# Have bank interest rates gone down?



## debodun (Sep 30, 2019)

In July, I received a little over $14 in interest on a checking account. In August I received a little over $6 and in September it had dropped to $3. I have just about the same amount in the account over these months.


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## mathjak107 (Sep 30, 2019)

rates on the short end have come down. did you not hear the fed has been cutting rates ?


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## Pepper (Sep 30, 2019)

Yeah, deb, did you not hear?    LOL


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## Pecos (Sep 30, 2019)

debodun said:


> In July, I received a little over $14 in interest on a checking account. In August I received a little over $6 and in September it had dropped to $3. I have just about the same amount in the account over these months.



You must be keeping a very substantial balance in your checking account to get $3.
At the lowest point last month, I had $7000 in my bank checking account which yielded a grand total of 24 cents for the month.
My savings account of $3000 at that same bank yielded a whopping 58 cents for the month.

I don't let money build up too much at any of my regular banks. I move it to better investments fairly quickly, but those are becoming hard to find.


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## johndoe (Sep 30, 2019)

I believe it was around the Carter administration when interest rates in the bank were 8, 9, and 10 %. I miss those days. Interest rates were high for U.S. savings bonds as well. They had a guaranteed minimum of 4% which I'm getting now.


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## mathjak107 (Sep 30, 2019)

The real return back then from banks with inflation as high as it was left you with a bigger loss then the rates today with low inflation...it is real return after inflation is accounted for that matters .


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## jerry old (Sep 30, 2019)

The answer to  ' how do I get an adequate or acceptable return for my money?'

There is a thread on this site, "Old advise Vs. New advise" Education is the key:   Nasdaq  stocks  pays a low yield of but are safer than the big board.
I reached the stage where I had no mortgage, kids, had an excess of moneys to invest...
There was a broker on Christian Radio in his 70's.  He had made his money, wanted to assist
others...I followed his advise, made a sufficient amount of money in 7-8 years, by purchasing  Putman Group of various stocks.

Warning! Putman group of Senior Advisors changed, cheated investors, lot of court cases...Determining what corporate  goals are and do they follow their propaganda is  essential.  If their sufficiently interested in their investors  this year, that does not mean they will remain so.
Information and how to obtain it, is time consuming and difficult, but you must obtain it.

There are a limited number of  large corporations wherein you can buy stock directly from the corporation without a broker:
Coca Cola was one, cannot remember the others.


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## TravelinMan (Sep 30, 2019)

debodun said:


> In July, I received a little over $14 in interest on a checking account. In August I received a little over $6 and in September it had dropped to $3. I have just about the same amount in the account over these months.



If you have money just parked at your bank earning _very_ little interest, you might look into what we did for our emergency fund.  We opened a high yield money market (via the internet) with Marcus by Goldman Sachs.  They started us out at 2.25 % but have dropped twice now down to 2.0 %. The money is very liquid and we can transfer it into our local bank by internet usually the same day.  Last month got $90 on $50K.  Still not enough to keep up with inflation, but a better (IMO) place to park some funds.


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

jerry r. garner said:


> The answer to  ' how do I get an adequate or acceptable return for my money?'
> 
> There is a thread on this site, "Old advise Vs. New advise" Education is the key:   Nasdaq  stocks  pays a low yield of but are safer than the big board.
> I reached the stage where I had no mortgage, kids, had an excess of moneys to invest...
> ...




The poster is referring to interest income  , not equities


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## jerry old (Oct 1, 2019)

I t


mathjak107 said:


> The poster is referring to interest income  , not equities


Hmm, I thought that an answer to interest bearing accounts involving banks.


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

no ... equities are never a proxy for  bonds or interest bearing instruments ... they serve totally different purposes


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## TravelinMan (Oct 1, 2019)

mathjak107 said:


> The poster is referring to interest income  , not equities


Hmm?  I thought the OP was talking about _bank interest rates! (???)_


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

they are , which is why i said this comment does not fit in to this discussion 




jerry r. garner said:


> The answer to  ' how do I get an adequate or acceptable return for my money?'
> 
> There is a thread on this site, "Old advise Vs. New advise" Education is the key:   Nasdaq  stocks  pays a low yield of but are safer than the big board.
> I reached the stage where I had no mortgage, kids, had an excess of moneys to invest...
> ...


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## fmdog44 (Oct 1, 2019)

bankrate.com will give you interest rates


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## retiredtraveler (Oct 1, 2019)

mathjak107 said:


> The real return back then from banks with inflation as high as it was left you with a bigger loss then the rates today with low inflation...it is real return after inflation is accounted for that matters .


Yes. But inflation is not equal to all of us. Depends on how much of a consumer one is.


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

retiredtraveler said:


> Yes. But inflation is not equal to all of us. Depends on how much of a consumer one is.


Everything gets tied in one way or another ...Medicare ,rent , real estate taxes and every expense you can think of increases like when we had those inflationary 1970’s and early 80’s ...this was not like low inflationary pressures where only some things were effected


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## debodun (Oct 1, 2019)

I called the bank and was informed that their interest rate went from 0.05% in July to 0.01% in September.


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

Banks are where we keep our money awaiting being spent ...it is not a place I would ever keep much money ....... our diversified bond funds have been having an excellent year


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## debodun (Oct 1, 2019)

I like a local bank branch where I have immediate access to my money. Sometimes they make you jump through so many hoops to get money out of an investment account and charge a penalty if a withdrawl is made.


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

debodun said:


> I like a local bank branch where I have immediate access to my money. Sometimes they make you jump through so many hoops to get money out of an investment account and charge a penalty if a withdrawl is made.


Most of us click a button at fidelity or vanguard or any other major brokerage and our money moves in one day ... personally I think you seem inexperienced at investing just from saying this because we all do electronic fund transfers all the time.. there is never a fee from any major house nor hoops as you call them , click and done


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## debodun (Oct 1, 2019)

mathjak107 said:


> personally I think you seem inexperienced at investing



GUILTY!


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## mathjak107 (Oct 1, 2019)

debodun said:


> GUILTY!


Exactly .... what happens is those who are anti investing actually start to believe their own bullshit as it is called ....so they have all these reasons in their head , true or not as to substantiating what they believe ....usually what they believe though comes from other misinformed people... the end result is they do pretty poorly with their money as far as it working for them .


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## fmdog44 (Oct 1, 2019)

debodun said:


> I called the bank and was informed that their interest rate went from 0.05% in July to 0.01% in September.


Checking accounts pay next to nothing as you are experiencing. Don't look for any change their. Wells Fargo pays next to nothing for savings and CDs as well. Are you earning interest on other (savings) accounts?


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## 911 (Oct 1, 2019)

I deal with Fidelity and T.D. Ameritrade. I can bounce money from one account to another in minutes, write checks (who does that anymore?) and even have money deposited into my local bank account in minutes. I used to have to get a check delivered overnight, but in today’s world, I just move money from Fidelity or Ameritrade to my local bank account in minutes. All at no charge. 

Or, I can use my Fidelity or Ameritrade debit (check cashing) card for even quicker cash.


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## fmdog44 (Oct 8, 2019)

Got a not today from Citi that my savings went down to 2.05%. No notices from the other banks...…….yet.


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## Liberty (Oct 9, 2019)

fmdog44 said:


> Got a not today from Citi that my savings went down to 2.05%. No notices from the other banks...…….yet.


Assume that's your regular account and not CDs or something else you mean?


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## chic (Oct 9, 2019)

mathjak107 said:


> Exactly .... what happens is those who are anti investing actually start to believe their own bullshit as it is called ....so they have all these reasons in their head , true or not as to substantiating what they believe ....usually what they believe though comes from other misinformed people... the end result is they do pretty poorly with their money as far as it working for them .



Not entirely true. I invested and traded stocks for years and was nearly wiped out because Goldman Sachs lied on a prospectus. It was deemed they should be bailed out because "Goldman Sachs is too big to fail." I never got a nickel back and have been in dire financial straits ever since. I'm not ignorant of stock trading, but a person should never invest more than they can afford to comfortably lose because it does happen even through no fault of your own.


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## Liberty (Oct 9, 2019)

chic said:


> Not entirely true. I invested and traded stocks for years and was nearly wiped out because Goldman Sachs lied on a prospectus. It was deemed they should be bailed out because "Goldman Sachs is too big to fail." I never got a nickel back and have been in dire financial straits ever since. I'm not ignorant of stock trading, but a person should never invest more than they can afford to comfortably lose because it does happen even through no fault of your own.


Amen to your post chic...could tell you tales of  many direct losses incurred by those that thought they were being protected or "handled" by big brokerage houses. It is what it is, and its best to keep any "real monies" you may have in some other place, no matter what the propaganda preaches these days.  Hope you are doing ok today.


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## digitaltimecapsule (Oct 9, 2019)

Bank interest rates hardly reflect actual interest rates. It all depends on who you have your money saved with! For instance I was getting .01% interest with Chase, and now I get ~.4% with Schwab. 

If you are invested in treasuries and bonds, e.g. T-bills, you will likely feel the effects of interest rate changes more than a standard bank account.


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## fmdog44 (Oct 9, 2019)

After Citi dropped my rate Ally Bank and Capital One have also sent notices stating the rate has gone down to 1.9. CD rates will surely follow.


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## fmdog44 (Oct 9, 2019)

Liberty said:


> Assume that's your regular account and not CDs or something else you mean?


Yes that was for my savings only.


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