I’ve had a Lending Club account for a year now and invest mostly in the high grade loan offers. So far I’ve had good success with no defaults. Unless you choose to invest in super risky loans, you are generally pretty safe in my opinion. It’s the same way with stock market investing. You can shoot for the sky and invest in penny stocks and hope to double or triple your investment in days, but you are risking everything. Likewise, you can stick with safer investments and earn a steady rate of return in time. That’s my approach with LC.

My LC rate of return averages around 7-7% APY based on my rough estimates. It’s not going to blow anyone’s socks off, but compared to online banks offering 1-2% APY these days, it’s quite impressive. You’re right its not FDIC insured the way banks are…but I think that’s why you can get higher rates with LC…it’s really a tradeoff.

It should be noted that clicking in Lending Club on this page or the review page takes you to their site with a code so they know you came from here. I suspect they are getting paid for referrals.

In my review of Capital One, the company’s existing banking features are more in depth than Chevy Chase but I preferred Chevy Chase’s community and localized customer service reputation. Hopefully, the management at Capital One will leave Chevy Chase’s pluses intact but port over their high online rate accounts. Chevy Chase Bank was notoriously terrible in terms of its rate offerings. .25% APY for a savings account…are you kidding me?

Capital One’s high yield savings accounts and money markets are decent, albeit a bit shabbier than others in the interest yield department. Capital One CD rates need to see some improvement as well

1 year classic CD’s are 2.80%,
Online savings accounts are 2.25%,
and free checking money market accounts are 1.90 % APY.

Of course, this is all assuming that Ally Bank, despite the name change, has overcome the problems of its former GMAC Bank self….let’s home it’s not another repeat of Washington Mutual, an online bank that pushed hard in the marketing arena but ultimately failed and went bankrupt (eventually getting bought out by Chase Bank).

But regardless, their high yield savings account rates are pretty good and so are their CD rates. Their best CD rates are pretty high compared to competing banks. Not only do they have classic CDs, they also have these new no penalty CD accounts that allow you to withdraw your money and put it anywhere without a fee! Right now the CDs with Ally are 2.50% APY. Check the CD and savings account rates out

But this just means you really can’t use the high interest checking accounts as your savings account equivalents for the long haul. Plus you never know where these interest rates are headed and they are likely to fluctuate or disappear as promotions are pulled.