Yet Another Bank Rate Site - Bankaholic

I was recently contracted to provide a review to the owner(s) of Bankaholic, another site in a long line of blogs that seek to bring you the latest in bank rates and promotions. I’ll share my review of this site because a lot of the readers are also personal finance bloggers who might be able to make use of the critiques I provide about this site. If you have a moment and want to go check out the site and share your own thoughts, I’m certain that the owner(s) would be interested in hearing what folks say.

The two claims to fame that Bankaholic has are these two tools, one to track high interest savings accounts and one to track the best CD rates, both of which are designed pretty well. The filters you can use update the list automatically which is a plus for usability, making the interface better than what you can find almost anywhere else. The only thing that concerns me is how fresh this data might be, which I’ll get into later.

Content Is King, Bankaholic Needs More
As I write this, it’s May 23rd but the first article listed is dated May 16th, which is one week old. If you look at my favorite and probably many people’s favorite bank rate site, Bankdeals, it’s had close to thirty posts since May 16th. Now, if you’re going to be bringing the latest and greatest in bank rates, promotions, etc. then you better update more often… unless Bankdeals simply has set the bar too high to meet. I mean thirty posts since May 16th is a pretty impressive post rate but you’ll have to do better than once a week to compete. Bankaholic had two posts on May 16th, then one post about its tool on May 8th, and sporadic posting beforehand at about the same rate.

If you consider the rate of posting at about one every few days, it makes me wonder how fresh the data is behind the two tools they offer. If you look at the money market rates of Bankdeals versus those of Bankaholic, you’ll find that the Bankdeals list is fuller. For example, on the latest rate update (accessible on the sidebar of Bankdeals), the second one listed is for Geauga Savings Bank at 5.45%; this one doesn’t appear on the Bankaholic list. Its number two is Countrywide Bank at 5.40%. Now, does it matter that it doesn’t have a that bank? You’ll have to decide. (Incidentally, Bankdeals doesn’t have Countrywide listed)

Except for the freshness issue, the site looks well designed and clean, with a navigation that makes sense and is easy to use. If I were to make some changes, I’d probably do away with all the lines that compartmentalize all the content and go with a more free flowing template.