Bank Deals Blog: Banking Tools and Data

Several prominent Democrats — including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — support the idea of providing basic banking services through U.S. post offices.

There are several reasons why advocates are getting behind this concept, but the main idea is concern for Americans who live and work in so-called “banking deserts,” where access to basic financial services is limited by geography. Supporters believe that mandating the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide basic financial services would help address the problem of banking deserts.

In 2016 we did a study on CD early withdrawal penalties (EWP). By examining EWP data from more than 1,000 institutions, we extracted average EWPs for CD terms from 6 months to 5 years. This year we looked at the data again to see how EWPs have changed. The review included EWP data from 7,562 CDs that were offered by 1,019 banks and credit unions.

As described in our 2016 overview of CD EWPs, the early withdrawal penalty is simply a penalty that is applied when a CD holder elects to...

When looking around for the best deposit rates, you’ve probably noticed that online banks tend to dominate lists with their competitive interest rates. This is especially true when comparing online bank rates with traditional brick-and-mortar banks.

To get a better sense of this competition, DepositAccounts took a deep dive into local bank rates and found that in many states, the rate is no better than the average rate you could find with an online savings account or 1-year CD. The analysis, which was conducted Jan. 1,...

The last Fed meeting of 2018 is scheduled to start Tuesday. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 2.25% - 2.50%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday would be the fourth rate hike this year and the ninth rate hike since the Fed began normalizing rates in December 2015. The gradual rate hikes this year may not repeat in 2019. There have been signs the Fed may decide to slow down or pause...

The most recent U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances seems to indicate the younger Americans are, the less they have in savings. We analyzed the federal data to discover the average savings by age.

The analysis reveals the youngest members of the workforce don’t have much to back them in an emergency, as under-35 households in America average less than $5,000 in their savings accounts. As they age and incomes rise, so do the amounts Americans put away in savings and for retirement, but not so much in certificates...

The sixth Fed meeting of 2018 is scheduled to start Tuesday. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 2.00% - 2.25%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday would be the third rate hike this year and the eighth rate hike since the Fed began normalizing rates in December 2015. After Wednesday, one more Fed rate hike is likely for 2018. How will this affect deposit rates? To help answer that question, we did...

By using DepositAccounts.com’s proprietary database of depository product data, checking account fee data from 1,711 banks and credit unions with branches in the 50 of the largest U.S. metro areas was analyzed. Checking account fee data from online banks was also analyzed. The study focused on three of the common checking account fees: overdraft fees, third-party ATM fees and monthly service fees. An overview of the findings for the regional analysis is as follows:

• Florida has some of the highest bank fees overall – with West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa,...

The fourth Fed meeting of 2018 has started today. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 1.75% - 2.00%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday would be the second rate hike this year and the seventh rate hike since the Fed began normalizing rates in December 2015. After Wednesday, at least one more Fed rate hike (and possibly two more) is likely for 2018. How will this affect deposit rates? To help answer...

The second Fed meeting of 2018 has started today. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 1.50% - 1.75%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday will likely be the first of three or four rate hikes for 2018. How will this affect deposit rates? To help answer that question, we did an analysis of our proprietary banking data with a focus on savings account rates. This is an update to the analysis that...