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Ally Bank (formerly GMAC) has some very competitive rates. They have tried to steer clear of the GMAC badge and re-create themselves as a no-nonsense bank. They opened in August of 2004 and changed the name in May 2009. They have grown quite rapidly and now are one of the larger banks in the country with over $77 Billion in assets.

Current Rates:
Updated:	11/17/11
6-Months:	0.74%
9-Months:	0.75%
1-Year:	1.01%
18-Months:	1.09%
2-Year:	1.19%*
3-Year:	1.40%
4-Year:	1.60%*
5-Year:	1.89%

FDIC#	57803
Stats Updated:	06/11
Star Rating:	5 (*****)
Assets:	$77.4BB
Equity:	$11.9BB
Capital Ratio:	15.40%
Profits(loss):	$495.98MM
Address:	6985 Union Park Center Suite 435 Midvale, UT 84047
Penalty:	60-days of lost interest (5-year CD)
Website:	www.ally.com

Ally Bank has strong financials. They and Aurora Bank, have been running almost neck and neck.

Their early withdrawal penalty has been popular and caused somewhat of a stir. It is only 60-days of interest and most banks have language to the effect of "if we consent" which means they could technically not honor a request to close a CD early. Ally Bank does not. Any body have experience with this bank, please leave a comment.

cd :O)

*The 2-year and 4-year CD offer a bump-up feature. You can adjust the rate during the term if rates move higher. Your original CD term remains intact.

Tweet While searching the internet I came across some good rates for you. I decided to go ahead and link directly to the sites I found them on. I have actually corresponded with the owner of DepositAccounts. US Senate FCU has a 5-year CD at 3.33% APY, 4-year at 2.79%, 3-year at 2.23%. Those are the top long-term rates I’ve seen in a while. They also have a competitive 2-year at 1.44% and 1-year at 1.10%. DepositAccounts has all of the details on how to join and such. Alliant CU still has the top 1-year at 1.30% and 2-year at 1.70%. I’ve reviewed them before here Review of Alliant CU. In the brokered CD market we have seen rates pushing up a little. Seems to be a case of supply and demand. Banks are having to raise their rates slightly to get the eyes of people who may have limited funds or just feel like playing the waiting game. So far this hasn’t spilled into the direct CDs, but it may. That would be a welcome event as the Fed has promised to keep Fed Funds low until 2013. If you find a good CD rate, let us know and we’ll feature it here on the blog. Have a great day, cd :O)

Tweet Agriculture Federal Credit Union often has competitive rates. Especially on the longer-term CD rates. They have been around a long time and it doesn’t look like they are going away, anytime soon.

1-Year:	0.90%
2-Year:	1.20%
3-Year:	1.50%
4-Year:	1.90%
5-Year:	2.25%

Let me know if you have any experience with this Credit Union. cd :O)

Tweet I apologize for the image, I just couldn’t help myself when I saw it. Don’t worry, the aliens aren’t coming and you don’t need to flee to the hills. As the title indicates, “Stay the Course!” Panic is never a good thing. It often leads us to making rash decisions that we regret later. The stock market is volatile by nature. It will go down, back-up, down again, and back-up yet again. History shows that you have a high probability of coming out ahead if you stay the course. I’m not telling you to never sell a stock or that it is never the right time to move out of an ETF. What I am telling you is do your homework. Research your decision before you make it. What I would say is find your governmental representatives office and demand “Take me to your leader!”. Sit down and have a nice chat with them. Let them know that just like you have make hard choices when your income drops (no cable, no new car, sell the boat, etc.) you expect them to do the same. The money isn’t there. Things have to be cut. And they should start with themselves. Maybe they can go out and get a 2001 Honda Accord instead of a 2012 Cadillac Escalade. I realize I am a CD guy. So I included a link to some rates from Aurora at the top. At a different institution, we still have a 10-year at 3.35% APR / 3.40% APY. It has a 1-year early withdrawal penalty. If closed after 2-years, you would net 1.47% and after 3-years you would net 2.13%. There is a fee for this CD, but all rates are quoted net of fees. With the Fed indicating they will keep rates low into 2013, this just seems like a good CD. You get income now and have a reasonable hedge against rising interest rates. Feel free to leave any comments. cd :O)

Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tweet BNC Bank‘s vision statement: “Delivering financial solutions business people demand”. Their logo gives the impression of trying to chart a path through turbulent waters. These days I think that is what everyone is hoping for. However, so many banks have shaken our trust, it will take more than a fancy logo to win us over.

FDIC#	57197
Stats Updated:	03/11
Star Rating:	2 (**)
Assets:	$681MM
Equity:	$58.4MM
Capital Ratio:	8.57%
Profits(loss):	$961K
Phone#:	1-800-BNC-BANK (1-800-262-2265)
Contact:	Customer Service
Address:	20175 North 67th Avenue Glendale, AZ, 85308
Website:	http://www.bncbank.com/

BNC Bank has mixed reviews. Some focus on their mortgage business. You can read them here: http://kansascity.citysearch.com/profile/41232589/leawood_ks/bnc_national_bank_mortgage_div.html. I always take reviews with a grain of salt. But these seemed to be more honest then most. As always, ask lots of questions and just make sure you are comfortable. If that inner voice continues to be telling you, “No!”, it is probably best to move on. They do have an A+ rating from the BBB. A large bank such as theirs is bound to have difficulty pleasing everyone. They only have their savings rate posted online. It is a paltry 0.10%.

1-Year:	%
18-Months:	%
2-Year:	%
3-Year:	%
4-Year:	%
5-Year:	%

They have branches in Arizona, Minnesota, and North Dakota. They are a relatively new bank, being established in 2001. They have grown pretty impressively, but currently with a 2-star rating seems like they might be making some costly sacrifices.

Tweet Isn’t that the Million Dollar question? Or $100,000 question (that would be a 10% return)? I don’t have $1,000,000 or any investments offering 10%, so what do I have? For starters, some common sense ideas. I’ll follow that with some individual stock ideas (and for the record, I don’t own any of these). Finally, a few places to look if you just want something safe to put your money into and not have to think about it much. In general, if you have 1 Million Dollars to invest, you can probably withstand some risk, but I suspect you aren’t too keen on losing a ton of money. I’m guessing you want to turn the million into something greater. So don’t invest with your Nigerian uncle. I doubt he is Nigerian and I am almost positive, he isn’t your uncle. The really sad thing is people truly fall for the scam. Often the promises of easy riches is just to much to resist. But think about it, how hard did you have work to obtain $1,000,000? It will continue to be hard work to keep it and increase it. If everyone is pushing a particular investment, it may be a sign that the run is stalling. Take Gold. Nobody was really pushing it when it was around $300.00. If you indeed purchased it back then, your investment is looking pretty good. But with Gold now just over $1,600 it seems everyone and your brother thinks it is a good idea. I’m not saying it isn’t, but I truly believe there is a lot of downside risk at the current levels. If you have the time and inclination, you could probably make some good change day-trading it and taking profits on small up swings, but that would take some serious dedication. As far as individual stocks, Apple is certainly a hot commodity. And probably one of the most amazing comeback stories to boot. But, I still wonder, how long can it last. Especially, with their refusal to render Flash on websites. That is just plain silly and makes parts of the web off limits to iPhone and iPad users. With other tablets coming out that support flash, this could be a problem. Google is another stock that has steadily grown. But competition for Apple and Google are fierce. Oil stocks of the older companies seem relatively stable and many of them pay good dividends. I just always seem to think about individual stocks too late so I stick with ETFs. Of course, I don’t have a million dollars either. Maybe I would invest differently if I did. I suppose I might be willing to take a few more risks, but like many, I kind of like to hold on to what I have. With the economy still in the doldrums, CD Investing remains fairly popular. Purchasing long-term CDs with low penalties is turning out to be a good hedge against the low short-term rates and provides for a low exit cost as rates rise. However, rising CD rates seems to be a long way off. Our analysis, looks at 2-year and 3-year equivalent yields. Although, many of these 5-year rates have a good chance of looking good in 2-years. Give us a shout if you would like an analysis. cd :O)

Tweet As a company our services are tailored to larger portfolios, but I know lots of people come to our site that just have a few thousand or even a few hundred dollars. So here are some ideas for you. First, do something. The longer you wait, the less you will earn. A big part of investing is the power of compounding. The sooner you start, the more your investment will grow. Second, you need to determine your investment horizon. When do you plan on using these funds: next month, next week, or thirty years from now. This is important for picking the right investment. Next, determine your risk tolerance. If the investment horizon is relatively short, then look towards high yield savings accounts, reward checking, or CDs. One thing to keep in mind is of course the time it takes to set those up. Because time is money also. I did a review of Aurora Bank on this site. They have good rates for small, short-term investments (and large). DepositAccounts.com also keeps track of numerous bank and credit union deals. For a longer horizon (5 to 10-years), I would look to a simple portfolio of index funds or ETFs. Someone that likes high reward (and thus high risk), may have an 80% stock / 20% bonds portfolio. The stocks can be split up between US, International, small, mid, or large cap, etc. Bonds could be strictly government bonds or sprinkle in some high quality corporate issues. The more conservative you are, the more you will weight your holdings towards bonds. My broker allows for commission free ETFs and they had a decent selection so I went that route. Frankly, I am not very risk tolerant so I decided on on 25% US stocks, 25% REITs, 25% TIPS, and 25% Short-term government bonds. I figured with real estate mostly at the bottom it has no where to go but up (sort of). So far the REIT and TIPS ETF are performing the best. Once I feel the economy is on surer footing I will probably adjust my stock percentages, but frankly I am not sure I could take wild swings very well. I may even close a portion and move it to a CD. Even the returns are low, they are guaranteed. So what are you folks doing? cd :O) Image by: Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tweet I trust everyone is enjoying our new design. If not, please leave a comment with any thoughts that you have. Here are some CD rates that will hopefully brighten your day. We are working with an institution offering a 10-year CD at 2.76% APR / 2.80% APY. (Note: Back in June it was 3.45% APR / 3.50% APY. The penalty to close is 1-year loss of interest (updated 6/29/11) 195-Days of lost interest. We would bill this in two, 5-year increments. If you take the penalty and our fee into account, your net equivalent yields are 2Y at 1.13, 3y at 1.67, and 4y at 1.94. Those rates are a bit higher then most straight CDs for those terms. Contact us or call for details. Alostar Bank of Commerce has had a competitive rate. The 1-year was near 1% last time we checked. I did a short review if you want to check that out. Alostar Bank of Commerce Review. You can also check out our Compare CD Rates where we keep track of rates on a few of the more popular banks and credit unions. Finally, I try to review ads that are being shown on our site and over the years have blocked quite a few for various reasons. The latest has been ads for Topicoligist.com. Their ads have been advertising CD rates anywhere from 4.00% to 6.85%. I sent an email to Google and to Topicoligist, but the ads have persisted. There is no CD rate that high. I don’t like false advertisements and I’m sure you don’t either. So if you ever come across one, please let me know. Have a great day, cd :O) Image by: Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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