Capital One Interest Plus Rate Drop

Thanks for the news. So, right now, the online Interest Plus rate is the same, w/o the bonus, as the in-branch Simple Savings (in the NY/NJ market). Shouldn't "direct banking" offer better rates due to lower overhead costs, like maintaining branches? By the way, Capital One Direct's rates are down across the board; for example, High Yield Money Market is now 0.50%. I keep most of my liquid funds at Capital One Bank, but the frequency of these recent rate drops is getting pretty disturbing. To think, I used to have an ING Direct Orange Savings account, which I had closed (before the merger) because its rates weren't competitive enough in comparison to other online savings accounts. Somehow, it doesn't seem fair that Capital One Direct's savings account should be 20 basis points lower than the comparable account at the newly acquired ING Direct! I'm guessing, by the way, that a drop in the rate of the in-branch Simple Savings will occur within the next few weeks. I've noticed in the past that rate drops at Capital One tend to move in tandem (usually about 2 weeks apart) with rate drops at Capital One Direct.

I wonder if Capital One is cutting its Direct Banking rates since they don't want it to compete with the newly acquired ING Direct. Seems likely that they will de-emphasize the current Capital One Direct Banking and highlight ING Direct (which will have a Capital One name within the next year).

As I had predicted back on March 8th, Capital One Simple Savings (in NY/NJ market) interest rate has dropped. It is now a mere 0.30% APR. Given the magnitude of this drop, I have a sinking feeling that the rate drops at Capital One Direct are not yet done.