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“Historical” Online Savings Interest Rate Comparison

Posted By Jim On 04/24/2006 @ 12:55 pm In Banking | 13 Comments

Want to see an interesting comparison of the interest rates of HSBC, ING Direct [3], Virtual Bank [4], Emigrant Direct [5] and the Federal Funds rate in a table and easy to understand chart? Me too. That’s why I stumbled onto a thread at Fatwallet Finance documenting the interest rates of all those savings accounts (there are a couple more that I omitted) I thought a graphical representation would be an interesting thing to see. Historical is in quotes because this only goes back to January ’05 so it’s not exactly History Channel type depth but I think it’ll suffice.

Some thoughts…

  • Big dog ING Direct hasn’t led the pack in interest rates, with the exception of briefly before HSBC introduced their 4.80% rate, in over 16 months, as far as the history has recorded. ING Direct has always been second to Emigrant Direct. However, ING Direct has always offered a $25 bonus if you signup with an existing customer referral (visit this self-serve $25 ING Direct promotion page [6] if you’d like one).
  • HSBC has the best rate, hands down. If you were going to open an account anywhere (and couldn’t get ING’s referral bonus), open one at HSBC because of the interest rate. There’s no reason to pick anyone else over them.
  • Whereas all the other banks seem to increase or decrease rates relatively haphazardly, Emigrant seems to try to walk in lock-step with the FOMC’s recommendations for the federal funds rate… I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a move to 4.75% in the near future.

Actual history and a line chart after the jump.

Date HSBC ING Direct Virtual Bank Emigrant Fed. Funds
Rate
1/05 2.35% 2.60% 3.00% 2.25%
2/05 2.35% 2.60% 3.00% 2.50%
3/05 2.75% 2.53% 2.80% 3.25% 2.75%
4/05 2.88% 2.98% 3.05% 3.25% 2.75%
5/05 2.88% 3.00% 3.05% 3.25% 3.00%
6/05 2.88% 3.00% 3.25% 3.25% 3.25%
7/05 3.25% 3.05% 3.40% 3.50% 3.25%
8/05 3.50% 3.27% 3.40% 3.50% 3.50%
9/05 3.75% 3.40% 3.55% 4.00% 3.75%
10/05 3.75% 3.48% 3.55% 4.00% 3.75%
11/05 4.00% 3.71% 3.55% 4.00% 4.00%
12/05 4.25% 3.80% 3.55% 4.00% 4.25%
1/06 4.25% 4.75% 3.55% 4.25% 4.50%
2/06 4.80% 4.75% 4.60% 4.25% 4.50%
3/06 4.80% 4.75% 4.60% 4.50% 4.75%
4/06 4.80% 4.75% 4.60% 4.50% 4.75%
5/06 4.80% 4.00% 4.60% 4.50% 4.75%

Based on records from Fatwallet’s user-supplied interest rate history records [7].

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[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share

[2] Email: mailto:?subject=http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/historical-online-savings-interest-rate-comparison.html

[3] ING Direct: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/r/ingdirect.php

[4] Virtual Bank: http://www.virtualbank.com

[5] Emigrant Direct: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/r/dollarsavingsdirect.php

[6] self-serve $25 ING Direct promotion page: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/25-ing-direct-signup-promotion-bonus-serve-yourself.html

[7] Fatwallet’s user-supplied interest rate history records: http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/579954/

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