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How to Balance a CheckbookGMAC Bank Raises Money Market Savings to 5.25%
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ON BY Ken Tumin
With all the buzz lately with the new E-LOAN savings account, GMAC Bank may have decided to create some of its own buzz with a large rate increase on its money market savings account. The rate increased from 5.00% to 5.25% APY. The last money market rate hike at GMAC was on July 28th when it went from 5.05% to 5.10% APY. This didn't last long. The next week it fell back to 5.00% APY and has remained there until today. Hopefully, this 5.25% won't drop any time soon.
Although E-LOAN's savings account has a higher rate, there are some advantages with GMAC Bank's Money Market Savings account. The biggest advantage in my opinion is that it offers limited check writing. You can write up to 3 checks per month from this account (and the first 50 checks are free). The other big advantage is GMAC's bank-to-bank transfer system. You can easily established links to many external accounts online. Transfers done through GMAC are fast.
For those who are just deciding to get into online banking, GMAC Bank would be a good choice. In addition to check writing, they deliver monthly paper statements in the mail. So it will look a lot like the accounts that you currently have with brick-and-mortar banks.
Please, refer to my GMAC Money Market Account review post for more information. In addition to listing the benefits and downsides to the money market account, I describe my experiences with opening this account. A reader had asked if I had any new pros or cons about this account after 6 months. The only negative that I can think of is that their money market and CD rates have fallen behind in the last few months. But as I describe in that post, GMAC does have a history of competitve rates, and as today shows, they haven't dropped out of the high yield game.
There were also changes in GMAC Bank's CD rates. Short term CD rates went up significantly. However, some of the long term CD rates dropped again. GMAC Bank now has a very inverted yield curve with a money market rate that's higher than the 5-year CD rate. Below shows how the yields have changed in the last few weeks:
For more information on opening a GMAC Bank CD, please refer to this post.
Thanks to the reader who mentioned this rate update in the finding deals post.
Although E-LOAN's savings account has a higher rate, there are some advantages with GMAC Bank's Money Market Savings account. The biggest advantage in my opinion is that it offers limited check writing. You can write up to 3 checks per month from this account (and the first 50 checks are free). The other big advantage is GMAC's bank-to-bank transfer system. You can easily established links to many external accounts online. Transfers done through GMAC are fast.
For those who are just deciding to get into online banking, GMAC Bank would be a good choice. In addition to check writing, they deliver monthly paper statements in the mail. So it will look a lot like the accounts that you currently have with brick-and-mortar banks.
Please, refer to my GMAC Money Market Account review post for more information. In addition to listing the benefits and downsides to the money market account, I describe my experiences with opening this account. A reader had asked if I had any new pros or cons about this account after 6 months. The only negative that I can think of is that their money market and CD rates have fallen behind in the last few months. But as I describe in that post, GMAC does have a history of competitve rates, and as today shows, they haven't dropped out of the high yield game.
There were also changes in GMAC Bank's CD rates. Short term CD rates went up significantly. However, some of the long term CD rates dropped again. GMAC Bank now has a very inverted yield curve with a money market rate that's higher than the 5-year CD rate. Below shows how the yields have changed in the last few weeks:
:
Term 9/15 APY 9/22 APY 9/29 APY 10/06 APY
3 month 4.95% 4.95% 4.95% 5.25%
6 month 5.00% 5.00% 4.95% 5.30%
9 month 5.30% 5.30% 5.20% 5.30%
12 month 5.35% 5.35% 5.25% 5.30%
18 month 5.30% 5.30% 5.20% 5.30%
2 years 5.30% 5.35% 5.20% 5.15%
3 years 5.30% 5.30% 5.20% 5.15%
4 years 5.30% 5.30% 5.20% 5.15%
5 years 5.35% 5.35% 5.20% 5.20%
For more information on opening a GMAC Bank CD, please refer to this post.
Thanks to the reader who mentioned this rate update in the finding deals post.