Ally Bank – Best Savings Account

In my quest to find the best savings account, I think I can finally give the crown to Ally Bank’s High Yield Savings. For those of you that haven’t heard, Ally Bank is the new name for GMAC Bank. GMAC Bank always had competitive rates on its savings account, but now that all other banks have lowered their rates, Ally Bank is one of the highest out there.

Ally Bank’s High Yield Savings currently offers 2.00% APY for any balance in the account. There is no minimum balance or any fees associated with this account. Ally Bank has a very fast ACH transfer system which allows you to link your checking account to your Ally savings account to move money in and out quickly and easily. You can link multiple accounts. I am not sure if there is a max, but I have 5 different bank accounts linked at the moment. The transfer feature also allows you to set up automated withdrawals to your account which makes saving over time easy. You can also open multiple savings account so that you can keep your savings separate. I currently have 3 open. One holds my savings, one holds the savings for my property taxes and the third holds my vacation fund. I have all three accounts automatically deduct money from my checking account each month.

One thing to note that since the High Yield Savings is a savings account, you are limited to 6 withdrawls per month which is based on a federal law governing savings accounts. Deposits are unlimited.

You can compare Ally bank to the likes of ING Direct. It has all the same features but compared to the 1.5% rate they ING is offering, Ally Bank is definitely the clear winner. Ally Bank deposits are FDIC insured up to $250,000 per account, so you can feel safe in the fact that your money is protected.

Ally Bank also has other high yield products. They have a money market product which allows check writing and has a debit card with ATM rebates. The current rate on this account is 1.85% APY. This account is great if you want access to your savings via writing a check or going to an ATM. The money market account has no fees as well, you just need to make sure you stay under the 6 withdrawals per month.

They also offer an extremely high one year CD Rate of 2.30%. Again, no fees and no cost to open.

So you can see with banks dropping interest rates everyday, Ally Bank has an impressive suite of products that can help your savings grow. Definitely take a look if you are earning a mediocre rate at your current bank!

Bye ING Direct and Hello Etrade Complete Savings

I remember a short time ago when ING had a very competitive rate on their Orange Savings accounts and hoards of people were signing up. Well it seems once they got that strong customer base they haven’t stayed competitive on the rate. Perfect example, my parents signed up with them 2 years ago and have about $50,000 in their account earning 2.5%. Trying to get them to change their account is like pulling teeth.

Well I have decided to move on from ING. All my cash is now going to Etrade’s Complete Savings Account. The Complete Savings account is a high yield savings account just like ING’s Orange Savings. The account has all the same features of ING’s Orange Savings but with a higher interest rate which is currently 3.01%. There are no fees or minimum balances to keep the account open and this account is FDIC insured up $100,000 per account.

I never had to deal with ING’s Customer Service, but I did call Etrade’s just to ask them some questions about the account before I decided to move all my money. The call was answered quickly and the customer service rep was very friendly and helpful.

You can open multiple accounts and each account only needs to have a minimum of $1 to earn interest. They offer ACH capabilities so that you can transfer money from your linked bank account. You can also set up a schedule to transfer money into (or out of) your account.

When you compate feature by feature the two savings accounts are very similiar, but when you add in the fact that Etrade consistently has a higher rate that ING, the Etrade Complete Savings Account wins hands down.

Currently in this market where interest rates are being slashed left and right, you need to stick with a bank that gives you the best possible return! Now my next step is getting my parents to switch!

Cheap Fax Service Review – SaveOnFaxes.com

To save money on phone service I switched over to Voice Over IP a long time ago. I have done a few posts regarding this and in many cases I keep getting questions asking if you can fax over VoIP. In the quest to save money and switch from the standard phone companies to VoIP we forget that fax isn’t supported on any Voice Over IP service out there.

I am in this boat as well. I’ve tried faxing over Vonage, faxing over Broadvoice and also tried faxing over T-Mobile’s Hotspot at Home and have in some cases been able to get a fax or two to complete, but over all it is not consistent. I decided to try one of those online fax services where you send faxes via an email to an email address which in turn faxes it to the number you want it sent to. All the fax services I tried all seem to work well, but they are expensive. Send2Fax.com is $9 per month and eFax.com will run you around $14 per month. Both offer around 120 free faxes for the month. This is great if you have a high volume of faxes. But what if you only want around half that? Enter SaveOnFaxes.com!

SaveOnFaxes.com is setup more for the casual user. Their basic plan only costs $3.75 (billed anually at $44.95) and it gives you 50 free faxes a month. This comes out to about .$07 per fax for the year. Best part is that you get your own local or toll free fax number that you can give out to others. Other fax services charge you extra for a toll free number! All faxing is done through email (See demo below). You just send an email to faxnumber@my.saveonfaxes.com from the email account that you used to sing up and that email will turn into a fax that will be sent to that faxnumber. You can also include attachments in PDF or Microsoft Office format that will also be included in the fax. This is great if you have a scanner. All you need to do is scan the document and then send it as an attachment in an email and your fax is complete.

You receive any faxes right into your email as a PDF document. Since this is all done via email you can literally send and receive faxes from a cell phone if your phone has email and attachment capability. There is also an online portal where you can see the status / history of your inbound and outbound faxes as well as update your account information.

I have been testing their service for a few months and it suits my needs and budget. They definetly seem to be the cheapest Internet fax service out there. I can handle paying $45 a year for faxing since I can’t do it over my VoIP. There are some other sites that let you pay as you fax, but they don’t give you your own number. This is important to me since you never know when someone will need your fax number. Now you can really kill your landline since your faxing options are now covered!

Check out SaveOnFaxes.com for more details and happy faxing!

UPDATE:

I decided to put together a quick example of how this all works so you can see how easy it is. (Click on any images to see a larger easier to read version)

The process starts out by simply creating an email from the email account that you used when you signed up for SaveonFaxes.com:

Notice the makeup of the TO: field. The first item is the name, this will appear in the “To:” field on the fax cover sheet, the next item is the Company, this will appear in the “Company:” field on the cover sheet. (Those first two items are optional, but if you are doing a cover sheet it makes things look complete). Then the last item, which is most important is thefax number you are sending the fax to. Then the “@my.saveonfaxes.com” email domain name is used everytime you send a fax.

In the email subject add whatever you want the fax cover sheet Subject to have on it. And any text you put in the body of the email will appear in the body of the cover sheet. Notice that I also attached a word docment. Here is what the one page word document looks like before I sent it off:

Nothing too exciting, but if you need to fax documents, adding it as an attachment to the email makes it very easy. You can attach multiple documents to the email and they will all appear on seperate pages in the fax that is sent. The attachment types that SaveonFaxes.com supports are the following:

Ok, everything is ready on your email, so now you need to send it. Once you send the email you can log into the SaveonFaxes.com online portal to monitor the status if you wish.

The portal allows you to see what is going on as well as allows you to resend the same fax with a click of a button, so you don’t have to contstruct the email again.

Now remember I sent an email with an attachment, so my fax that was sent will be multiple pages. One for the cover sheet and then as many pages as the attachments need. Since the word doc I created was only one page this fax will have a total of two pages.

Here are the screen shots of what the received fax looks like:

Notice all of the fields that I put on the email have nicely transfered into the correct positions on the cover sheet. And that the contents of the word document on a sepeate page of the fax.

SaveonFaxes.com also provides other commands that you can put in the subject line of the email to do things like suppress the cover sheet, add billing codes, etc.

As you can see SaveonFaxes.com is relatively easy to use and is cost effective enough to allow you to have it as an option to your VoIP line. I have been using this service for a few months now and am extremely happy with the results.

Amazon.com: $99 Nintendo DS Video Game System

Amazon has a good deal going this morning for you video game fans. They are offering the Nintendo DS Pink Ribbon Version for only $99. Plus free super saver shipping.

The pink ribbon version is a limited edition that helps benefit breast cancer research. $5 goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation from your purchase.

This is a good deal considering the other version of the Nintendo DS are still selling for $129.99. Get in before it is gone! This makes a great Christmas present for the kids in your family especially considering that the games run around $10-$30 each unlike the bigger console systems.

Save On Heating Costs This Winter

For those of you that live in a warm climate all year, move on! This post is for all of us that hunker down through a cold winter season and are terrified the day we see that heating bill in the mail box.

There is nothing out there that is going to reduce your bill easily, but there are a few things you can do that can add up to some significant savings.

Programmable Thermostat – I can personally attest to this one. A programmable thermostat allows you to set the temperature of your home based on the time and day. So for example if during the weekday no one is at home between 8 and 5, then you can set the temperature to go down to say 55 degrees at 8am and then have it go back up to 70 degrees around 4:30pm before you get home. Doing this keeps the furnace from running all day. Why heat the air when no one is there to feel it. I recommend a 7 day programmable thermostat. This allows you to set each day differently for this with changing schedules throughout the week.

Space Heaters – If you have a gas furnace, why not take the load off of the furnace by using your electricity to power a space heater in the rooms where people are sleeping. Don’t forget that electricity rates are lower in the evening and why heat the whole house when you really only need to heat the rooms where people are sleeping. There are obvious risks with space heaters, so make sure to follow the directions that come with the heater to make sure everyone stays safe.

Close off unused rooms – If there are rooms in your house that are rarely used, close the doors and shut the vents. This will allow that heated air to go to rooms that really need it. Having a small space heater in that room ready to go is perfect for when you may need to use it.

Other Miscellaneous Items – If the above options don’t work for you then at least go back to the basics.

• Keep curtains and blinds closed at night. They help provide a small barrier between the cold windows and the inside.
• Use plastic window wrap around those windows that aren’t insulated or are drafty. The wrap will help keep those drafts from coming into your home and help lower your heating bill.
• Make sure all outside door seal correctly and replace the weather stripping as needed.
• Turn down the water heater. Remeber that the water heater runs all day long. If you usually never run out of hot water during a normal work day, try turning it down a few notches. You will quickly notice the savings.
• Replace your current lightbulbs with flourescent bulbs. These things are crazy how much less energy they use. Swap them out to reduce your bill so that you have more room for heating costs!
• If you have a fireplace keep the flue closed when not in use. Even an unused fireplace sucks the hot air out of the house.

There are quite a few things that you can do to try to get that heat bill down. With rising gas and electricity prices, anything helps. And you can revel in the fact that while you are saving money you are also helping out the environment!

Tradeking $50 Bonus Ends Friday

EDIT: This promotion has ended. Their latest promo can be found HERE.

www.TradeKing.com current promotion of a $50 bonus when opening a new account ends Friday October 31st Sunday November 30th. When you open an account with $2500 and make your first trade, Tradeking will deposit a $50 bonus into your account.

With their trades costing $4.95 that is more than 10 free trades to get you going. In the long term the $4.95 commission will save you lots of money on commissions and fees when compared to other online brokerates.

Tradeking only has a few promotions a year so once the $50 Tradeking bonus is gone I imagine you won’t see another until sometime next year. So if you are looking to start investing in a market where almost everything is a buy, get in before Friday November 30th!

Click www.TradeKing.com for more details about the promotion.

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