kgirishraman[at]yahoo.com (Girish) wrote in message news:<315f25a5.0409172329.3e6e37fa[at]posting.google.com> ...
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there and know some of the management. The interest rates are high,
the features like bill pay are nice and the service is very good. To
your question about safety, up to 100K is FDIC insured.

One point about the foreign denominated CD's and depostis are that you
take the currency risk which can add to or subtract from your return
unlike a regular checking account or CD. Although they are also FDIC
insured, you can lose money due to change in currency fluctuations.

For that CD in question, however, you can think of that interest rate
as a buffer against a loss - the currencies would have to declien
4.16% before you lost money. On the flip side, if the currencies
rise, then your return would be in excess of the stated interest rate.
The key element is not the interest rate, but your view on a
particular currency. The interest rate is an important, but secondary
considertaion. Comparing rates on foreign demoninated CD's to US
dollar denominated CD's are not an apples to apples comparison.

It's a great day at Everbank!

Cant say much about EverBank , but ING certainly is a top notch
brand.
Did a 15 days trainging in ING Mutual Funds.. nice financial firm to
work with, with great market reputation.

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On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 22:18:41 CST, Mark Freeland wrote:

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This would be for long term savings (2-5 years). I thought the three
month CD would give me more flexibility, though.

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Thanks. It looks like both EverBank and ING have a 2 rating
("sound"). A 1 rating would be best ("Superior").

jt wrote:
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If one is investing in currency short term, one is making a wager on the
direction of currency movement. In that case, the exchange cost, though
significant, is substantially mitigated (or aggravated, if one wagers
incorrectly :-). On the other hand, if one is investing in currency
long term (to diversify cash across different economies/rate
curves/cycles), then the exchange cost is a small part of the total
return.

The poster was asking about a three month CD (the six month Commodity CD
pays a different rate than the 4.16% indicated), but it isn't clear
whether the intent was long or short term savings.

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Some additional data:
1) Bank loan funds have been around for 15 years, so the idea isn't
new.
http://issue.investmentnews.com/arti...ate=2004-07-19

However, Fidelity was the first to offer an open-end version, about 4
years ago (not quite a "new" fund).
http://news.morningstar.com/doc/news/0,2,8103,00.html

Until then, all funds were either closed end, or "continuously offered
closed end", meaning that you could buy shares at any time (continuously
offered), but could only redeem (sell) them periodically, e.g. every
month or every quarter.

2) Open-end versions of these funds may underperform their closed end
counterparts (whether "continuously offered", or exchange traded),
because they must invest in more liquid paper, and keep more cash on
hand, to be able to meet daily demands for redemptions.

The Morningstar article cited above points out that Fidelity's
prospectus allows it to invest heavily in money market securities for
this reason. While the article is a few years old, Fidelity's prospectus
still contains this provision.

One bright spot about open-end funds investing in more liquid securities
is that they are less likely to suffer from mispricing their portfolios,
which has caused some bank-loan funds problems in the past.

3) PIMCO recently started an open end bank loan fund, but it has had a
closed end bank loan fund for over a year, ticker PFL.
http://www.etfconnect.com/select/fun...sp?MFID=117370

The closed end fund has different manager than PIMCO's new open-end fund
(PFIDX for the class D shares), which I cannot explain.

4) Bank loan funds entail real risk.
"For one thing, bank loans court substantial credit risk."
http://news.morningstar.com/doc/arti...1,3391,00.html

"In 2000 and 2001, for example, the average bank-loan fund barely broke
even. ... Bank-loan funds typically recover just $0.70 to $0.80 on the
dollar when a loan defaults, but they may receive significantly less
depending on the issue."
http://news.morningstar.com/doc/news/0,2,87641,00.html

Bank loan funds can play a role in a portfolio, but they are no more a
"no brainer" than, say, stable value funds were. (Morningstar originally
classified each type as ultra short bond funds, despite major
differences between these categories and vanilla bond funds.) At least
bank loan funds have been around long enough (nearly two decades) for
one to look into how they react in different environments, and decide
whether the risk is worth it.

Finally, to address the original question:

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I haven't had personal experience with either bank, but even in the
'80s, when all the S&Ls were folding, the FDIC (actually the RTC, then)
was very efficient in covering the accounts quickly and efficiently.
So, up to $100K, I wouldn't worry.
http://www.docloan.com/loans/loan_te...orporation-Rtc

In case you are still concerned, you can look up bank's safety ratings
at:
http://origin.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp
--
Mark Freeland
nBeOwXs[at]pacbell.net

I believe Everbank will charge you 1.5% for the round trip currency
exchange, which can trim a major part of short term returns. Also
aren't those currencies in decline due to China's economy cooloff:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AUDU...=on&z=m&q=l&c=

If you are open to small fluctuations and non-insurance, an offbeat
approach would be to simply invest in one of the new bankloan mutual
funds such as in Pimco or Fidelity (ffrhx) giving better than 3%
interest. Rate raises may slightly nick the share value, but they
are set to recapture that quickly with higher yields.

You may have to let your investment age a month or so to allow
in and out transactions avoid short term redemption fees, but
it works out reasonably. Especially if you use tax software that
can automatically download transactions such as within Fidelity
and other major firms. Fidelity furthermore (maybe with minimum
balance) gives you a powerful money xfer/billpaying/debit card/
checking environment where it is similar to being in a bank.
Some money may have to sit in an intermediate cash acct with
low interest, but consider some of these brokerage alternatives.

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I can NOT in any way speak for EverBank, but can highly recommend ING.
I have been using them for quite a few years now, and find them to be
very accurate & dependable.
I transfer funds from ING to my local bank ONLY when I pay bills
on-line through my local bank. Works like a charm
Cal


"turtle" <turtle-sep-04[at]october.nulluser.com> wrote in message news:vvf3k0heb8kns2tcrblfa39h5h97bo87r4[at]4ax.com...
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Are ING Direct and EverBank reasonably safe banks to deal with? ING
Direct's regular savings account pays 2.2% interest, and EverBank has
a 3 month Commodity CD that pays 4.16% interest (held in Australian
dollars, New Zealand dollars, Canadian dollars, and South African
rands, but FDIC insured).