Comments on: Where to park short term funds?

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:25:09 +0000

I love my ING Direct account. It doesn’t have the highest APY but you won’t get better customer service anywhere else. Also, their online interface is just easy and awesome.
I also do still have many referral links left if anyone would like to contact me to receive a link (either for an orange savings account or the electric orange checking/savings account) to sign up for an account. You receive $25 for signing up with a min. of $250 or more. A nice little bonus for nothing! Just shoot me an e-mail @ z3trkrnr@gmail.com and I’ll send the link right back to you!

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 23:45:19 +0000

Thanks Jim…that does at least clarify that it’s apples to apples — which is good. I am left wondering the ultimate question though “is it worth it?” Emigrant will clearly make me *more* money by EOY (I have a specific 10k target in mind) but I am really wondering how much of a difference (post-tax) given when and how much I deposit. It’s just a curiousity thing but I have not located a good online calculator to help me. Ah well. Thanks for clearing up the “rate” vs APY!

By: jim

jim — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:14:07 +0000

Interesting, I never really looked into it but their rates are listed as APY (Annual Percentage Yield) so the way they compound won’t matter. An APY is the yield you’re getting regardless of the actual interest rate. An interest rate that is lower but compounded more frequently may have a higher APY than an interest rate that is higher but compounded less frequently. By listing an APY and not just the rate at which it compounds, you can make a fair comparison. I hope I explained it sorta okay.

Thanks for your comments, I’ll be sure to check out your site too!

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 19:42:01 +0000

Great site Jim! So ING is still at 2.6% and Emigrant is now at 3.25% but I also noticed on bankrate that they compound differently. I believe it was ING was monthly and Emigrant was daily. I have been wondering how this affects the bottom line, any ideas?

By: jim

jim — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:27:05 +0000

Yeah I saw the recent bump in interest rate, it’s not worth it for me to sign up for Emigrant Direct just for a few more percent. They should probably offer some sort of bonus and they’ll get a lot of traffic.

ING is paying attention though because this jump of .25% has been the biggest jump in my recent memory. It happens to correspond to the Fed’s recent 25 basis point bump of interest rates.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 22:04:44 +0000

I, too, choose ING over two years ago. I got a $50 bonus for opening my account thru Turbotax software, and have since referred a few friends and relatives. I recently noticed they upped their dividend to a not-too-shabby 2.65% (try getting that at a major bank without tying up your money for at least 6 months).

I am considering opening an additional small account with Emigrant to test the waters. No law against having your short term funds in more than one place, now is there? I think they would get more people to try their services with a bonus. Perhaps someone from Emigrant will read this posting.