As a mortgage planner I am always looking at ways to save my clients money. Being in the thick of mortgage refinancing and purchases right now, I find that many of my prospective clients haven’t taken the time to analyze their entire financial picture. They are fixated on getting the best mortgage rate on their loan but don’t seem to care that they are paying 15% on their credit debt, and are earning less than a 1% on their cash in the bank.

With consumer spending slowing and the economy still in teetering on the brink of who knows what, even the smallest of savings add up over time. Amazingly people are still willing to make nothing in return for banks holding their money. Well don’t despair – you have options! 

Granted, when ever we look at transferring money from one account to another, or calculate the cost of that new refinance, we want to make sure the future gains are worth our time and money. Because of my obsession with mortgage planning I have found another tool I want to share with my clients that I read about in Money Magazine. Did you know that banks will occasionally offer better rates than their published deals?

Here is how it works – go to this website MoneyAisle.Com and choose between CDs and savings accounts then enter your state and the amount of money you would like to deposit. Then sit back and watch the banks bid for your business. When I first started using this site over a year ago, there was no sign-up required. That has changed since then and you now have to give them your name and email address to play. All of the participating banks are FDIC insured and MoneyAisle works with an independent consultant to weed out the unstable banks.

My situation – I am a big fan of the ING Orange Savings account online. I have a few rental units and like to take my positive cash flow and have it automatically deposited into my ING Savings account. It was up to 4.5% in mid 2007 then fell to 2.2% with the slide in early 2009, and now is just over 1%. With a national average at .17%, I thought I was doing pretty well until MoneyAisle just told me I can get a return of 1.45% from its highest bidding bank. Every penny counts! 

Again, I always warn my clients to do their due diligence and see if the cost of this transfer is worth your time and money. If you want any help running the numbers let me know! I love this stuff.