The bank, which has 20 branches in North Carolina, continues to pay 2.00% APY, with no minimum balance, through its Readysaver.com Web site.

That’s considerably better than the 0.15% APY Southern Community is offering on savings accounts through its own site or branches.

Returns on the next four, top-paying savings accounts range from 1.70% APY to 1.50% APY, with minimum initial deposits as low as $1 and as high as $25,000.

To qualify, you must buy a certificate of deposit from its iGObanking online bank, through a special GiftsforBanking.com Web site.

The best choices are 24-month CD at 1.90% APY or a 60-month CD at 3.15% APY, which are close enough to the best nationally available rates to be worth considering.

The array of gifts (including this nifty grill) is the best we’ve seen since Irwin National Bank gave away HDTVs last summer.

It’s nearly as good as what we found in November, when average mortgage rates plunged to new record lows and loans were available for less than 5% in every single city we surveyed.

By any historical standard, a 30-year, fixed-rate loan that costs less than 6.5% is a good deal. That makes today’s rates nothing short of spectacular.

The downside is that you can’t open an account online. You have to call the bank at (800) 322-8233 and a representative will explain how to buy a certificate of deposit by mail.

But Country Bank has been at or near the top of our rankings for almost six months and we haven’t heard a word of complaint about the bank’s customer service.

Four other banks are offering 1.40% APY to savers in all 50 states. They are:

The Jacksonville Bank, which has five locations in northeast Florida and requires a $1,000 minimum deposit.

AmTrust Direct, whose parent company was seized by the FDIC in December and sold to New York Community Bank. It requires a $1,000 minimum deposit.

Earthstar Bank, with four branches in Philadelphia, requires a minimum deposit of $500 in new money to earn this rate.

The Palladian Private Bank, a division of The PrivateBank and Trust Co. , with 34 locations in 10 Midwestern states. A $10,000 minimum is required.

Those rates are more than four times the national average for returns on 6-month CDs, which has fallen to a record low 0.33% APY this month.

Click on our CD calculator to find the return on any certificate of deposit, regardless of size, interest rate or term.

But for the past year the Federal Reserve has been providing commercial banks with an almost limitless supply of free money in the hope that they’ll make lots of new loans and help boost the economy out of the recession.

Yet the banks are extending precious little credit to consumers. To small businesses. To anyone.

Could it be that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has pushed conventional economic wisdom too far by driving interest rates too low?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.

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That’s the sorry story of our latest rankings of the best, nationally available 24-month CD rates.

In November our top-paying banks were offering 2-year certificates of deposit for 2.60% to 2.55% APY and you only needed a $1,000 minimum deposit to qualify for the top rate.

This month you’ll earn 2.50% to 2.30% APY and need a whopping $50,000 to qualify for the top rate.

Although that’s still twice as much as you can make with the typical 2-year CD, it’s not saying much. The average rate on these CDs plunged to a record low of 1.26% APY last week.

The best, nationally available deals on 24-month CDs are:

2.50% APY with a minimum deposit of $50,000 for “Silver CDs” from Frontier Bank, which has 50 branches in Washington and Oregon. You can also earn 2.45% with a $25,000 minimum deposit and 2.40% with a $500 minimum deposit.

2.40 APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000 from The Jacksonville Bank, with five locations in that Florida city.

2.40 APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000 from Atlantic Coast Bank, with 12 full-service branches in southeast Georgia and northeast Florida.

2.30 APY with a $5,000 minimum from Hudson City Bank with dozens of branches in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. If you live near a Hudson City branch the minimum deposit is only $500.

Click here to compare these offers with the best CD rates from dozens of other banks in our database.

Related Posts:Frontier Alone At Top Of 2-Year CD RatesBest 24-Month CD Rates Jump to 2.60%Best 24-Month CD Rates Hold At 2.50%Hudson City Rockets Up CD Rate RankingsOne Bank Still Pays 3% On 3-Year CDs

But never knowing what might be eligible for that hefty rebate a few months down the road aggravated more than a few Discover More cardholders.

Now Discover is publishing a calendar of future offers on the Web page where you must sign-up in advance to qualify for each bonus.

Here’s where and when you can earn the 5% rebate on purchases at grocery stores, hotels, movie theaters and lots of other places during the first nine months of 2010.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.

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The Fed’s rate-setting committee renewed its pledge to keep interest rates artificially depressed for an “extended period” to ensure a strong economic recovery.

The committee acknowledged the economy has “continued to pick up” and that “deterioration in the labor market is abating” since employers are laying fewer workers off this fall.

But the Fed said it would continue to boost growth and job creation by charging commercial banks 0% to 0.25% for overnight loans.

As long as the government-controlled Fed provides commercial banks all the money they need for virtually nothing, those banks can pay a pittance for our savings.

No wonder four of the five certificates of deposit we follow fell to new record lows in Bankrate’s Dec. 16 survey of large banks and thrifts. The average annual yield for a:

3-month CD fell to 0.37% from 0.38% this week. That’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 3-month CD rates in March 1989.

6-month CD fell to 0.51% from 0.52% — the lowest average since the survey began tracking 6-month CD rates in January 1984.

1-year CD fell to 0.82% from 0.83% — the lowest average since the survey began tracking 12-month CD rates in October 1983.

2-year CD fell to 1.26% from 1.28% — the lowest average since the survey began tracking 24-month CD rates in March 1989.

5-year CD held at 2.08% after falling for four straight weeks. The 2.08% is the lowest average rate since the survey began tracking 60-month CDs in January 1984.

With average rates like this you can’t settle for average returns.

Use our database of CD rates to find and compare the best deals from scores of banks.

Related Posts:No Bottom In Sight For CD Rates2-Year CD Rates Last To Hit Record Low5-Year CD Rates Set Miserly RecordCD Rates Hit New Lows This WeekCD Rates Reach Record Lows This Week

The average 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, a popular term for refinancing, is 4.46% APR — more than a half-point less than the average cost of a 30-year mortgage.

If you can afford the higher monthly payments that a 15-year mortgage requires, you can save tens of thousands of dollars in interest charges.

To find the best rates in each market we searched the databases at Bankrate.com and Interest.com.

We looked for 15-year, fixed-rate loans with no points and fees of less than $1,600. We think this is a great mortgage for homeowners looking to refinance.

The best deals we found were:

Baltimore: 4.375% with fees of $1,595 from The Money Store

Boston: 4.25% with fees of $695 from Total Mortgages Services

Chicago: 4.375% with fees of $1,440 from PERL Mortgage

Cinncinati: 4.25% with fees of $1,505 from Capital First Home Loans

Kansas City, Mo.: 4.375% with fees of $210 from

Mutual Savings Assn., FSA

Los Angeles: 4.125% with fees of $1,1371 from

Amerimac Plaza West Financial .

New Orleans: 4.5% with $0 in fees from Amerisave Mortgage Corp.

New York Metro: 4.25% with fees of $670 from Mortgage Capital Associates.

To download of is:http://www.rszip.com/ and http://www.dl4all.com/

The fine print: These mortgage rates are for conforming loans (less than $417,000), and for borrowers with credit scores of at least 700. For scores from 680 to 699, you’ll usually pay higher fees, up to 1% of the loan value, or a higher rate.

Related Posts:Best Mortgages Still As Low As 5.25%Top Mortgage Rates Fall Back Toward 5%4.875%, 30-Year, Fixed-Rate MortgagesMost Mortgage Rates Steady To LowerMortgages For 4.875% With No Points

Therefore, if you want to drive significant mobile usage, there are a number of steps to take (see note 1). But one of the most important is user education, especially through online information, screenshots, and demos. 

Citibank recently elevated general smartphone awareness to its homepage (see first screenshot below). Yesterday, the bank was rotating an “Introducing CitiMobile for Smartphone” banner across the top of the homepage. The banner led to an educational page (see second screenshot, note 2), that led to clear instructions on how to bank via a mobile browser:

• Open browser
• Go to citi.com (note 3)
• Log in using your same online banking credentials

While brevity is admirable, I think customers need a little more info than that. For a non-user, the process sounds almost too good to be true. The bank should elaborate on some key questions such as:

• Is it secure?
• What does it cost?
• Does it work on my phone?
• What if I lose my phone?

Luckily, interested users can go to the well-designed demo that takes users through a semi-guided tour of the mobile banking functions. The Flash-based demo is partially interactive, allowing users to click buttons on a smartphone emulator (see third screenshot). After clicking on a new function, the demo takes over, completing the data entry and going forward to the next screen. Check it out here. 

Citibank homepage (9 Sep 09)

Citi Mobile for Smartphones landing page (link)

Citibank mobile demo with interactive emulator

Notes:
1. For more info, see Online Banking Report on Mobile Banking (Feb 2007) and Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking via iPhone (Mar 2009)
2. The bank has separate pages for: Citi Mobile for iPhone and Citi Mobile for Other Models
3. Citi still has some work to do on optimizing the mobile Web experience. I navigated via my iPhone to its homepage (see inset) which looks terrible: The page is rendered impossibly tiny (requiring finger zooming), and because the two Flash-based animations don’t work on iPhones, the top of the page is dominated by two empty boxes.