Friday, October 19, 2007

Where to park short-term cash?

I've been shopping around for a new online bank account (savings or money market). It's been a while since I've done this and even though my goal has been to simplify my finances this year, it also makes sense for me to diversify banks now that I have more than $100,000 in deposits. FDIC insurance only covers deposits up to $100,000 so I figured I would start looking for another place preferably with a higher rate than ING Direct's current APY.

Sofar, I'm going crazy. There are so many banks out there looking for your cash these days that it's hard to figure out which one is the best place. What I'm looking for is the highest yield possible, but it seems like every account has certain restrictions and introductory rates and so forth. I guess they devise all of these schemes (limit 3 transactions a month without fees, no check writing, check writing, you must pay bills through our site etc...) to try to get and retain customers.

Over the next few days im going to try to find some quiet time to sort through the noise myself. You would think there would be one easy place to find this info, but this is not the case. Even the blogosphere can't keep up with all of the latest deals, twists, tricks and traps. ( And don't get me started on bankrate.com I like the site but I swear sometimes it panders too much to its advertisers and it seems like one big infomercial.)

If anyone has any advice, feel free to let me know.

No comments: