Huh, interesting. My WaMu savings account is still at... (checks)... 1.18% APY. So I wonder if I have a nasty letter coming with my next statement...

(Of course, compared to what my 401k is doing, 1 cent per year for every $100 sounds *fantastic*...)
 

I lived in Japan for ten years, where the interest in all savings accounts was a flat 0.00125%.

If you don't like it, invest.
 

Mine's 7.5% for the first $500, but only 1.5% on the rest.

No, wait... I just checked. It's been reduced to 6% and 0.75%. I still feel fortunate though after hearing your rates. (Mine's a regional credit union, which might have something to do with the better rates.)
 

I do invest. Depending upon whether or not you call what I do these days investing. :) But this is a more short-term savings for a family vacation that we've been working on for a bit. It's not much, but I thought it would be nice to get an extra $100 or so out of it before we take the trip.

I opened up a more recent savings account which is still at the "introductory rate" of 1.0%. What kind of account do you have, David?

I have a savings account at a credit union, which is still offering a pathetic return, but it's still several orders of magnitude better than this. It'd be a pain, but I might transfer stuff over. It wouldn't make much difference in terms of money, but I'd feel better about myself in the morning.

DCLXVI - 0.00125%? What was the inflation rate during that time?

I'm not smart enough to truly understand the repercussions of the whole bailout / stimulus thing (every day, it seems, I learn a new wrinkle) - but sometimes I'm really of the opinion that these guys should have been allowed to fail. They certainly deserve it.
 

Why do you keep your money in the bank anyway - that's, like, SO 19th century! Everyone knows that it's much more worthwile to invest in the stock ma....on second thought, nevermind. ;)
 

Try www.fnbodirect.com (the online branch of First National Bank of Omaha). No minimums, no fees, easy transfers, and paying 2.6% (it used to be much more than that, of course).

No, I don't work for them, but I've had an account there for a couple of years. It's worked out great - and they always seem to pay higher interest even than other online banks. FDIC insured, of course, so it's as safe as any bank.

You still won't get rich that way, but I'm sure you've got other plans for that.
 

Of course they can't make it 0% as the cost of fixing all the divide by zero errors in their code would bankrupt them.

Colm Mac
 

@Colm - I think they are already heading down that path anyway. :)

@WCG - Thanks for the tip! I've also been looking at the possibility of putting it into 6-month CDs. Again, this is just saving for a big family trip, but I was hoping to see it grow the price of a dinner or two before we went. I'm mostly just insulted by the 0.001% more than anything else.

@Demiath - Hey, at least I can say that I did better than the S&P last year in what I have traded / invested. :) But I still lost money, so I don't feel much like bragging about it.
 

Random note - I read the part iv review and right off the bat I was interested that Diego comes so close to what might be a 'good solution' to the 'drama points problem' but doesn't actually put it together.

He says (in summary) that the drama points system is there to reward folks who don't quicksave and reload - that is, to reward those who tolerate failure. I know that FK intends to include tolerable failure, so this makes good sense to me, but I also see how it's lame for someone who can only play a game in half-hour increments.

Diego also says, "One way to kind of solve the problem is by offering the option to save only on checkpoints." I think he means this as a solution to the quicksave/reload 'problem,' rather than as a solution to the drama points issue. This is where I drew a connection.

Why not allow drama points to be saved if one reloads at a checkpoint, but not if one reloads otherwise? That is, allow checkpoint saves and quicksaves, and place checkpoint saves such that they don't encourage failure intolerance. (If someone really wants to go waaaaaay back to the checkpoint in order to replay the failure scenario, well... they're going to have re-earned the drama points anyway, to some degree.)

Alas, I do not play on PC so I can't actually play the game and see if I think this is workable. But just a thought. :)
 

As a laid-off former WaMu employee, let me appologize for the reduction in your interest rate. Your account is now part of JP Morgan Chase, and my interactions with their management have been limited at best (my group in WaMu's credit card division met with Chase people three times before I was sent to the curb). Nevertheless, it's fairly clear that the new team is not that sharp. The one thing Chase wanted out of the deal was the retail branches in the West, and you'd think that maintaining Deposits would be key to getting value out of those relationships.

I know it's a hassle, but there is a simple solution in this case: move to another bank.

Again, my apologies, and I shall continue to enjoy your blog while I look for work and thereafter.
 

@Dixie - I definitely do NOT want to penalize people who play in half-hour increments, as that includes ... um, ME. I'll be addressing the Drama Star thing again in a future post. Thanks for the suggestion - although I'm afraid I am probably gonna resist using checkpoints in any traditional console-gaming sense.
 

@Mertseger - Dude, that sucks. I'm sorry about that. Several friends have been hit with layoffs recently. I hope you land on your feet quickly.

As far as Chase is concerned - I haven't moved my account to another bank yet, but I spoke with the WAMU customer support people today about it and got the expected non-answer. We've got direct deposit on that account right now, which made it convenient to move money directly into savings. But we'll be making changes.

But I did take what I hope will be a profitable action - I shorted 'em! (Well, I bought June puts... We'll see....)
 

Re. 'checkpoints,' I used to hate games which would only let me save at certain locations (and I'm wary about the drama points idea for the same reason). When I was enthused about a game, I'd want to play all the time, so I'd start it up and play while eating breakfast, just before going to work. I might have only 20 minutes, but I'd use every bit of it. But then I HAD to exit, no matter what.
 

I noticed something similar with my Wells Fargo account. Except that I also seem to be getting charged a brand new monthly fee of $10 for having it. There was not a fee when I signed up...but now there is according to a new policy change. So my couple of cents that I made just got wiped out this month.
 

I just had the lady from a credit union we have a loan with explain to me how several credit unions offices are part of a network and so they can handle some basic functions - like deposits and withdrawals - for each other.

And since there is one of those credit union offices only two blocks from my home... I think we will be kissing WaMu / Chase g'bye here really soon. Putting our money somewhere that acts as if they actually want it.
 

My WaMu savings account is just a generic one that I signed up for online.

I tried out a credit union a few years ago, and left it because its online banking was awful. Since I exclusively use online banking, that's my #1 criteria for any financial institution. I'm paid through direct deposit, and I don't normally carry cash, so rare cashbacks at a grocery store is enough for me.

(WaMu is pretty good for online banking. Overall better than Bank of America, though it lacks their automatic eBills goodness. Though since I got rid of all my credit cards and switched to a prepaid phone, this doesn't really matter to me any more.)
 

Why don´t you open up a FOREX account and straddle a carry trade on high-yield pairs? You can do like 10% that way.
 

Because I don't know what I'm doing with Forex to keep it low-risk.

I'm only barely learning what I'm doing in Options trading (after one year), and I still wouldn't qualify it as "low risk" (especially in this environment). And since the wife would KILL me if I lost a sizable chunk of our Hawaii money, I'd have to call that "high risk." :)

I do have a forex paper account I recently opened, though, so I *am* trying to learn.