I was worried about the rate on the new account. But when I sat down with the person that was opening our account he said that rate had been in place since January 2008 — the rate previous to that was something like 5.61%. That helped ease the fears that it was a teaser rate… if they kept 4.41% through all of last year that is pretty strong in my opinion. I doubt they would be undercapitalized for years.

But if it goes away I have no hesitation in moving on to find the next best deal. It’s all about being an informed consumer.

Okay, no more secrets revealed today…

Our institution is all about preserving relationships (especially those with 5 or more services) and is willing to provide exceptional customer service and discounts to those clients. We also have never done exotic mortgages and other such antics because it’s simply not in the best interest of the client (or ultimately us).

Often when community banks offer those “teaser” rates you speak of, they are severely undercapitalized and are desperate for the funds for fear of the Fed stepping in. They’ve had to tighten up their credit and can only start lending again if they pull in all those deposit dollars to fund loans. It’s a balancing act so when you see rates out of whack with competition, you know there’s a reason behind it (whether loan rates or deposit rates).

I didn’t say they were stealing. I’m pro-capitalism. But banks take advantage of a large portion of the population that are dumb enough to take interest rates below 0.5%. Even if you had $100,000 at 0.5% that is $500. So of course most people don’t have enough for it to matter!

I disagree that you get preferential treatment if you have an account at a bank. Simply not true for most institutions. They want you to think that so you will go to them and they can make money off of lending to you — not to give you the best deal. (In fact when we were looking for mortgages to buy our home the loan officer from the bank we had accounts with never called us back after the initial meeting. Just one example of course, but that was my experience.)

Also you shouldn’t be looking for a car loan in the first place, so I don’t buy that argument either. Yes most people will get a mortgage and that’s fine — we have two, unfortunately! — but you can get just as good if not a better deal by being an informed consumer, knowing what rates to expect, and negotiating.

Every bank that you would ever want to do business with is FDIC insured, no?

I’m not talking just about online accounts that take 3 days to clear. If you can find a brick-and-mortar, “real” bank to give you a better deal… that’s what I’m talking about. The 4.41% checking account deal we found is a local, smaller bank. We get the customer service (if we ever needed it) of a real person and the rate of an online account. Best of both worlds.