US Banking System

Scituate Federal Savings invites consumers to take advantage of the best interest rates for their reward checking account. You can enjoy their best checking account and have unlimited ATM access when you meet the monthly requirements. Here are the current interest rates:

• 3.25% APY for balances up to $25,000
• 0.10% APY for portion of the deposit above $25k
• 0.10% APY base interest rate if requirements are not met

This reward checking requires you to make at least 12 debit card purchases at the point of sale and setup at least one ACH transfer or direct deposit per statement cycle.

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Astoria Federal Savings is offering a nationally available 2.5% APY 30 month CD and a 1.5% APY 9 month certificate of deposit with a minimum deposit of just $500. This is also available as an IRA CD rate.

You can open an account over the phone and they’ll hold the rate for 10 days while you send in the funds for the account. You can mail in a check or send a wire transfer for a $15 fee.

In order to close out the CD you have to send written instructions to do so and they will mail you out a check and close the account. You can also close your CD in person by visiting a branch in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, New York.

Astoria Federal Savings has a 2 out of 5 star soundness rating from bankrate and is FDIC insured. <

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So, Ben Bernanke says that this brutal recession has “very likely ended.” For Money-Rates readers who hold money in CDs or savings accounts, this silver lining may appear obscured by a dark cloud:

Worries over inflation. Already, CD rates are too slow to keep up with even a moderate rate of price growth.

However:

1. Foreign Goods Help Keep U.S. Prices Low

The assumption that as the economy improves, inflation will become a problem, discounts the global nature of the U.S. economy. Foreign goods, especially from China, are cheap enough to affect pricing power.

When you could only get toys from F.A.O. Schwartz, F.A.O. Sch

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Bank rates may be out of date. Please check bank websites for current rates.

1st Constitution Direct has a special internet only savings promo on their high yield online savings account. With this internet only promotion, you can get 2.05% APY locked in for the first 3 months, after which it switches to a variable rate. The current variable savings rate is 1.95% APY.

In order to qualify for this rate, you need to maintain a balance of $10,000. If your balance falls below $10,000 your rate will drop to 1.60%. Minimum initial deposit of at least $100 is required.

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