ajulius said:If one was listening to you right now they would be putting heavy cash in NON FDIC insured interest getting 5.33%. When you get .05% more with FDIC INSURANCE with unlimited amounts, as this allows you to not worry about the bank 100k maximums because it aggregates it over multiple accounts and you are FULLY INSURED by FDIC.

As for the 5.43% vs 5.38%, because we are talking about a sum of 10 MILLION DOLLARS, which is HUGE CASH, the .05% difference for non insured is NOT WORTH IT because you LOSE FDIC INSURANCE but thats a different tier than what we are talking about here. Imagine not paying the 5,000 premium which is a measly .05% and losing 10 million dollars because the bank defaulted. Bank defaults while rare, are not uncommon as you think and also you are spreading assets to multiple banks as well. My point was not to bring this up to the highest tiers. It was shown in the right context for the right reason as I already so stated.

If you are putting your money in some small bank (like Security Savings in Las Vegas) or something, then FDIC insurance would be a good thing to look out for.

However, if your money is going in Vanguard Moneymarket or Fidelity Cash Reserves - then I don't think there is much to worry about. Honestly, if either of those two fail, it means something has gone so wrong with our economy that FDIC insurance isn't going to save you.

Like I said before, FDIC insurance is good for saving small, individual banks. But if a couple big banks or the entire economy falls, then it is highly doubtful that they will be able to do anything.

Where does the FDIC insurance money get invested? Obviousally it can't be insured by FDIC (because if it failed there would be nothing backing it). Do you think that those who manage the FDIC portfolio are more skilled than those who manage Vanguard, Fidelity, etc?

dolmar said:I am not recommending any institutional MMF. I only said your statement of most online savings account pay more than institutional MMF is just plain flase and in fact there are many institutional MMF who do pay a higher rate.

And as far Institutional Deposits Corp. who is owned by SunTrust Bank is nothing special. Citibank has the same program and it called Bank Deposit Program and Bank of America also has it and it called "Insured Bank Deposit Account".

I know it hard for you to understand. Comparing an account which requires $2.5K Min to avoid fees and starting @ $10K pays once of the highest rates of any national local bank to accounts than need $100K+ is like me comparing a Honda to MB which is really not a fair comparision.

I am aware multiple banks offer those accounts, but tell us what the rate is on those accounts. I never said other banks didn't offer the same program. But you never offered the rates for comparison reasons. Tell us what the BoA and Citibank rates are for the same account.

As far as comparing an accounts, I compared accounts to the appropriate account type and fund range and the appropriate reasons why a user should use each one.

Xeon852 said:ajulius said:If one was listening to you right now they would be putting heavy cash in NON FDIC insured interest getting 5.33%. When you get .05% more with FDIC INSURANCE with unlimited amounts, as this allows you to not worry about the bank 100k maximums because it aggregates it over multiple accounts and you are FULLY INSURED by FDIC.

As for the 5.43% vs 5.38%, because we are talking about a sum of 10 MILLION DOLLARS, which is HUGE CASH, the .05% difference for non insured is NOT WORTH IT because you LOSE FDIC INSURANCE but thats a different tier than what we are talking about here. Imagine not paying the 5,000 premium which is a measly .05% and losing 10 million dollars because the bank defaulted. Bank defaults while rare, are not uncommon as you think and also you are spreading assets to multiple banks as well. My point was not to bring this up to the highest tiers. It was shown in the right context for the right reason as I already so stated.

If you are putting your money in some small bank (like Security Savings in Las Vegas) or something, then FDIC insurance would be a good thing to look out for.

However, if your money is going in Vanguard Moneymarket or Fidelity Cash Reserves - then I don't think there is much to worry about. Honestly, if either of those two fail, it means something has gone so wrong with our economy that FDIC insurance isn't going to save you.

Like I said before, FDIC insurance is good for saving small, individual banks. But if a couple big banks or the entire economy falls, then it is highly doubtful that they will be able to do anything.

Where does the FDIC insurance money get invested? Obviousally it can't be insured by FDIC (because if it failed there would be nothing backing it). Do you think that those who manage the FDIC portfolio are more skilled than those who manage Vanguard, Fidelity, etc?

The concerns and reason why FDIC insurance matters is because of CORPORATE GOVERNANCE issues involved with the firms as well as the bank failures AS WELL AS providing protection because those assets will be allocated to multiple banks. So even if there was a severe economic crisis, you would have a better shot at your funds because it will be aggregated to multiple banks in the country. But sans that, it is also possible for a major scandal to rock a firm thereby dragging it down. Lawsuits against the big firms are the norm and not the exception unfortunately these days. Any scandal can occur to an isolated firm at any point in time or any bankruptcy can occur at any point in time with any firm.

People with funds in GMAC were quite worried when this news article came out:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2006-03-28-gm-investigations_x.htm

GMAC had at least 2 funds that were concerns: SecureNotes and DemandNotes. These were NOT FDIC insured type accounts.

Can happen at anytime unexpectedly and other firms could be okay if GMAC Financial wasn't able to sell out or solidify its finances in time.

can you open this account at a branch?

ajulius said:My point was that ALOT OF INVESTORS in these 2 products were very worried. The GMAC Money market product had investors scared and it could have gone bust. The issue ISNT if its junk bonds or not and that was NOT the point. The issue has to do with the firm that runs it, in this case GMAC financial. I showed these products to give examples that on multiple products with GMAC financial investors were very worried.

Investor who bought in both of those funds knew they were buying into below investment grade or junk bonds depending on when they opened thier account. I would be worried if I owned junk bond of a company saying they might file bankruptcy. GMAC did not hide the fact that by investing into thoses 2 funds you were only buying into GM debit which was rated below investment grade for last 2 years and droped down into junk bond status about 11 months ago. As a matter of fact GMAC stoped accepting new investors who either did not work for GM or were not refered by an existing client once there bonds rating was lowered to junk bond status.

People buying MMF from Vangaurd, Fidelity or many other companies are not buying into junk bond MMF funds to get an extra 50 or 75 basis points over current AAA/AA MMF funds. If you look at most MMF offered by brokerage houses they only buy AAA/AA insured bonds or US goverment notes as underlying issues.

Again I dont understand what relevance of buying into AAA/AA MMF fund or having over $100K with BOA/Citi/Chase or even WAMU can be compared to buying a junk bond MMF. It funny that you say MMF are risky then sight 2 of maybe 10 junk bond MMF around compared to maybe 2000 AAA/AA MMF. If you buy into a junk bond fund your going to get a higher return for the added risk you are taking. Same hold true for banks. Larger banks tend not to pay as much as smaller banks because they are not considered as risky. While you dont consider it a pain to fill out paper work to get FDIC to return/refund your money many people would prefer to just get 10-15 basis point less and know thier money is in a bank were thier money is safe unless a nuclear bomb drops in the USA and if that happends who cares how much money you got in the bank as chances are you will either be dead or money will become worthless.

How is this useful to people with <50k? I understand the convenience factor if BoA is the primary local bank (which it is for me until Citi brings in a real, non-7-11 ATM or HSBC moves into Boston), but they're not close to rate leaders who have no tiers and no minimums.

hoffjm00 said:JeebusSaves said:How is this useful to people with <50k? I understand the convenience factor if BoA is the primary local bank (which it is for me until Citi brings in a real, non-7-11 ATM or HSBC moves into Boston), but they're not close to rate leaders who have no tiers and no minimums.

It is completely ridiculous to say that .5% is "not close", and that's only at the lowest level. How then can you defend these other "rate leaders" who can't match BOA at higher tiers? Let's use your head here.

Actually you are not using your head here. Why? Because the POSTER said <50k and compared it to rate leaders which are online banks. For <50k, the difference is NOT .05, but rather .16 less at BoA than with a Bank such as AmtrustDirect's 5.26%. At the $2500 level, the spread is even greater at .42% less at BoA than with AmTrustDirect.

Under $2500 and I don't know if there is a maintanence fee as well, not sure. But on the MBNA application it has a $2500 minimum opening deposit requirement. I would assume BoA would be the same. Even assuming no maintanence fees, the less than $2500 rate would be an even greater spread difference than .42%.

If one were to take the BoA 5.10% at 10k minimum vs an online account at a local bank that is 5%+ (Some markets have 5.09%, some have 5.05%, some have 5%, etc....) and a linked 5.26% AmtrustDirect account for the other short term cash, one would be better off with the the high rate and linked 5.26% combo in more instances than one thinks as already mentioned in this thread.

As for HSBC and Boston, Citibank just entered the Boston market recently. As of NOW HSBC has no permits for Boston in the near future for branches. Things change all the time but as of NOW I have not heard of any plans for HSBC to enter Boston. They are adding a branch/branches to places in CT, NJ, CA and IL as well as DC metro which has been announced.

I do NOT know what the bank market looks like in Boston as every market is different.

NyGiantFan said:scott1961 said:Xeon852 said:NyGiantFan said:I got hard.
Same here:
09/24/2006
Date of Inquiry:
Business Name: BK OF AMER
Transunion.
Did you guys already have accounts with BOA? No pull showing yet for me but I filled my application after signing on to my account. Will really blow if we do get pulls only to find we cant get that high rate account anyway's, The letter calls it just a "Money Market Savings" and not the "Cash Maximizer Savings accounts"

I have a credit card account with them.

I am afraid this doesn't count. You need at least a checking or a savings account, and preferably no address changes, as there are different BoA systems throughout the US and your local one may not have your info on file and they will pull another credit report.

Well Citicorp was involved in the Enron scandal because they allowed Enron to hide their losses by loaning money to those companies in a special way that would reduce liabilities visible on the balance sheet. Also in May 2004, CitiFinancial was fined $70 million by the U.S. Federal Reserve, for continued predatory lending, and Citigroup and other investment banks had struck secret deals with companies that said that the bank's stock research division would rate that company a "Buy" if it would do investment banking with that division.

Would rather have a bank which distriminated against minorities over one which participated in the Enron scandal and made predatory lending if that is how we chose banks.

Ok this is my last post here. Enjoy and may each of you find the rate you are looking for.

TJQuill said:Has anyone with an MRA determined yet if this MMF can be used as your sweep account? (MRA is a Master Relationship Account for those newer to BofA, and combines your brokerage sweep and checking balance into the MMF which you choose.)

I typically have $10k+ sitting in my sweep, so that would be ideal for me.

Thx, TJ

This is a Money Market Account which is FDIC and not investment Money Market fund.

You can only pick from Columbia funds as your sweep for MRA account. This account is basicaly a high yeild savings account no different that normal savings account with BOA.