Stop Waiting for the Big Money Center Banks to Raise their Rates

It has been many years since I co-founded BestCashCow, and I have heard just about every excuse possible for keeping your cash in low interest earning savings and money market accounts, checking accounts and CDs.

However, there is a new refrain that I am hearing and it is actually really irking me. It goes something like this.

“Well, I have been meaning to move my cash out of Wells Fargo but I haven’t gotten around to it and I am sure that if rates are going up, they will have to become competitive soon so I am just going to leave it there.”

The only part of this quote that is even remotely correct is that rates are, in fact, going up. The reality is that the large money center banks are currently flush with cash from other funding operations, and from others taking the same wait-and-see approach. Today, the big banks are able to raise more money than ever before through capital markets to fund their lending operations, and they now have more money in deposits than they have ever had before.

These banks are counting on being able to successfully sell the pitch that they are delivering a better service and therefore customers should be willing to continue to accept zero interest rates for the service. My personal view is that this pitch may continue to be compelling for depositors of small amounts. For those holding $15,000 in a deposit account at Chase you gain access to their ATM network, their branch network, notaries and maybe safe deposit boxes, and even then you really need to require these services to justify forgoing over $400 in interest annually.

But, anyone holding over the bare minimum for the services that they need from a money center bank is not adopting best practices in relation to their finances.

There are banks and credit unions where you live and online banks that compete for your savings. In fact, there are local banks, credit unions, online banks that are competing for your checking by offering far better rates and often times the same services. Seek them out now.