Friday, August 14, 2020

Credit Card Bonuses - Q3 2020

Save money on purchases and get cash back with coupon codes and the following credit cards:

Citi Dividend Card
  • 5% cash back 7/1/20 - 9/30/20: Home Improvement Stores and Popular Streaming Services
  • 5% cash back 10/1/20 - 12/31/20: TBA
  • 1% on everything else.
Discover Card
  • 5% cash back 7/1/20 - 9/30/20: Restaurants and PayPal
  • 5% cash back 10/1/20 - 12/31/20: Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com 
  • up to 1% on everything else.
Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard (Travel Rewards)
  • 2.1% on travel and dining
  • 1.05% on everything else.
  • No annual fee.
BankAmericard Cash Rewards
  • 3% on a selected category (gas, dining, drug stores, home improvement/furnishings, online shopping, or travel)
  • 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs (including Costco)
  • 1% on everything else.
  • No annual fee.
  • Note: Rewards are higher if you have a Bank of America checking or savings account.
Costco Anywhere Visa Card
  • 4% on gas
  • 3% on restaurants and travel
  • 2% at Costco
  • 1% on everything else.
  • There is no annual fee, however you must be a Costco member.
Citi ThankYou Card
  • 2X points on Dining Out & Entertainment
  • 1X points on everything else.
Barclaycard Arrival Plus World MasterCard (Travel Rewards)
  • 2.1% on travel and dining
  • 2.1% on everything else.
  • ($89 annual fee after first year)
PFS

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Money Market Rates June 2020

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.30% Marcus by Goldman Sachs (GS Bank) Online Savings
1.25% Ally Bank Online Savings
1.15% American Express High Yield Savings
1.15% Capital One 360 Performance Savings
1.15% Discover Bank Online Savings
1.00% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.20% Unify FCU Money Market
0.04% Citibank Savings Account
0.02% Chase Plus Savings

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates. Rates are believed to be accurate as of 6/10/20. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. I have included one credit union in the list so that readers have a comparison point with banks.

In the past, most banks offered CDs that pay significantly more than their money market offerings. However, this doesn't seem to be the case currently. Overall, bank account interest rates are dropping across the board.

Frequent changes show how variable the money market is. Because this is a constantly moving target, it has been very hard to keep track of the rates that I've been getting in my various money market accounts, and this is the main reason I've decided to compile a list of these annual percentage yields.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

PFS

Monday, April 27, 2020

Money Market Rates April 2020

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.55% Marcus by Goldman Sachs (GS Bank) Online Savings
1.50% American Express High Yield Savings
1.50% Capital One 360 Performance Savings
1.50% Ally Bank Online Savings
1.40% Discover Bank Online Savings
1.00% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.40% Unify FCU Money Market
0.04% Citibank Savings Account
0.02% Chase Plus Savings

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates. Rates are believed to be accurate as of 4/24/20. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. I have included one credit union in the list so that readers have a comparison point with banks.

In fairness to the bottom three institutions on my list (Unify FCU, Citibank, and Chase), money market accounts are not their strong suit. Each of these offers short-term CDs that pay significantly more than their money market offerings. If your financial institution doesn't have a decent money market, you may investigate if they have any competitive CD rates.

Overall, MM account interest rates are dropping. Notably, the Ally Bank Online Savings account was paying 2.20% as recently as June 2019, and has now dropped to 1.50%. It will be interesting to see if the rates will continue to go down, or stabilize from here.

Frequent changes show how variable the money market is. Because this is a constantly moving target, it has been very hard to keep track of the rates that I've been getting in my various money market accounts, and this is the main reason I've decided to compile a list of these annual percentage yields.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

PFS

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Money Market Rates February 2020

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.70% FNBO Direct Online Savings
1.70% Marcus by Goldman Sachs (GS Bank) Online Savings
1.70% Capital One 360 Money Market
1.70% American Express High Yield Savings
1.60% Discover Bank Online Savings
1.60% Ally Bank Online Savings
0.50% Unify FCU Money Market
0.04% Citibank Savings Account
0.04% Chase Plus Savings

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates. Rates are believed to be accurate as of 2/11/20. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. I have included one credit union in the list so that readers have a comparison point with banks.

In fairness to the bottom three institutions on my list (Unify FCU, Citibank, and Chase), money market accounts are not their strong suit. Each of these offers short-term CDs that pay significantly more than their money market offerings. If your financial institution doesn't have a decent money market, you may investigate if they have any competitive CD rates.

Overall, MM account interest rates are continuing to fall. Notably, the Ally Bank Online Savings account was paying 2.20% as recently as June 2019, and has now dropped to 1.60%. It will be interesting to see if the rates will continue to go down, or stabilize from here.

Frequent changes show how variable the money market is. Because this is a constantly moving target, it has been very hard to keep track of the rates that I've been getting in my various money market accounts, and this is the main reason I've decided to compile a list of these annual percentage yields.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

PFS