Savings - where are you putting it?

[crisi]

I've done some of that, but to me, that's a charitable investment - generally I do it for women run third world businesses. Between the risk and the lack of liquidity, I've never thrown much at it.

 

[rnorwo1]

Check out their checking accounts, not savings accounts. Look for things like "bonus" checking, "rewards" checking, checking "plus", etc. My savings account actually pays far less than my checking account at my credit union. Also, there are out of area credit unions that you may qualify to join, if there are none available in your area. Maybe some personal finance sites might have a list of high interest checking accounts. Be aware that there are usually strings to these accounts. For example, I have to have at least one direct deposit and ten atm transactions a month, otherwise my interest is not as high. That's never been a problem for me.

My credit union is only open to people in this area who work or have a family member who work in a certain career, so I can't help you out with a name. I bet with some more digging, though, you could come up with something. Good luck.

I have one of these reward checking accts with our credit union.... with direct deposit and 15 debit card transactions a month (ATM withdrawal does not count), you get 5% interest on up to $30k. I have to be very strict having the extra savings in my checking account though... I use ynab to divide everything out so I'll know how much I really have to spend without dipping into that savings.

 

[teCh0010]

http://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/reward-checking-accounts.html

Here is a list of rewards checking accounts that will let you filter by location.

 

[cornflake]

I've done some of that, but to me, that's a charitable investment - generally I do it for women run third world businesses. Between the risk and the lack of liquidity, I've never thrown much at it.

No, sorry, I think I wasn't clear.

That, the charitable deal for people in third world countries is indeed a charity - I do it too, there's no interest paid to the lender, it's strictly a charitable endeavour (and an awesome one).

I'm talking about the same basic model, but used for investment purposes, strictly in the U.S. The borrowers and lenders are all in the U.S. and it's not a charity - it's people borrowing to consolidate cc debt or start a business or whatever.

Just instead of using a bank (either because banks are being tighter and refusing loans or because the interest rates are higher through a bank), the borrowers use the p-to-p. The lenders use it like the Kiva-type thing except, as it's all U.S. based and you can see the borrower's salary, debt, etc., it's strictly for investment. People with excellent credit pay lower interest rates but have a much lower default rate, worse credit have higher interest rates and higher default possibilities, lenders choose just like with Kiva (the charity).

 

[leadfootlevi]

We have a rainy day savings account with a credit union that pays 3% after 12 consecutive months with minimum $25 monthly deposits. There are limits on how much you can deposit each month ($500?) and how many withdrawals you can make (2 per year?). The first 12 months you earn 1.5%.

We put our emergency fund in this account as we anticipate NOT dipping into it frequently.

 

[SDSorority]

We were just talking about this after doing our taxes yesterday.

...and I still don't have a good answer

 

[marie1203]

My ER fund I think it should be liquid because that is the whole point of it. Ours is in a high yield savings account with AMEX and they are paying us 1.25% on it and I can transfer money to our bank account at any time.