Dear Liz: Now that interest rates on savings accounts have started to rise, I have a quick tip for you to share: Check the rate you’re getting on your accounts! I discovered my online bank changed its account structure a few years back, and legacy high-yield savings accountholders aren’t getting the recent increases. I was earning only a paltry 0.3% rate, while people who opened accounts more recently were earning over 2%. I’m sure many customers like me assumed they had high-yield accounts, since that’s what they opened originally, but they are, in fact, not receiving competitive rates.
Answer: Thank you for the heads-up. People who have certificates of deposit also should check whether those CDs have matured. Some banks renew the CDs at competitive rates, while others dump the proceeds in a low-rate account. A little vigilance can help you squeeze out a much better rate of return.
Dear Liz
My brother Ray just pass away and his wife was wondering if the she could use his credit card that was in name after his death to purchase a appliance of over $1500.00.
When does his Credit Cards stop working? The day he died or after the death certificate is issue?
Credit card companies are typically notified by the executor when someone dies. Continuing to use the card after someone’s death could be considered fraud.
More on interest rates: — I also found out that the “bump” feature .8% 3-year CD I bought in July of 2021 was not really allowed by my credit union to go up when interest rates went up. Instead, they lowered the rate to .6% when many rates went up recently. So I cashed it out in Aug. 2022, taking a one-year interest rate penalty on it. (Always check penalty terms on CDs before buying into them.) I found that this credit union is right now offering very high-rate new CD’ (even over 4%) with a-typical terms, such as 7 months, or 15 months, or 20 months — that means that any bump CD with the usual term length can’t take advantage of those higher rates, since they have to match the CD length exactly. Every other CD and bank I’ve checked on has done the same thing and thus not allowed those with bump CDs to significantly increase their rates. With the increasing rate trend now, I’m also avoiding CDs since their rates go “out-of-date” quickly, and I’ve instead begun an online savings account (with Discover Bank, increasing from 1.3% to 2.75% in the past 4 months–others are even higher) or money market accounts at Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard, with some funds increasing from about 2% to 3% in the past 2 months, with more increases ahead due to the new .75% Fed rate increase.