Best Money Market Account Available today?

C

Cut-Throat

Guest
I just looked at my Charles Scwab Account and they are paying me a paltry .7% on my money market account. I have got to move this cash to something that pays better rates.

What I use this account for mainly is Auto Bill Payment, a little bit of check writing and holding an Individual Stock I own.

I looked at the ING site and they are paying about 3.3% today. But I'm a little confused how I could use this for Auto Bill Payment. Or would I have to set up a transfer to my other checking account?

Anybody have a better deal than this? :confused:
 
ING is awesome but has some negatives. There is no auto bill paying service. You will need to link your regular checking to the ING account and make transfers as needed. The other negative is it takes 2-3 days to receive your money into your regular checking account, so planning is key.
 
CORUS Bank in Chicago (building is nice, just above Union Station) has a poster in the window for a MM account over $100,000 for 3.67% APY.

Saw that on the way to the the annual Greek Food Fest over on Halsted. Also passed 60 Ferraris of every vintage on Madison between Clark and Wells. Something to do instead of actually managing my finances.
 
CT, what you're really describing is a glorified checking account, right? They put the words "Money Market" on it, but at .7% it sounds just like my checking account. How much do you keep in that account?

I just keep a few thousand in the checking account, just enough for paying bills and my automatic bill payments. By having it there instead of in a true money market account, it's costing me about $80 per year in lost interest.

BTW, I use fixed monthly payments even for bills that vary. For example, my electric bill averages about $60 per month. So I have a credit balance of about $50, and every month the computer sends a $60 check to the electric company. Much less work for me. Anyone else do this?
 
TromboneAl said:
CT, what you're really describing is a glorified checking account, right?  They put the words "Money Market" on it, but at .7% it sounds just like my checking account.  How much do you keep in that account?

I just keep a few thousand in the checking account, just enough for paying bills and my automatic bill payments.  By having it there instead of in a true money market account, it's costing me about $80 per year in lost interest.

BTW, I use fixed monthly payments even for bills that vary.  For example, my electric bill averages about $60 per month.  So I have a credit balance of about $50, and every month the computer sends a $60 check to the electric company.  Much less work for me.  Anyone else do this?
Click to expand...

Actually I have about $35K there right now, but it is earmarked for certain expenses in the next year or so. The rise in interest rates got me moving on this.

I generally don't use fixed monthly payments on Bills that vary, because all of the utilities here set you up on 'budget plan', which means you pay them a lot more up front and then they give it back to you at the end of the year. - aka - 'Free loan'.

So I am probably going to go with an ING type account and move the money into the checking account when payments are due. - This way I'll at least collect MM rates.
 
Vanguard Advantage

Per Gonzo's comments above, Vanguard also has an "Advantage" account which has Prime MM checking with no amount or check number restrictions and bill pay and debit card options.  I think catch is you have to have a brokerage account with Vanguard.  Of course if you are only holding one old stock acquistion which is what I am doing, this might be worth a switch...bill
 
wabmester said:
How about 4.35%?

Of course, you'll need to assume a little risk:

Ford MM
Click to expand...

No way no how! This is unsecured Ford Debt. Unsecured debt is a bad idea and all you are getting is an extra 1% for a lot of risk compared to FDIC insured Money Market account..

-h
 
lswswein said:
No way no how! This is unsecured Ford Debt. Unsecured  debt is a bad idea and all you are getting is an extra 1% for a lot of risk compared to FDIC insured Money Market account..
Click to expand...

True, it is basically a junk bond fund with a duration of zero and lots of default risk. But not too bad when you consider that longer-duration junk bond funds are only yielding about 6% right now. Crazy, if you ask me.
 
I have Emigrant which is linked to my Bank of Internet senior (over 50) checking account currently earning 3%.
 
MJ said:
I have Emigrant which is linked to my Bank of Internet senior (over 50) checking account currently earning 3%.
Click to expand...

What's a Bank of Internet senior?
Which bank offers that?
 
wabmester said:
True, it is basically a junk bond fund with a duration of zero and lots of default risk.   But not too bad when you consider that longer-duration junk bond funds are only yielding about 6% right now.   Crazy, if you ask me.
Click to expand...

Yeah but why buy a junk bond and get paid only 1% more. Buy a junk bond only with money you can afford to loose. If you want to get into the business of lending to companies atleast pick ones that are not in trouble. Caterpillar also has a similar bond fund paying roughly the same amount..

-h
 
C-T...easy deal...set up an account with ING or EMIGRANT DIRECT for their higher rates, calculate your montly bill load, and have an auto transfer done for that amount at the right time of the month (both ing and ed allow for periodic fixed transfers) and let your bank's e-pay do the rest.

Of course, for rich gigolos like you, the spread will be barely enough to buy a new thin notebook after a year or two. Without a frickin second rate microprocessor in it!!! ;)
 
I was in the same situation.
Consider using one of Schwab's Money Market Mutual funds and transfer the money over as you need it.
SWVXX = Value Advantage Fund is paying 3.05%
SWTXX = Municipal Value Advantage is paying 2.17%

I use Netbank. Checking pays 1.0%, savings 3.04%. TRansfers between the two are instantaneous.

The Bank of The Internet deal MJ mentioned looks good.
 
GTM said:
What's a Bank of Internet senior?
Which bank offers that?
Click to expand...

The Bank of Internet offers among a number of free checking accounts, one for seniors (over 50) earning 3% APY with a minimum balance of $.01 after the initial $50 deposit. You get free checks and of course bill payments. I have been with them over 2 years and have been pleased with their customer service and internet access. :)
 
() said:
C-T...easy deal...set up an account with ING or EMIGRANT DIRECT for their higher rates, calculate your montly bill load, and have an auto transfer done for that amount at the right time of the month (both ing and ed allow for periodic fixed transfers) and let your bank's e-pay do the rest.

Of course, for rich gigolos like you, the spread will be barely enough to buy a new thin notebook after a year or two.  Without a frickin second rate microprocessor in it!!! ;)
Click to expand...

Yup, this is probably what I'll do. And if there is anything that I Live well below my means in is computers. The longer I wait, the better the deals get. ;)
 
On the first of the month I deposit funds to cover all recurring bills, and 1/12 of all once per year bills into my fidelity MM. (3.19%)
I then pay all bills online with a rewards credit card. 
Then I wait for the CC bill which I pay with a check from the Fidelity MM account.
Generates a fair amount of interest and rewards and takes much less time than it may appear. ;)
 
I keep about 3 months supply of cash in the checking account just because I don't want to worry constantly about transferring cash.

I have 99% of my bills paid automatically and I simply record the deduction on my register to keep a running balance.

When I see the balance approaching zero, I just transfer from my money market for another 3 months of worry-free bill payments.

I am probably losing a few hundred dollars a year in interest by not doing just-in-time money transfers from my money market, but for now, I can live with that.
 
I generally don't use fixed monthly payments on Bills that vary, because all of the utilities here set you up on 'budget plan', which means you pay them a lot more up front and then they give it back to you at the end of the year. - aka - 'Free loan'.
Click to expand...

Well, what I do is a little different.  The merchant (e.g. Electric Company) doesn't do anything special, they aren't even involved.  That is, no special program.  I just look at my last year's bills, and figure out what the average is, let's say $61 per month.  Then I send in a one time payment of, say, $50.  Now I have a 50 credit on my electric bill.   That's my buffer in case the bill is larger than the average.

Then I set up Quicken to send $60 per month to the electric company.  If my bill is actually $65 for that month, then the next month I'll have a $45 credit.  If the bill is $55, I'll have a $55 credit.

The downside is that I've got about $50 tied up and not generating interest.  About $2 per year.

The upside is that all payments are on autopilot.  I just look at the credit balance once in a while to check that it isn't getting to large or small.  Each bill only takes about 10 seconds of work.
 
Have you ever tried to stop your atomatic payment through Quicken? I did this years ago, but had a real hard time cancelling it. Had to call tech support and they said their was a problem with it. Perhaps it is better now, but just curious if you have tried to stop it.
 
Yes, I've had problems deleting recurring payments.  I think they've fixed this, since it's been working lately.  Here are my notes on how to do it (that is, work around the bug):

PROBLEM:

Can't delete recurring payments.

SOLUTION:

It may work fine to just delete the repeating payment, but if not...

1. Go to Quickenbillpay.com and stop the payment, choosing to cancel the recurring series.

2. In the quicken recurring payments, select the recurring payment, right click on it, hold down ctrl and click the "Delete" option.  It will warn that that is something you should only do on advice of tech support, but it is OK.
 
I looked at Quicken Billpay, but didn't like the monthly fee(9.95 mo). Schwab has a bill pay service that is free if you have a $100k account with them. I think that WAMU offers free bill pay too.
I do use Quicken to keep track of things, but I won't do business with any instituion that doesn't support download. Likewise, I like Schwab's moneylink service that lets me plug money overnight either into or out of my WAMU account. It's no fun taking that check you need to pay your bills from a money market mutual fund to the bank and being told that they are holding the funds for five days. So, Schwabs linked MMF pays only 2.82%, but the bill pay is free, and it all downloads into Quicken. Having most stuff in one place is very convienient, as long as you can get the investment products you need, lots of services, and don't pay any fees.
 
You've made me realize there may be cheaper alternatives to QuickenBillPay. I'll be looking into that. Thanks.
 
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