Comments for Planet Earth Cuts Interest Rates

Planet Earth Cuts Interest Rates

2008-10-09T05:10:46Z

Six central banks of the world did a coordinated interest rate cut to try to help the credit crisis. The group included the US and the European Central Bank. What does this mean for your wallet? It's possible, at some point, that you'll be able to get or renegotiate loans or mortgages to a better interest rate, and you're like to see saving account rates drop, but given the apocalyptic economic climate, don't count on it happening anytime soon.

[WSJ] (Photo: dboy)

Comment from Triterion on 2008-10-09

2008-10-10T02:35:57Z

ING just lowered their Orange Savings rate from 3.0% to 2.75 :( Well, at least it's still three times the national average! and they totally could have lowered it half a percentage point like the Fed just did.

Comment from Trai_Dep on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T21:39:46Z

@postnocomments: Brilliant. I demand that a t-shirt be made!
(For those America-haters, they can buy a version with a "?" after it)

Comment from KStrike155 on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T21:16:19Z

@mcdonaldave: I don't know where you got your figure from, but from what I understand it's around $1.3 trillion.

I could be wrong though.

Comment from postnocomments on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T21:08:46Z

The United States of America: too big to fail

Comment from pinkyracer on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T21:04:28Z

what makes me sick is that the only debt I have is my damn student loan. Since I'm in school and it's set by the fed gov annually, they won't let me negotiate a lower rate.

Any tips for getting a < 1% rate on a student loan?

Comment from EricLecarde on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T19:46:36Z

Wow... I should have waited to try and refi my 2 car loans now. My wife and I have perfect payment history with our car loans for the past year and a half.. we decided about a month ago to try and refi our car loans only to have them denied by our bank. Should I have only tried for one refi?

Comment from DWalk on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T19:20:51Z

If anyone has any experience as a farrier, atilliator or castellan, they are welcome to join me in my walled compound.

Comment from Jesse on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T19:12:09Z

@mightydarv:

Right now, 1 year CD's are paying about .5% above what some high yield savings accounts (HYSA) are. The Fed may still lower rates at subsequent meetings. They are relucatant to since low interest rates are inflationary for many reasons.

For the normal investor who has money parked in cash. unless you are talking about tens of thousands of dollars, it's not worth it in my opinion to tie a bunch of money up in 1 year CD's.

Comment from econobiker on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T19:06:58Z

"Six central banks of the world did a coordinated interest rate cut to try to help the credit crisis."

No posts about the one world order or illuminati yet? Amazing- and I had gotten my tinfoil hat all ready.

Comment from B on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T18:46:34Z

@mightydarv: CD rates will drop as well.

Comment from B on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T18:43:56Z

@Kaisum: They charge three klaatlus for "out of system" ATM withdrawals. It's a pain, but still better than dealing with Earth banks.

Comment from mightydarv on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T18:19:52Z

"and you're like to see saving account rates drop"
Showing my ignorance here a bit (hey, I'm new to the whole having/caring about things like this) but would this mean it's a better time to take some money from a current "high yield" savings and move it into things like shorter term CDs as a hedge? I have a little bit of savings that I need to be relatively liquid so I can't toss it into a 1 year CD, but I could move some if that's what we're looking at.

Comment from Kaisum on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T16:31:19Z

@B: And Earth friendly debit cards?

Comment from endless on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T09:37:49Z

i should call the people who did my loan....

Comment from zolielo on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T09:31:59Z

I have only seen loans negotiated lower when a government agency buys out an existing loan, basically taking it over, so that the realty can be used for public use. That is more of a governmental police power situation than anything else.

Comment from mcdonaldave on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T08:22:56Z

If the bailout didn't help us so far, the interest rate cuts aren't either. The only way we will be saved is when we decide to invest some money helping those under foreclosures and putting some money in education. Also did you guys know that all the bad mortgages / forclosures combined are only worth 150 billion dollars?! Why not just give them the money so we can "unfreeze" the economy!

Comment from dakotad555 on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T08:21:45Z

Has anyone actually been able to negotiate a lower interest rate on their existing mortgage? I've never heard of that working.

Comment from B on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T06:41:23Z

Well, I'm just glad my Glorxian bank still has a high interest rate.

Comment from Onouris on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T06:29:44Z

Mortgage rates already dropped here same day.

Comment from Jaynor on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T05:57:57Z

@GTI2.0:

My broker actually offered to do this for me as a free service if the rate went down a point (and it has).

Comment from Grrrrrrr, portrait of a chickenwolfmoosepig. on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T05:46:14Z

Closing the barn doors won't help if the horses have already escaped.

Comment from tcp100 on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T05:33:52Z

Ben, I take it you mean't coordinated interest rate cut, not hike.

It'll take a while for this to flow through to consumers - if at all. Rate cuts of this ilk, especially in the current situation, don't necessarily translate to any kind of direct change for consumers.

Comment from GTI2.0 on 2008-10-09

2008-10-09T05:28:50Z

It's possible that you'll be able to get or renegotiate loans or mortgages to a better interest rate

Has anyone had any luck *negotiating* a lower rate on a mortgage versus refinancing? This seems like an attractive option to get a few tenths of a percent shaved off versus dealing with a full-on refi.