Earn a competitive rate with Salem Five Direct's online savings account

By Elaine Griffin

Earn a competitive rate with Salem Five Direct's online savings account

The Salem Five Direct online savings account offers an annual percentage yield (APY) of 1.00 percent. This APY is current as of June 1, 2011, and on balances up to $100,000.

The eOne savings account requires no minimum fee and no minimum monthly balance to earn the APY. This account is available new savings customers only. Funds may not be on deposit with Salem Five and must be transferred from another bank.

Salem Five Cents Savings Bank, was established in 1885 and has been a member of the FDIC since January 1981. They are headquartered in Massachusetts. Salem Five Cents Savings Bank's online division, Salem Five Direct, offers the eOne checking and eOne savings accounts to customers nationwide.

Bank requirements:

• Open account online with at least $100
• Open to new savings customers - funds may not be on deposit with any Salem Five bank
• For more details, contact Salem Five Direct

Account benefits:

• Free account with no minimum monthly balance

1.00 percent APY on balances up to $100,000

By Elaine Griffin

Salem Five continues to offer three CD specials. Annual percentage yields (APY) for the specials are as follows: 1.10 percent APY on 14-month CDs, 1.50 percent APY on 24-month CDs, and 1.50 percent APY on 60-month CDs. Opening and earning the rates on these CDs requires a minimum of $10,000. Salem Five requires paperwork to open the account be postmarked by a specific date. Check their website for more details.

Salem Five Cents Savings Bank was established in 1885 and has been a member of the FDIC since January 1981. They are headquartered in Massachusetts. Salem Five provides banking services to customers locally and nationally.

Type of account: CD (Certificate of Deposit)

Bank requirements:

• $10,000 minimum to open and earn rate
• Penalties are imposed for early withdrawal
• For more details, please contact Salem Five Cents Savings Bank

Account benefits:

• Competitive annual percentage yields on 14, 24, and 60-month CDs

By Elaine Griffin

AloStar Bank of Commerce is in the process of acquiring Nexity Bank accounts. As of June 3, 2011, and according to an AloStar representative, while in this process, they are honoring Nexity Bank rates for new accounts. In addition, accounts are still available nationally.

One of the accounts with very competitive annual percentage yields (APY) is the CD account, and in particular, the 90-day, 6, and 12-month accounts. Opening a CD account requires a low $1,000 minimum deposit. Rates listed below are effective as of June 3, 2011.

Headquartered in Alabama, AloStar Bank of Commerce was established in and became a member of the FDIC in April 2011.

Type of account: CD (Certificate of Deposit)

Bank requirements:

• Open account online or in person with at least $1,000
• Early withdrawal penalty may apply

Account benefits:

• 0.81 percent APY on 90-day CDs
• 1.12 percent APY on 6-month CDs
• 1.31 percent APY on 12-month CDs

Contact AloStar Bank of Commerce for details on this offer.

By Jim Sloan

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, this offer expired and is no longer available.

For those just out of college or starting fresh, a break in the form of traveling to another state or country is usually near the top of wish lists. Finding ways to fund traveling however, can be a significant barrier to actually realizing this. If you're good with credit cards, though, a new promotion from Capitol One may be able to help you with your travel ticket.

Traveling in reach?

Capital One has rolled out a new Venture Rewards credit card promotion with a "Match My Miles" promotion that will match the number of miles you have accumulated on another airline credit card up to 100,000 miles.

You earn the additional 100,000 miles--the equivalent of $1,000--if you put at least $1,000 on the card in the first three months.

The offer is good for new Venture and Venture for Business primary account holders. Current Capital One cardholders who want to upgrade to the Venture Rewards card or swap their existing Capital One card will get the mile match if they get approved, said Sukhi Sahni, a senior communications manager with Capital One.

The company will continue the offer this until they've given away a billion miles or until May 13, 2011, whichever comes first--it's a first-come, first-served proposition.

Miles on top of miles: How does it work?

If you have airline miles on one of 13 airline credit cards currently on the market, Capital One will match

By Peter Andrew

I'm not expecting any sympathy, but it's not easy writing product reviews. That's because it's rarely possible to rank different features in a way that's meaningful to everyone.

Take televisions as an example. I badly need a new one, and recently started reading TV reviews. All I've discovered so far is that there isn't a perfect model, or certainly not one in my price range. One has a brilliant picture, but slightly lower sound quality, or vice versa. Another is great except for occasional motion blur during action sequences. Yet more are good, but ugly, and don't fit in with my living room decor. When I eventually come to make a choice, I'll have to decide which of these factors are most important to me personally.

And it's the same with credit cards. I can tell you all about the Chase Sapphire? credit card, but whether it's the best for you will depend on your individual needs and wants. What I can say for sure is that it is a good all-rounder, and that you should almost certainly include it on your list of potential cards.

Not for everyone

But let's begin by identifying those who should think carefully first before including it on their list of possibilities. If your credit score's going through a down patch, the chances of your application for a Chase Sapphire card being accepted are remote. This is a premium product that's reserved for those with great credit.

In...

By Jim Sloan

I never really paid much attention to the rewards programs offered by different credit card companies. I was raised to use credit cards only for emergencies and not for everyday use, so my sole criteria for getting a card was that the interest rate be as low as possible.

But then a friend of mine told me he was planning a trip to China, and was going to pay for his plane ticket through the rewards he was earning on his credit card.

"I'm paying for everything with my card," he said. "All my monthly bills - the rent, the groceries, the phone bill, everything. Then at the end of the month, I just write a check to the credit card company instead of eight or 10 checks to all these other places."

And it worked. After several months, my friend and his wife were able to get the tickets for next to nothing--all thanks to the judicious use of their credit card.

The fine print of rewards cards

Even if you're not planning a trip to China, this approach can work for anyone, provided you keep a few things in mind as you decide which rewards credit card programs works best for you:

• Rewards cards usually carry higher interest rates than non-rewards cards. That means if you're not paying off the balance every month, your interest payments will quickly exceed your rewards.
• Look for rewards that you'll use. The points you earn