ING Direct Raises Savings Rate to 3.30%

The competition between online banks continues. ING Direct just increased the rate on their savings account from 3.15% to 3.30%. I'm surprised they increased it so quickly after the last increase from 3.00% to 3.15%. The Fed did raise the federal funds rate last week. So perhaps it's in response to that. I had thought perhaps that ING would put more emphasis on its CD rates rather than savings rates to attract more of the longterm customers. But they seem intent on staying in the savings rate war.

Now will EmigrantDirect raise their rates again? They are still 0.20% higher than ING but in the past they seemed to always try to be at least 0.25% higher.

Speaking about EmigrantDirect, they've just announced that they will allow its customers to make deposits with personal checks in addition to online transfers. Originally, you could only make the initial deposit with personal checks. However, it claims that due to federal regulations, it can only accept personal checks drawing on accounts linked electronically to the Emigrant account.