High Interest (4%+) Online Savings/Money Market Accounts

[Ежик_В_Дурмане]

FYI: Here is a motherload list (http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=52&threadid=437553) of high APR(over 4%) online savings accounts.

Most of them are FDIC insured, require minimal deposits and provide easy transfer of money back and forth from your regular checking account as wella s direct deposit.

I currently have ingdirect.com account with 4.15% that I have my employer deposit part of my paycheck to. Im currently considering switching to AmBoy National Bank account with 4.75% APR.

Im sure the above link will help some of you decide which account to go with.

[baraban]

ING Direct has really fallen behind in rates over the past year. They have also arbitrarily stopped allowing electronic transfers to/from certain high yield banks. Their president is Russian, so needless to say I have taken most of my $ from them.

Emigrant Direct has a 4.5% MM account - don't go to them. Their website is marginally functional and their customer service is almost non-existent.

HSBC Direct also has the 4.5% MM rate. They are a huge international bank, headquartered in London, have very reasonable customer service. Their website is functional. The gripes are: 1. You will loose interest for 2 days any time you transfer money to/from them. 2. They pay interest not on the calendar month basis, but based on when your account opening is processed, without explicitly telling you that this is what they do. 3. In order to make security bullet proof and because they are so large, it is incredibly inconvenient to access your account - it takes at least 6 screens and manipulations to log in.

E*Trade offers 4.75% MM rate account for new customers (or if you ad $25K to your existing account - you can later take some of the the money out, if you like and repeat the process in 3 months to get an even higher rate - at least that is how it has been over the past year or so). I have had reasonably good luck with E*Trade. Two gripes: 1. Sometimes they "forget" and drop your interest rate to a lower value, however, if you call to remind them, they will credit you the difference and bring the rate back up. (Yes, it's a hassle.) 2. To check what interest rate they are paying you requires 4 nonobvious clicks.

UFB Direct is now offering an intorductory 5% MM rate for accounts over $50,000. Don't know anything about them and am not willing to find out at this point. :)

The best resource for finding the best MM and CD deals (after Gomez Advisors changed their business model away from consumer) that I have found online is BankRate.com . Not only do they give you the rates, but also the star ratings of the offering banks, which is an indication of how well the bank is doing according to the FDIC.

BTW, if you are looking for the best CD deals, Corus Bank (Chicago, IL) is a 4 star bank that consistently offers some of the best rates around. Many people have spoken highly of them and it certainly saves you the hassle and interest loss, if you don't have to switch banks every time your CD expires.

Hope this helps...