Best Online Savings Account

[Entropic01]

Figured, I should probably put some spare cash into an online savings account instead of letting it rot in my checking account.

However, since I've never had one before anyone have any recommendations? Anything I should look for or avoid? Who has the best rates? Is the money in these accounts fully liquid?

Any help would be greatly appreciated to this banking newb.

[JohnnyCakes]

try to find one with compound interest,I am looking for one of these also.

[Liquidhellz]

Last I heard ING had good rates, just checked them and its at 2.5%.

http://home.ingdirect.com/products/products.asp

Just did a quick google and came up with these.

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/jumppage/viewjumppage?PageName=high_interest_savings&tb=4159&WT.mc_id=4159&CJPID=2613668

http://www.hsbcdirect.com/1/2/1/offer?code=WES0000473&WT.mc_id=HBUS_WES0000473

https://www.fnbodirect.com/lp/runner/index.html?cepromo=F9AX08

Also try bankrate.com if you want to shop around.

[damnyou]

The list is here

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/mmmf_highratehome.asp?web=brm&params=US,416&prodtype=chksav&market=416&product=33&state=US&sort=2

Before putting money in any bank please read some reviews about it

[jesebelbleu]

You can go to www.bankrate.com and search for accounts. You can search for savings, cds, checking, money market, everything. Then you can modify your search to list them in order with the highest rates on top. I checked it for a few weeks, and GMAC bank kept coming up with the highest rates and best security rating so I went with them. It's been really helpful.

Figured, I should probably put some spare cash into an online savings account instead of letting it rot in my checking account.

However, since I've never had one before anyone have any recommendations? Anything I should look for or avoid? Who has the best rates? Is the money in these accounts fully liquid?

Any help would be greatly appreciated to this banking newb.

[chadp123]

Last I heard ING had good rates, just checked them and its at 2.5%.

1.85% for their savings account.
for their electric orange checking $50k to $99,999 is 1.95%. above 100k is 2.15%

You can go to www.bankrate.com and search for accounts. I checked it for a few weeks, and GMAC bank kept coming up with the highest rates and best security rating so I went with them. It's been really helpful.

i'm not an expert but i know gmac has been in trouble lately. they are raising capital to pay off bonds that are coming due that they don't have the $ to pay off. it's fdic insured but if they go under it could take a while to get your $ back, and during that time you get 0 interest.

if you're looking at banks, bauer financial (http://www.bauerfinancial.com/btc_ratings.asp) is a good independent resource that allows you to access ratings for banks. gmac is a 3 star on bauer, but do some googling and research on it's health first.

an alternative bank w/ high yield is grandyielddirect.com which is a division of apple bank.
bankrate and bauer have it rated as 5 stars. it's at 2.5% apy.
something to note w/ this account: i believe ach transfers are limited to $25k each, up to $75k total per month. however you can request a check for any amount if you need to clear out your account.

another note about opening accounts is that most places run credit checks, even if you just have a deposit only account. this could be something to watch if you plan on opening multiple accounts there will be lots of inquiries on your credit.