I have my emergency fund in HSBC Direct, which, when I opened it last year, had an APY of 5%. I think that, given the Fed's recent rate cut, now it's down to 3%. t edit Okay, 3.05%, which is a full 2% drop in only 1 year. Jesus. Which sucks, but it's still better than the crap rate my local bank offers for savings accounts.

I don't agree with everything that Dave Ramsey (financial guru, apparently) says, but I am following his emergency fund advice, which is: if you have debt (other than a mortgage), then put $1,000 in an emergency fund for car troubles/root canal/etc., and then pay down your debt as fast as you can. (That's why mortgage doesn't count -- it's sort of hard to pay down a 30-yr quickly).

For people who don't have debt, I think the standard emergency fund advice is 3-6 months of living expenses (not necessarily 3-6 months of your current salary).

The good thing about the online savings accounts (in addition to the higher interest rates) is that most don't require a minimum balance in order to earn that rate.

As of right now, HSBC is 3.05%, ING is 3%, and Emigrant Direct is 2.75%. I know that there are others out there that are just as good (and also FDIC-insured, etc.), but those are the first 3 that came to mind.

WaMu has some good free options as well. One that I have that might work for Susan is called Savings for Success - you do automatic deposits for a year at a set rate and it pays 6%. They limit the amount you can put in the account - opening balance from $1 to $500 and monthly additions $1 to $500. So, it's not where your retirement goes, but it could help you put away up to $6,000 a year at a higher than usual rate.

I haven't had access to my online banking, and so haven't been able to transfer money which has my savings account doing really well.

That's a plus for my ING account. If I want the money, it takes 3-4 days to get to me. That's a deterrent for spending it on random shit.

automatic deposits for a year at a set rate and it pays 6%.

Wow. I need to look into that when I start saving for my next car.

That's a plus for my ING account. If I want the money, it takes 3-4 days to get to me. That's a deterrent for spending it on random shit.

Totally. I try to pretend my HSBC account isn't even there.

I was reading at some financial blog (I can't remember where, otherwise I'd link to it) recently that you should always double-check all of your bank accounts to be sure that they're insured by FDIC. Some accounts are not, and that info is buried in the small print. With the conditions of banks and Wall Street right now, it's not a bad thing to look into.

My PayPal account has gone down from 4-something to 2.75%, which sucks until I look at our actual brick-and-mortar bank, which has a fixed interest rate of something like 0.5%.

That is AWESOME news of awesomeness, MM.

Gack. Hec just had an interview for a long-term temp job this morning; it should be done by now. I need to check in with him.

I really want to go all Hulk smash on the portion of Disney responsible for getting me my fucking payments. I have done the work. It had now been 32 days on my Net 30 invoice and no one will even answer an email or pick up their phone. It seems to take way too much effort to just get them to pay their bills.

Totally. I try to pretend my HSBC account isn't even there.

I do so well at this with my ING account that I panicked over money for several days when I was moving before remembering I had a thousand in there.