A great personal finance tip that can help you save money is to always be aware of cheaper internet and telephone services. If you just settle with a certain company, you might be overpaying for their services without even knowing it. Being aware of other deals will insure you’ll get the best bang for your buck.

A simple piece of advice that is proven time after time to save money, is to avoid buying your groceries when you’re feeling hungry! Yes. it’s true! If you head to the grocery store when you’re hungry, you’ll buy a lot more food because you’re craving it. Furthermore, always make a list, and stick to it.

Start building up an emergency fund today. In an ideal world you should have at least three months, preferable six months, living expenses stored away. Put it in an easy access, high interest savings account. If you don’t have any money saved, remember that it is never too late to start saving.

Write all of your expenses down by category. For example, putting all utility bills in one category and credit card bills in another. This will help you get organized and prioritize your bills. This will also be helpful in finding what spending you should cut back on to save money.

A great personal finance tip that can help you save money is to sublet a room in your house that you aren’t using. If you have a spare room in your house that you aren’t using, you can make a good amount of money by subletting it to someone that’s interested.

When you are saving for an emergency fund, aim for at least three to six months worth of living expenses. This is not a large amount, considering the difficulty in finding employment if you ever lose your job. In fact, the larger the emergency fund, the better position you would be in to ride out any unforeseen financial catastrophes.

Savings Interest

To have long-term success in financial planning, consider debt investment opportunities. If you have a student loan at 2% interest but you can get a 2.75% savings rate in a bank account, it makes more financial sense in the long run to make the minimum monthly payments, while saving up a lump sum to pay it off entirely. Coversely, any debt with an interest rate higher than a savings interest rate should get priority.

Avail of the tips in this article to ensure that you are spending your money wisely! Even if you have found yourself in dire straits as a result of poor money management in the past, you can gradually get yourself out of trouble by applying simple tips like the ones that we have outlined.

Over the past month, since our last report, Short Term High Yield CD rates have all fallen, except for the 3 month rate, which remained the same, at a miserable 0.44%

Banks trimmed all other rates by chipping away at them a point at a time. The rates shown in the table to the right come from Ally Bank. Last month, on the day of our report, Ally Bank had trimmed five points off its 3 month CD rate, effective that day, 7/8/2011.

No other rates were affected at that time, but since then, other short term rates have been trimmed and adjusted downwards.

As reported last time, in April, the 3 year High Yield CD rate was 1.80%. At the end of May, it moved down by two points, dropping the APY to 1.78%. Then, just a few days later, it dropped to 1.75% and only a week later, to 1.74%, where it remains today.

The 5 year rate has now come down to 2.30%, effective Friday 8/5/2011.

Last month, we said “it is indicative that Banks see interest rates remaining low for some time to come.”

Now the US Debt Ceiling has been raised, but we believe Congress did a poor job. Democrats resisted spending cuts and Republicans resisted tax increases. Unfortunately, the President gave very little leadership, but plenty of finger-pointing throughout the process. The result was brinkmanship and a last-minute deal.

Unfortunately, the deal didn’t achieve what was really needed. The president and democrats blaming intransigence on the Tea Party Republicans has not helped.

Standard and Poors, the ratings agency, has lowered its rating of the USA from a perfect AAA down to AA+. The reason was that they were expecting a deficit reduction of $4trillion, but saw less than half of that. Some pundits say the president and democrats can even sidestep that. Standard and Poors were not impressed.

This downgrade in the rating will definitely have an effect on the cost of borrowing, so although this report shows rates that are correct today, look for changes in all rates starting in the next week, possibly even tomorrow, when markets open.

Cash investors should probably park cash or matured CD capital in a Money Market Account for a short time until rates are set later this week. The move ought to be up, which should please cash investors – any rise is better than the other direction.

Short term CD rates are moving lower again

Ally Bank just trimmed another five points off its 3 month CD rate, effective, 7/8/2011.

No other rates were affected at this time, but all rates have been slowly falling over the past three months. The 3 month APY was 0.54% in April, dropped to 0.49% at the beginning of June and is 0.44% today.

In April, the 3 year High Yield CD rate was 1.80% and at the end of May, it moved down by two points, dropping the APY to 1.78%

After the next cut, in June it was 1.75%. Then, the 2 year and 4 year, changed less. The 2 year eased down only by 0.01% and the 4 year by 0.02% in the same timeframe.

While other rates are falling, the 5 year rate, while lower too, only dropped by 0.1% in the past three months.

The 4 year rate, which was 2.05% in April, came down to 2.03% in June and is now 1.99%.

While these are only small changes it is indicative that Banks see interest rates remaining low for some time to come.

Cash investors should review their laddered holdings.

That rule, known as the  “final rule” redefined the “national rate” as a simple average of rates paid by U.S. depository institutions as calculated by the FDIC.

Here is a compilation of the current rates, adjusted on Tuesday, July 5th. There are two tables. The first is for deposits less than $100,000 and the second is for “Jumbo Deposits” over $100,000.

Non-Jumbo Deposits (< $100,000)

Jumbo Deposits (? $100,000)

The FDIC lists the following definitions for the columns above.

¹National rates are calculated based on a simple average of rates paid (uses annual percentage yield) by all insured depository institutions and branches for which data are available. Data used to calculate the national rates are gathered by RateWatch. Savings and interest checking account rates are based on the $2,500 product tier while money market and certificate of deposit are based on the $10,000 and $100,000 product tiers for non-jumbo and jumbo accounts, respectively. Account types and maturities published in these tables are those most commonly offered by the banks and branches for which we have data—no fewer than 49,000 locations and as many as 81,000 locations reported. The deposit rates of credit unions are not included in the calculation.

²The rate cap is determined by adding 75 basis points to the national rate. To determine conformance with the regulation, compare rates offered by the institution, based on size and maturity of the deposit, to the rate caps. For accounts less than $100,000 use the applicable rate cap under the non-jumbo column, and for accounts $100,000 and over, use the rate caps under the jumbo column. Interpolation should be used for deposits with maturities not listed above.

Delinquency rate is the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their bank-issued credit cards.

This delinquency rate is down almost 10 percent quarter over quarter (0.82 percent 4Q10) and down nearly 33 percent year over year (1.11 percent 1Q10). This is the lowest level reached since the third quarter of 1996 (0.76 percent).

In the first quarter of 2011, the average credit card debt per borrower (defined as the aggregate balance on all bank-issued credit cards for an individual bankcard borrower) fell by 5.8 percent to $4,679 from the previous quarter’s average of $4,965. This is the lowest average since the third quarter of 2000 ($4,695) and is markedly lower than the peak experienced during the recession ($5,776 1Q 2009).

For the fifth consecutive quarter, the national mortgage delinquency rate has dropped. There were rises in come states, but overall, the trend was lower.

In its Q1 2011 overview of U.S. consumer credit status, Transunion says the rate of borrowers who are 60 days or more past due, dropped to 6.19%.

Transunion says as housing prices showed further decline in the first quarter, mortgage delinquencies were expected to remain flat or slow in their decline. However, the Q1 2011 TransUnion data shows the mortgage delinquency rate improved more in this quarter (down 3.4 percent vs. Q4 2010) than it improved last quarter (down only 0.5 percent from Q3 2010).

The average national mortgage debt per borrower increased slightly, by 0.6% to $190,115. It was $189,046 in the previous quarter. When compared to the same quarter a year ago, the Q1 2011 average decreased by 1.4% over the Q1 2010 level of $192,774.

This is definitely not good for retirees, who park their savings in short to medium term CDs. Even though the short term rates are going up, inflation is running at 3% and the short-term rates are still less than half that.

Some Credit Unions have higher rates than banks. One, Connexus Credit Union in Wausau, Wisconsin is offering 1.75% for members with an active checking account. Connexus, with a 4-star health rating, has savings rates three times the national average.

Here are a selection of 12 month US CD rates, as at Monday 6th June.

This is one of those times you may wish you had funds overseas.

In Australia, Rabo Bank has rates around 6%

The 3 year rate now stands at1.75% APY. That number has been slowly falling over the past two months. In April, it was 1.80% and just last week, at the end of May, Ally trimmed it by two points, dropping the APY to 1.78%

After the cut, it stands at 1.75%, a drop of 0.05%, in contrast to the rates either side of it, the 2 year and 4 year, which changed less. The 2 year eased down only by 0.01% and the 4 year by 0.02% in the same timeframe.

Other rates are also falling, but the 5 year rate, while lower too, has only dropped by 0.1% in the past two months.

The 4 year rate, which was 2.05% in April, is now down to 2.03%.

Even short-terms rates are down. The 3 month APY was 0.54% in April and stands at 0.49% today.

While these are only small changes it is indicative that Ally Bank sees interest rates remaining for for some time to come.

Cash investors may want to review their laddered holdings.

If you want the highest CD interest rates for your savings dollars, check this table for the best current interest rates on certificate of deposit savings accounts and don’t be afraid to invest in the internet banks for an online CD account. The firms are just as safe as ordinary banks and your money is just as accessible.

With interest rates so low, there is a short list of options for your savings dollar. Our banking editors and rate reporters have put their heads together and come up with this short list of banking options. Naturally you’ll find that many of these banks are online internet banks, so it should be no problem setting up an account from any state as long as you have a computer connection.

Here’s our list of the best national savings account rates right now:

Tennessee Commerce Bank 1.50%
SmartyPig 1.35%
Salem Five Direct 1.25%
SFGI Direct 1.21%
American Express Bank FSB 1.15%
Clear Sky Accounts 1.15%
CNB Bank Direct 1.15%
Capital One Direct Banking 1.15%
Amboy Direct 1.10%
Sallie Mae Bank 1.10%
OneWest Bank 1.10%
WTDirect 1.01%
iGObanking 1.01%
Zions Bank 1.01%
Ally Bank 1.00%
FNBO Direct 1.00%
H&R Block Bank  1.00%
ING DIRECT 1.00%