ING Direct Savings account...

I'll offer one warning. On $10,000, the .6 is $60 delta. When staying with the same bank (or using a broker who has CDs as an option) you save the 'dead time' where the money will sit earning nothing (or just checking interest). If that time is 2 weeks, that's nearly .2 of the .6 lost. I use Charles Schwab, where 3 mo CDs are 5.3, and 6 mo are 5.26. You get a warning email when they come due, and decide on the next one to buy, nothing automatic. Just my thought. JOE

I too use Schwab. No transaction fee for buying CD. And I have a list of about 20 to choose from for each different maturity dates.

"joetaxpayer" wrote

Pretty nice. The offerings at Fidelity for the same maturity CDs are quite a bit lower right now. This surprise me, because Fidelity in the recent past has been pretty competitive with its brokered CD offerings. Perhaps the yield curve inversion has thrown things into a bit of a tizzy?

High yield online savings are ultra-competitive these days. ING apparently has decided not to try to offer the highest yield, but rather to spend money on referral bonuses and massive advertising (even on TV). Which honestly, is probably the better strategy from the bank's point of view.

There's no minimum, so it's not necessary to close the account. I'd leave a few dollars with ING in case things change in the future.

This is what I do too. Leave a few bucks in ING. I moved the bulk of my cash to EmigrantDirect (5.15% currently), which has been offering great rates for a few years now. They also have an interesting (= strange) CD offer with the same rate regardless of term.

There are many alternatives:

There are several online banks out there that have savings rates that are more attractive than CD's right now, like

offering a 6% money market for 3 months. Theres also e-loan with a 5.5% savings rate (Min $5,000 balance) Or has a 5.30% savings rate,no minimums.

I don't know why ING is not being competetive. They used to be, not anymore.

wrote

The yield curve has inverted. See the second chart from the top, on the left, at

to monitor it. This is an unusual situation for interest rates, so we will not see "business as usual" among those offering short term instruments. Rates on offerings will be erratic (or more erratic than in the recent past). In the past my local banks' CD offerings have been notoriously poor. Now at least one is offering 3-to-six month CDs (minimum a mere $1000) that rank second nationwide (for the 3-month) and in the top six or so for the 6-month as far as interest rates, according to . Of course, this offer is only good at the local bank for about another week or so. In two weeks things may change quite a bit. The interactive graphic at is a great resource for getting a handle on the yield curve and what it has done since about 1977.