Well, looks like I don't need to move my money out of ING for a while now. Looks like many of the online banks will be around 2.15.

I think the biggest thing about the economy that makes me sad is lowering interest rates by banks. Sigh, but oh well. It makes my decision to invest more in stocks easier to take.

-Nate

2.15 is better than what i am getting at my regional bank, but is still ridiculously low. This is a time when everyone (government, banks) should be encouraging saving instead of giving people more of a reason to spend even when they don't have the money.

Funny.

The rates beat Fidelity money market funds which are currently around 1.2%. The question is, how much lower will they end up?

Ha. I like it (not the reduction, but your spin on it).

The way that the banking industry is suppose to work. When the bank has too little cash to honor it's reserve, it raises the saving rates to attack savers and raises it loan rate to discourage people from asking it to loan out money. When a bank is above its required reserve amount, it lowers its saving rates and lowers the loaning rate. Then again under recent governments, banks no longer are de-facto required to maintain a reserve amount. When they run low, the government will fill their tanks up again. Plus, the government does this with no pre or post conditions.

Therefore, it is either the government faults for the lower saving interest rate. Or maybe, ETRADE bank has never ever needed its welfare check from the government because it has exceeded its reserve amount.

Question for you all, is ETRADE a real bank or is it just a middle person for some other bank.

E*TRADE Bank is in fact a real bank, insured by the FDIC. Here's their information from the FDIC.