Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fdic

Financial Advice for Dummies.

ElmerFishpaw — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:15:17 -0800

This has my parents spooked. Tell me how to ease their financial fears. I guess what was supposed to be safe ("FDIC Insured") is no longer so safe in their eyes. Are they right? They have pretty much their entire savings in an ING savings account and are way spooked. Can you link me to something saying ING is safe and FDIC insured means "Youre all good Mom, dont worry."?

Unless, of course their fears are actually valid. Then what should they do? What should any of us do?!

How do I check the 'health' of my brokerage?

random1destiny — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:58:36 -0800

How can I find out the health of my investment brokerage (like Fidelity.com, E-Trade, etc)? Can brokerages even crash and lose my money like in a bank failure? Much public focus has been placed on having a bank fail and people not getting their money. I know that in the case of banks, the money is covered up to 100,000 of FDIC coverage and there are sites to look up the health of your bank like http://www.bauerfinancial.com which give banks star ratings based on their current financial stability.

However, what if you have your money in stocks/mutual funds in a place like Fidelity.com or E-Trade? Can these places fail and not be able to pay you back? Are there places that rate how safe/healthy these institutions are?

FDIC and Corporate accounts

readery — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:24:57 -0800

How do corporations deal with the FDIC insurance guidelines? Do corporations with large payrolls keep a payroll account at a different bank? Are businesses holding large amounts of cash moving accounts around now, looking for good stable banks? How are escrow accounts dealt with?

Safest banks for my down payment?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:56:23 -0800

I recently sold my house and got a significant chunk of money which I will be using for my next down payment. It's over the FDIC limit. With all the turmoil going on, I'm looking for suggestions of either a) good, solid FDIC-insured banks to open accounts in, or b) reliable, up-to-date sources of information on bank soundness that are understandable by ordinary folk. Details: I do not know exactly when I will be buying a house - it could be three months, it could be a year. All of the down payment money right now is in ING Direct savings accounts, as part of a revocable living trust. I need to protect between $300K and $400K.

I have banking relationships with USAA and WaMu already as well as ING. I'm not that keen to put anything more into WaMu until the dust settles on who they've raffled themselves off to. So I need two more $100K allowances. I would also like to get as good an interest rate as I can without locking myself into a CD.

Bonus points for having branches in the Berkeley area, for not aggressively pushing a bazillion other products once they've got my cash, and for being able to turn things around very fast when it's time to buy. (Even in this real estate market, houses around here close escrow quickly.)

So what are the best banks for me, or the best ways to find them? I've looked at bankrate.com; how accurate are their ratings?

Risk Balance with CDs/FDIC

raz5 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:19:32 -0800

What are the logistics of CDs at a bank that gets taken over by the FDIC? If I'm looking to put money into CDs, the best rates out there are obviously with the banks in desperate need of cash (WAMU, Indymac pre-blowup, etc.). I know that deposits and CDs are insured up to the FDIC 100k limit...what I'm wondering is what the template is in the following situation:

Say I invest 50K tomorrow in a 3 year CD at a great rate, and in two months the bank gets taken over by the FDIC. What happens then? Do I get my CD paid back in full w/accrued interest immediately as of the takeover date? Does the bank continue to function, and my CD gets paid normally by the government as if nothing happened? Somewhere in between?

Thanks!

How are solely owned corporations classified for FDIC insurance purposes?

sharkfu — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:48:19 -0800

FDIC Bank Coverage filter: I am the sole owner and president of a corporation. If I do my personal banking at the same bank as my corporate accounts are both accounts covered by the FDIC insurance or is just one covered as I am technically "one depositor"? My guess would be that I am one depositor and the corporation is a separate different depositor (which happens to be owned by me) but I wouldn't want to run into a legal snafu if my bank happened to fail and the FDIC saw things differently.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Help me pick safer banks?

weston — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:27:04 -0800

Choosing a safe(r) bank? I've been using WaMu as my primary checking/savings for years. There's lots of noise about them being on the list institutions vulnerable to failure. My secondary regional bank also just got downgraded to one step above junk. I'm happy the FDIC is there, but as a freelancer, I think it'd be especially bad to have my deposits locked up for a while. So, where and how should I be looking? I also have accounts at some regional credit unions. I've considered moving there, because my vague impression (based on talking to them as a potential mortgage customer during the housing bubble) is that they went less insane than other institutions.

However, I'm not really sure I want to be making decisions on vague impressions, and it would be highly convenient to have money in at least one national institution.

I've been to BankRate.com. It's giving me high ratings for both WaMu and my other regional bank when I know their credit ratings have recently been downgraded. Does this mean I don't understand the Safe & Sound CAEL Rating, or that I don't understand the major credit ratings? Or does it mean they're on outdated or incorrect information?

Are there indicators I should be looking at beside ratings? For example, I've also heard that highly active participation in Credit Default Swaps is a strong indicator of potential trouble...

Lastly... am I overthinking this bank of beans? Is simply dividing my deposits over 3-4 institutions most likely to get me the most reduction in risk for the amount of time I might invest in research and understanding?

Thanks!

Which 117 problem banks?

jaimev — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:25:38 -0800

I saw a news blurb recently that said..."FDIC sees 117 problem banks; most since 2003...". Do they make this list public? I've searched the FDIC site and googled, but no luck.

How likely is MY bank to fail in the coming months?

croutonsupafreak — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:11:52 -0800

How can I evaluate the financial health of a US bank using publicly available records? I know that I'm being paranoid, but the news that the failure of a single US bank could wipe out 10 percent of FDIC's deposit-insurance fund, and that more banks are expected to fail in the coming year, has me worried about the safety of my heard-earned dollars.

I'd like to get a feel for which banks have the most exposure to subprime loans and financial shortfalls because of the housing downturn. Not sure if there's anything else I should consider as I begin my research. How do I begin?

Does reaching the FDIC limit matter?

unreason — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:44:52 -0800

Does being over the FDIC $100,000 for your savings account really mean anything or signal any kind of financial danger? I have a safe, conservative FDIC insured money-market savings account. It's with a fairly safe, reliable bank (PNC). I just noticed that my balance is approaching the $100,000 FDIC limit. Does this mean anything? Are there realistic scenerios where I might actually lose some of my money? I'm very conservative financially, and I really don't like risks. Should I be worried? If so, is there something I should do?