Alliant Credit Union

[desitechie]

I'm thinking of opening savings account with Alliant, currently pays 2% APY.

Money saved is money earned!!!

Does anyone have accounts with them? If yes, can you tell the experiences - good or bad with them?

Thanks

[sprash]

Well there are plenty of Credit Unions who offer better rates if you do a little dance for them. They offer high interest checking accounts if you do x number of debit transaction and 1 ACH (direct deposit) etc. I have accounts with 2 such CUs (ADvantis & Oregon Community CU) which give me 3.0 & 2.9% respectively.

I'd rather use those debit cards that give me a good interest rate on my SAVINGS than credit cards (like chase) who give me 2-3% on my SPENDING.

[thomachan72]

3% seems very good.
Also if you can set aside some money for >3 years, putting it in an NRO term deposit is also pretty good. Now they range around 7.5 to 8%. You can repatriate the interest income after due taxes are paid.

[smisachu]

For the more sophisticated types, you can do a carry trade by shorting USD in the Fx markets and putting the proceeds in a Brazilian short term bond which yields 9.5%. Everbank in Nevada issues a Brazilian bond by an AAA rated German bank. Not government backed debt but the underlying instruments are all government bonds.

The net of transaction costs is a yield pick up of about 7.5% and your money invested is Zero. Of course there is no such as a free lunch and you need to have accounts with the ability to seamlessly trade Fx and other instruments. Plus you will have the risk of default on your shoulders.

-Cheers