I know there are plenty of good reasons for why the Fed tweaks rates. And that some consumers benefit from the drop in multiple ways.

This post is written from my perspective as a gal who has a fixed mortgage, no concern for her credit card APY and a handful of online savings accounts.

The day after the Fed dropped its key interest rate by half a point to 4.75%, I received an email from ING stating that my 4.5% rate was now being dropped to 4.3%.

Then today, I received an email from HSBC assuring me that my rate is still one of the highest around but that I’m now earning 4.5 percent on my money, not the 5.0 percent I’ve gotten used to.

When I had a home equity line of credit, I noticed that banks lower the rate I pay them much more slowly than they lower the rate they pay me. Go figure.

I’ve found the online site and bank-to-bank transfers with HSBC to be tres tedious. It makes me think maybe I’ll transfer that account balance to a bank I find to be more user-friendly. And makes me realize that opening an account for a slightly higher rate is not always the wisest move. Customer service and ease of use should be high on the list as well. Because rates can always change.

Anyone still earning more than 5% on their no-minimum balance, fee-free account?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.