Planet Earth Cuts Interest Rates
Six central banks of the world did a coordinated interest rate cut to try to help the credit crisis. The group included the US and the European Central Bank. What does this mean for your wallet? It's possible, at some point, that you'll be able to get or renegotiate loans or mortgages to a better interest rate, and you're like to see saving account rates drop, but given the apocalyptic economic climate, don't count on it happening anytime soon.
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Comments:
@GTI2.0:
My broker actually offered to do this for me as a free service if the rate went down a point (and it has).
If the bailout didn't help us so far, the interest rate cuts aren't either. The only way we will be saved is when we decide to invest some money helping those under foreclosures and putting some money in education. Also did you guys know that all the bad mortgages / forclosures combined are only worth 150 billion dollars?! Why not just give them the money so we can "unfreeze" the economy!
"and you're like to see saving account rates drop"
Showing my ignorance here a bit (hey, I'm new to the whole having/caring about things like this) but would this mean it's a better time to take some money from a current "high yield" savings and move it into things like shorter term CDs as a hedge? I have a little bit of savings that I need to be relatively liquid so I can't toss it into a 1 year CD, but I could move some if that's what we're looking at.
@Kaisum: They charge three klaatlus for "out of system" ATM withdrawals. It's a pain, but still better than dealing with Earth banks.
Right now, 1 year CD's are paying about .5% above what some high yield savings accounts (HYSA) are. The Fed may still lower rates at subsequent meetings. They are relucatant to since low interest rates are inflationary for many reasons.
For the normal investor who has money parked in cash. unless you are talking about tens of thousands of dollars, it's not worth it in my opinion to tie a bunch of money up in 1 year CD's.
@mcdonaldave: I don't know where you got your figure from, but from what I understand it's around $1.3 trillion.
I could be wrong though.
@postnocomments: Brilliant. I demand that a t-shirt be made!
(For those America-haters, they can buy a version with a "?" after it)












It's possible that you'll be able to get or renegotiate loans or mortgages to a better interest rate
Has anyone had any luck *negotiating* a lower rate on a mortgage versus refinancing? This seems like an attractive option to get a few tenths of a percent shaved off versus dealing with a full-on refi.