FNBO Direct, the online bank that was recently rated best online savings account by Kiplinger, and one of my picks for best online savings accounts, significantly dropped the account’s interest rate today from 3.25% to 2.8% APY, a 20% decrease.
I don’t normally chase the highest rates and move my money back and forth based on the highest interest rate. I prefer to keep most of my cash in an account that offers consistently high rates, even if they aren’t the highest on any given day, and a good user experience.
Thanks to misformoney and bkpatterson who let me know about the rate change.
Email this article
Print this article
Share this article: Twitter | Tip'd | Facebook | Delicious | Reddit | Digg
About the Author
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I just had a rather large sum of money transferred from one of my other accounts into FNBO yesterday. I made the decision to do it only after careful consideration of the difference in interest rates, the time I plan on having the money in the account before spending it and the fee imposed by the other bank for having it transferred. The math made sense at the 3.25% rate, yet it doesn’t at 2.8%. Quite a difference 24 hours makes. Wish FNBO gave some advance warning on when these rate changes will be happening.
And for some added irony, I’m typing this while looking at an ad on the right side of this blog for a 3.25% FNBO online savings account.
Pat: I agree, some advice notice would have been nice. I didn’t receive the graphics with the new rate until a few minutes ago, so the old ads will be replaced tonight.
Pat M, gmacbank dot com is still offering 3.75% APY as of today, 12/23. I have no idea how long that will last, but it might be worth taking a look.
I keep my savings at E*Trade, was paying 3.30, now 3.01% and very happy customer, very fast transfers.
Thought about leaving ING for FNBO but had a nagging feeling all banks will eventually drop their rates and it’s not worth the hassle like in Pat’s case. Makes me feel better I didn’t jump ship actually.
Was thinking about FNBO but I’m very happy with WTDirect (www.wtdirect.com). They have always given me a consistently high rate which is 3.06% right now — I don’t have to worry about rate chasing. Their customer service superior to all online savings accounts including FNBO. They have a promotion going on now but I don’t qualifiy since I’m an existing customer.
I’m still happy with FNBO but boy do I long for the good old days. In the current environment they couldn’t keep offering such high rates, now I’m wondering when ING will budge. There is virtually no difference between the two now, 2.75% vs 2.8%.
Well, they’re down to 2.6 now. And I just opened up an account with them one week ago.