MoneyAisle Review – Best High Yield Savings and CD Rates

By Pinyo, on December 14, 2008

I recently came across a web site called MoneyAisle. It’s an online auction marketplace where you find the best certificate of deposit rates, as well as the best interest rates for high yield savings accounts. The system works by having banks actively bid against each other in live auctions. And this is absolutely free for you to use.

The Sign Up Process

Signing up with MoneyAisle was easy with only a few questions asked: username, password, email, security question/answer, security code, etc. A moment later, you’ll receive a verification email. And you complete the registration process simply by clicking on the link.

Finding The Best CD Rates

My first test is the Bank CD rates auction. I looked for $2,500 12-month (or comparable) CDs in NYC 11372 area. After the system go through the auction, this is the result I got.

The Live Auction Screen

cd-live-acution

The CD Comparison Results Screen

cd-comparison-result

The best rate for a 12 months CD was 3.79% APY. And here is the bottom part of the screen that shows individual offers.

cd-bank-offers

The Winning Bank Application Screen

cd-auction-winner

The winning bank was Northpointe with asset size of $291M and located in Michigan. Although I have not heard of the bank before, the assurance I have is that all participating banks are FDIC insured. At the bottom of this page is a short application where you’ll enter your information and accept the bid. This is a quote from the page:

By clicking “Accept Bid”, you certify that the information you provided is valid and that you intend to open an account with the bank in the amount you proposed during your auction. If you are not ready to proceed with this offer, please choose “Decline Bid.” You can always visit us again and run another auction later.

Once this is done, a representative from the winning bank will contact you to finalize your application process.

Reality Check

I want to see if I can find a better CD rate on my own so I went to Bankrate.com and used their CD search tool. Bankrate.com suggests GMAC Bank in Midvale, UT that offers 4.10% APY — handily beating Northpointe.

Finding The Best High Yield Savings Rates

Next I tried the high yield savings rates auction tool and searched for $2,500 high yield savings account in NYC 11372 area. This time, the winner was First Trade Union Bank who offers 3.70% APY. Similarly, I checked Bankrate.com and the best offer was OnBank in Oakfield, NY who offers 3.60% APY.

This time MoneyAisle result was better than Bankrate.com.

The Verdict

In summary, MoneyAisle offers a more customized search result specific to your investment amount and location. Although MoneyAisle may not offer the best price all the time, I believe it will continue to improve as more banks participate. And because it’s complete free and very easy to use, it’s definitely worth signing up with MoneyAisle to find the best rates for your CDs and/or high yield savings account. As a check, your next step should be Bankrate.com to make sure you’re not leaving any stone unturned.

Go ahead and check out MoneyAisle today and let me know what you think.

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Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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7 Comments

Steve
December 15, 2008, 15:51

I personally like Bank Rate’s information better, since it seems a bit easier to use and access. But I may just be resistant to change
Mikala
December 15, 2008, 15:29

I like their website but I always get higher rates for the accounts if I use bankrate.com or money-rates.com. Maybe they need more banks in their system
poor boomer
December 17, 2008, 2:12

I never regarded the West Michigan market as especially popular.
KCDesi
December 17, 2008, 12:56

Hello Pinyo

In grand scheme of things even a difference of 0.25% APY for 5000 dollars means just $12.50 for the whole year. That is under 10.00 after taxes.

Is it worth the hassle to keep CDs at very many different banks and keeping track of them individually ? I personally didnt think so and keeping my accounts with ING.

KCDesi
Pinyo
December 17, 2008, 13:17

@Mikala – It probably needs more participating bank, but it doesn’t hurt to look here either. Just another resource that you can use to shop around.

@KCDesi – No, I don’t advocate having your accounts everywhere. But it wouldn’t hurt to shop around and occasionally move to a bank that offers the best rate.
Dan
December 18, 2008, 19:58

Can anyone find CD rates above 3.5% for a 6 month CD. I have ran my criteria through moneyaisle dozens of times but can’t seem to achieve better. Looks like bankrate still offers better rates…

BankVibe.com is also undergoing an extensive review of moneyaisle.com. From their research it seems that you get pretty consistent rates regardless of where you reside (again unlike bankrate).
Gamma Ray
September 21, 2009, 1:24

all that fancy graphics and real time auction talk doesn’t give a better rate than what’s already available at any rate listing sites like bankrate.com. In addition, requires you to register to see the name of the bank. not sure what the fuss is about.

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