CD rates Blog

It’s bad enough that CD rates are, as my colleague Sheyna Steiner wrote a few weeks ago, approaching zero percent in a lot of cases. But could banks go past zero and actually end up charging CD investors to safeguard their cash? I don’t think the average CD investor has ever even considered the possibility

While most people would give complicated, arcane investments a wide berth, hardly anyone looks askance at the humble certificate of deposit — which makes them tempting bait for scammers. A recent local news story here in south Florida spoke with a victim of a notorious CD scammer, R. Allen Stanford. Stanford stole billions from investors

A recent report from Market Rates Insight, a pricing consultant to financial institutions, revealed that savers abandoned CDs in favor of more liquid savings accounts in the first half of this year. In the first six months of 2011, investments in CDs fell from $1,978 billion to $1,884, a difference of $94 billion. At the

One of the highest priorities for retail banks these days is cultivating a broad relationship with customers, especially customers of the well-heeled variety. To do that, they’ve established private banking services that offer personal service and sweetened rates on products ranging from investment management to mortgages. If you’re a CD investor fed up with low

I’ve said it here before and here it is again: in the hunt for yield, CD investors should consider credit unions. Credit unions are generally thought to be more consumer-friendly than most big banks and a new survey from TheStreet confirms it. According to the July Credit Power Index, on the basis of national averages,

It’s looking ugly out there for people who depend on CDs as the primary drivers of their portfolios. Ultra-low CD rates have downgraded the usefulness of even laddered CDs as a long-term investment tool; many CD investors are stuck rolling over maturing CDs with decent rates from a few years ago into the record-low rate

Today’s CD buyers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. FDIC-insured CDs are one of the safest investments around — but they’re also one of the lowest yielding. After last week’s crazy swings in the stock market, the trade-off between safety and yield could seem reasonable to some people. With much more economic

It seems a lot of CD investors are annoyed with the Fed for keeping federal rates near zero for the better part of three years. They argue the Fed’s loose monetary policy is keeping CD rates so low it’s impossible to earn a decent return. But one thing they might not realize is that in

The unprecedented rate announcement from the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee on Tuesday was bad news for savers — two more years, at least, of short-term interest rates close to zero percent. Short-term interest rates as set by the Fed directly influence all manner of consumer loan and deposit products, from car loans to CD

On a day when the Dow Jones Industrials are down more than 600 points, a lot of CD investors are probably letting out a sigh of relief they’ve got a chunk of money sitting on the sidelines. Unfortunately, the forces pushing stock markets deep into the red don’t really bode well for future CD rates