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You might be aware of the fact that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) fairly recently changed its limits on the size of deposits that it will insure. Individuals are now allowed to have a quarter million dollars insured per bank, and married couples may cumulatively have five hundred thousand dollars. This is up from one hundred thousand dollars per individual and two hundred thousand dollars for married couples. This change is said to be to be temporary, but one tenet of the banking industry reform bill currently being considered in Congress would make it a permanent change.

People with their savings in certificates of deposit continue to lose money due to the record low rates that have been plaguing the market. As of last month, the national average rate for both CDs and money market accounts had bottomed out around one and a third percent – a record low for the last decade. Bankrate.com, a perennial rate watchdog site, noted that, in their analysis, yields on these types of investments have not been lower at any point in the last twenty-five years.

Average consumers tend to really like CDs. Certificates of deposit tend to be a form of saving that is widely understood, unlike some other kinds of bonds. They couple the coupon and maturity date aspect of savings bonds, but with a little less guesswork involved. The FDIC also guarantees CDs, which makes them very attractive to gun-shy investors. One could call CDs the “feel good” way of saving your money.

Seasoned investors know all about CD ladders. This is the term for what happens when consumers take advantage to great CD rates to create a “ladder” of investments through a mixture of short-term and long-term certificates. In truth, they are a little bit complicated of a concept for the average Joe to understand, and tough to create successfully on one’s own.

I personally don’t know anyone who isn’t thoroughly sick of those E*trade commercials by now. You know the ones I’m referring to – the ads with the talking baby. This digitally-assisted tot is preternaturally glib when it comes to financial matters, but banking experts are cautioning consumers that you definitely shouldn’t choose an online investment firm based on the relative cuteness of its mascot (which goes for car insurance, too, but that’s a story for another post).

Enjoy another installment of the Bantime Credit Card Encylopedia. Fall from relating solely to the business of credit cards, the encyclopedia also contains important information about mortgages, insurance, loans, and other forms of banking. Soak in the important financial knowledge, and enjoy!

Consumers continue to be quite disappointed by the rates on certificates of deposits. Industry trade site bankrate.com showed this week that across the country the average six-month CD rate was still a pathetic 1.4 percent. That means that, in some places, the rates are actually as low as half of one percent.

A banking division of GMAC is being taken to task for offering interest rates that are allegedly excessive in an effort to bring in new depositors. Ally Bank is a subsidiary of GMAC. GMAC, of course, was the dedicated financing division of (the now bankrupt) General Motors before being purchase in part by Cerberus Capital Management LP.

Slowly, surely, the United States is again becoming a nation of savers. The country learned the value of saving the hard way after the Great Depression of the 1930s, but our financial habits have been on a long, slow decline since then. The contemporary recession is seeing many consumers finally making the smart decisions to cut up their credit cards, stop blowing money on frivolous expenses, and set some cash aside for a rainy day.

Well, there’s some good news and some bad news about investing your money in certificates of deposit (CDs) these days. On one hand, you need not worry as much about the FDIC limits on your deposits. On the other hand, rates are still in the gutter. You win some, you lose some.