Federal Funds Rate Cut : How to use that

Federal Fund Rate was decreased by 0.5% last week to 4.75 from 5.25% after 4 years and if you were wondering how to take advantages of it, here are few tips

1) Lower Rates ( Home, Auto )
If you are planning to re0finance home mortgage, you will get lower interest rate. But, the effects on Mortgage Rates will be visible over a period of time. If your Adjustable Rate Mortgage is around the corner for rate reset, your interest rate increase will not be substantial.

If you are shopping for home loans, you can get lower mortgage rates. But, the key it to wait and shop around for the right moment






2) Online Savings Bank Rates:
Already you can see the Interest rates being lowered by the Banks. HSBC Online Savings account lowered the interest rates to 4.50 from 5.05 and soon we can expect other banks to follow. So, try to cash in by investing in CD's that still pay interest rates more than 5%.

3) Re-finance Mortgage to Fixed Term
If you are using Adjustable Rate, you should find lower rates within sometime now and move to Fixed Rate Mortgage. They would save you from large increase in monthly payment when rate reset comes.

4) Switch to different Credit Cards
Now, credit cards companies will lower the interest rates, so, either ask for lower rates with the existing card or switch to new cards that offer lower rates.

HSBC Online Savings Account

After Fed's reduced the Federal Funds rate from 5.25% to 4.75%, I was expecting Online Savings Account interest rate to drop down and finally after a week, I got email today from HSBC Online Savings Account Interest Rate from 5.05% to 4.50%.

So, I looked up at other Online Savings Account Rates

HSBC Online Savings Bank Account : 4.50% APY
ING Direct : 4.30% APY
Emigrant Direct: 5.05%

I will update other Savings Account Interest Rates, as they make changes to the Interest Rate in coming weeks.

But, HSBC haven't changed the Online Payment Account APY and it still remains at 2.50%

New Blog is here : Happy Dollars

Finally after 2 months of learning with http://happyschools.blogspot.com/, I launching new Personal Finance Blog. I spend lot of time in reading Personal Finance blogs and learned useful stuff. So, I'm launching one on my own.

Unlike other Personal Finance Blogs, I'm not going to put my Networth or any personal money matters, but it will be more of education oriented blog. Like, what is 401(k), what options to elect when its comes to selecting car insurance, what personal finance tools are available and their review, personal finance books review.

I'm not going to spend lot of time in writing articles for this blog. As I learn new stuffs, I'm planning to pen them down here. Most of my time will be spent writing/researching for Happy Schools Blog http://happyschools.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your time in here.

Happy Learning from Happy Dollars.