Yesterday, WaMu lowered their interest rates on their high yield interest bearing savings. Today, ING Direct announced a similar move.
WaMu dropped their rate from 4.0% down to 3.0%. Not entirely unexpected given their recent troubles and their buyout by JP Morgan Chase. ING lowered their rate a little less drastically from 3.0% to 2.75%.
With the FED lowering rates again yesterday as well, I’m looking for the rest of the online savings rates to drop a little as well. ING is usually the first to react to moving rates at the FED with the others close to follow. I would expect that most of the rates will drop somewhere between 2.5% and 3.5% before too awful long.
Even at rates that low, it beats the heck out of my local banks and credit unions rates. My Credit Union currently pays 0.25% on my savings there. Need I tell why I don’t keep much of a balance in there? With access to my ING or eTrade accounts just a few days away, unless there’s an immediate emergency, I don’t feel the need to waste my money on a quarter percent rate.
Finally, at this point, I don’t think it would be smart to start moving money around to take advantage of higher rates elsewhere. Give it a week or so and then re-evaluate the landscape. That should be long enough for the banks to react to yesterdays FED move.
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I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way, I've discovered the Yakezie group, and many other blogging friends.
