It’s back to meat-and-potatoes this week, with some surprisingly good rates out there in a tough consumer banking environment.
The deals this week? Let’s focus on old perennials like certificates of deposit, money markets and bank savings accounts.
CDs
There is much to be said for those smaller, regional banks that provide great rates and open the door nationwide for customers to sign up online. That’s a big draw these days. Most of the great offers out there these days are from smaller banks that only cater to customers in the bank’s (often small) community.
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Take Pacific Mercantile Bank, which operates in and around Los Angeles with branches in Beverly Hills and Long Beach, among other locales.
The bank is offering a two-year CD through the bank’s Individual Retirement Account program with an interest rate of 2.5%. Compare that deal to the 1.57% rate estimated this week by the BankingMyWay.com National CD Rate Tracker – that’s almost a full percentage point difference for bank customers.
Pac Mercantile also has the same rate deal for an 18-month CD and a five-year CD.
Are there strings attached? Possibly, but only if you’re low on cash. The bank requires a $7,500 minimum deposit on the IRA account you open, and there is a $30 annual account “maintenance” fee. The rates were good as of Aug. 4.
The bank makes it pretty clear that anyone can open an account online. Just log on and fill out the form. With IRA’s, you might need some documents from the bank – but the Web site let’s you know how to get that done.
Money Market Accounts
No doubt, most big banks have not stepped up to the plate with aggressive bank interest rate deals, leaving the terrain, as we’ve pointed out, to regional banks like Pac Mercantile, and to online financial institutions, as well.
Then again, why should they? Money is cheaper than ever, and the government is practically giving it away.
