CD rates Blog

There’s a high-stakes game of chicken going on in Washington, D.C., over extending the debt ceiling, and CD rates could be just one more casualty if things go too far. If you’re just tuning in to the debt ceiling drama, the debt ceiling is the total amount of outstanding debt the federal government is allowed

The government measures the amount of inflation consumers experience with the consumer price index, or CPI. If prices are going up for many consumer goods and services, then inflation is likely rising. The official method of measuring inflation has garnered quite a bit of criticism due to a couple of reasons. For one, the core

By now, the nearly industry-wide rise in bank fees is well documented. Millions of checking account holders who had previously considered free checking a given are being asked to meet certain account criteria or pay a monthly account maintenance fee. But less attention has been paid to rising fees for CD investors. David Lazarus of

With short-term interest rates set to remain at nearly zero percent, the yield drought will drag on, much to the detriment of savers of all stripes. CD rates have been particularly hard hit; the average one-year CD has yielded less than 1 percent since September 2009. There’s not much for savers to do but wait

Today, while writing a story about the new savings bond rates released by the Treasury, I got to wondering, with CD rates at such ridiculous lows, have savings bonds, particularly I bonds, surpassed them as a savings vehicle? After all, both are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and the

After today’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed the Fed’s commitment to continuing the quantitative easing program, scheduled to purchase $600 billion worth of long-term Treasury securities through the end of June. The question will be what happens when the Fed stops buying Treasuries? The quantitative easing program was designed to

This month, banks are reporting their first-quarter earnings, and while many banks are reporting healthy profits, those hoping for higher CD rates in the near future should be worried about the persistent lack of loan growth across the industry. From Joe Rauch at Reuters: Investors looking for loan growth and surging revenues at the biggest

Ask for a better CD rate and you may receive one. It depends who you are, which bank you’re asking — and even whom you speak to at that bank. But if you’re in the market for a CD, it can’t hurt to ask. With CD rates scraping through the bottom of the barrel, savers need

Short-term CD rates have been in the dumps since the Fed frantically cut its key federal funds rate to nearly zero to try and stop the economic free fall of late 2008. Savers would probably love to see the Fed reverse that trend, but with unemployment over 9 percent and the recovery still pretty sluggish,

CD rates are relatively bad no matter where you look, but you may find decent yields by bypassing the bank on the corner and heading to the credit union you may have overlooked. In the 2011 credit union checking study, Claes Bell reported that many credit unions still offer free checking with no strings attached. Plus,