in my email program.  So anytime I had to conduct business with WaMu I had to call them....which was it's own special form of torture.  The day that CD came due was the same day last year that WaMu went belly up!  Gee, I wonder why they went belly up?lolol
You KNOW I yanked that money out so fast it made MY head spin!

The only online type bank I have had any luck with is ING DIRECT.  I've had some form of financial product or another with them for the last 3 yrs.  I have had NO PROBLEMS with them.
Ever.

So after finding all the local bank CD rates....which were all big JOKES at that....I am going to stash this cash into an ING Direct account.  Heck, if I put it into a regular Savings Account over there it is more than DOUBLED what every local bank here was offering for a CD RATE!
If I don't need the liquidity of a Savings Acct. I can drop it into a CD at ING instead and that would be FOUR TIMES the local Banks' CD Rates!!

I thought last fall's rates were bad.  If those rates were bad, the rates this fall are Abyssmal.   
And the rates may get even worse before they get better.

On the bright side, our small stock portfolio has rebounded some and we are almost back at the level we were at last fall.  We may get to retire yet......in about 30 yrs. or so.lolol

So I'm off to ING DIRECT to set a CD up.

They have a special deal going if you are in the market for a Savings Account or something they call "Electric Orange"...it's like a Checking Account but you need to deposit $50K or more to get a good rate on your money.
Anyway, go open an account there using a Referral Link I can send you and you get a FREE $25 in your account!  Oh, and I get a FREE $10 for referring you. ;-)
The only stipulation besides having to use the link is you have to put a minimum of $250 into the account and you have to be a New ING Customer.
Go check them out...ING DIRECT .

Just send me an email at slugmama@yahoo dotcom if you want a referral.

Free Money?
Yah...I am all over that!

Sluggy