RRRRGGGG – I just logged into Emigrant Direct’s on-line banking to see if I had earned any interest since opening the account in February. Much to my surprise I discovered the interest rate on my savings account had dropped from when I had opened the account. When I opened the account the interest rate for a savings account was 3.6%. When choosing an on-line bank for my car savings the deciding factor to open up an account at Emigrant Direct was the interest rate as their services were nearly identical to their competition. I decided to check out their competition and see if they had decreased interest on savings accounts too. This would prove to me that it was a market effect due to the economy and not just Emigrant Direct lowering interest rates. I log onto Bank Rate and wouldn’t you know, none of Emigrant Direct’s competitors had lowered interest rates. HSBC Direct was still at 3.55% and ING was still at 3.4%, both higher than Emigrant Direct’s current rate.
I’m not a happy camper. L I go to bank rate’s calculators to determine the interest I’ll be loosing by having a lower rates and in the long term having a lower interest rate is only the difference of about 3 months to meet my car savings goal with Emigrant Direct rather than ING.
I guess I’m staying with Emigrant Direct since I don’t want to be opening and closing savings accounts every month to chase after the best interest rates.
5 comments:
It's tons o' fun. ING just lowered to 3.10% APY, and yes, it's just how it works, it goes along with the lending rate. When interest rates are terrible, all of us are happy, when they're great, all of us get pissed off. =D
@ Cinder - Thanks for pointing out ING - it makes me feel a lot better! I checked bank rate yesterday evening and from then to today it must have decreased (or bank rate updated their info).
Maybe now its not a Bait and Switch its just a market condition, either way still I'm pissed off (just not as much as before). =D
Just think of it as your penalty for not being in debt that carries a variable interest rate. As depending on the index it was based on, it would be going down right now. =P
Yeah it's really hard seeing the interest rate for Emigrant and others keep going down. I opened up an account with Emigrant in January and the rate was over 4%. But I guess it'll be a while before interest rates for savings go back up, unfortunately.
Emigrant apparently just got the jump on everyone else by a day or so. ING went down... they all go down. Some faster than others.
It's still better than earning 0.02% at a brick and mortar!
Post a Comment