Presidential Bank has raised the rate on their Internet Checking Plus account (review) to 4.37% APY and their Premier Savings (review) to 4.62% APY. I still consider this my main checking account, but recently I’ve been considering a switch to HSBC Checking with HSBC Direct instead.
Presidential Bank Raises Rates to 4.37% and 4.62% APY
April 3, 2006 By 8 Comments
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Why are you considering switching to HSBC? I thought their checking interest rate was rather low?
Yes the checking rates are negligible, but you can make instant transfers between the checking and savings accounts.
You are assuming that HSBC will still maintain a rate higher than Presidential after the 4.80APY intro rate is over.
Dear Jonathan:
This may be slightly off topic for this subject but I have an EE-Bond that I bought a year ago (which means I can cash it in now) that is earning 3.61% at this time, obviously much worse that HSBC now.I bought it Apr 2005, the last month their old rules were still in effect: “Series EE savings bonds bought May 1997 through April 2005 will earn interest based on 5-year Treasury security yields right from the start. The new rate for EE bonds will be 90% of the average yields on 5-year Treasury securities for the preceding six months.” I guess my reasoning for purchasing it was that it was the last month EE bonds would earn an adjustible rate (higher than the new fixed rate, or so I thought!) and the last month that they would be caused to reached face value in 20 yrs–no matter what the Fed does in the interim. As you know, IBonds and HSBC are offering very sweet rates at this time. Considering that tax saving considerations may be minimal since I am in a low tax bracket, Would I be better off to cash in my EE bond and either buy an IBond or just place it in HSBC savings now? Thanks so much for your assistance in this matter. I really appreciate your blog and your good-hearted ‘spreading the wealth around’. I have received much needed financial benefit from doing online surveys and getting bonuses for opening accounts at your suggestion.
Live Long and Prosper!
Deena
Deena,
Depending on what state you live in that 3.61% might not be all that bad. (EE’s are state tax exempt) That and the fact that the interest is not taxed federally until you cash it probably puts it in the neighborhood of HSBC assuming this is a longer term investment for you.
I Bonds are likely not going to have anywhere near the rates they do now starting in May because inflation has been negligible for the last 6 months or so.
Jonathan, what do you mean “but [HSBC] can make instant transfers between the checking and savings accounts”? So does Presidential.
Because of the easy transfers, you don’t need to keep any money in the HSBC checking account if you don’t want. Anything that enters the checking can be instantly swept into the saving account.
HSBC has a higher saving rate currently than either of Prez’s accounts, and no direct deposit requirements either.
I’ve been using CNBT (City National Bank of Taylor) now for a couple months and I love it (for checking). I switched from Everbank. It offers 4.03% APY on checking. The main catch is that you have to do (10) POS transactions per month with the Check Card, but I just use that for small purchases where I would only get 1% cash back w/ my Citibank card.
The external transfers is the best part. They give you credit for a transfer after only one business day. It’s nice not to have $1000 in “limbo”. Pushes and pulls both take only about 1 day to complete and post. The only catch is that you can’t initiate a transfer the same day (has to be “tomorrow” or later) but that is made up for by the speed.
Also a great thing about it is ALL foreign ATM fees are automatically credited to the account the next business day after they post. I really like it because I no longer even think about which ATM I get cash at.
They also have bill pay features. It is powered by FundsXpress. I use Yodlee for account aggregation, but CNBT does have free bill pay and external transfers.
Also, there is no minimum balance and only $100 to open so it is very easy to try. The other catch is that you have to have direct deposit to get the interest rate.