WAMU – Up For Sale?
The husband told me something interesting about the election so I head to Atrios’ blog to check it out. Didn’t find that but I did see that WAMU might be shopping around for buyers. After the Dow lost 1000 points in 2 days and Merrill Lynch reported bankruptcy filings, I have to say I am *shocked* to hear WAMU is having troubles.
If the FDIC takes over WAMU, who will take over the FDIC when they go broke?
The good news is the husband put all of our 401k money in treasury bonds months ago which are now sky high.
When To Not Discuss Finances
The husband approached me this morning talking about the CD rates at WAMU as I was pouring my first cup of coffee. He asked me if I had any extra money in savings because WAMU was offering such great rates on Certificates of Deposit. My response? Wait until the coffee has kicked in.
For the record, WAMU is offering CDs at the following rates in my area:
Terms (Months) Interest Rate2 Annual Percentage Yield (APY)3
6 1.98% 2.00%
8 4.17% 4.25%
12 4.89% 5.00%
13 4.89% 5.00%
18 3.93% 4.00%
24 3.93% 4.00%
36 3.93% 4.00%
48 4.07% 4.15%
60 4.41% 4.50%
I am not interested in tying up that much money for 12 months, if it was 6 months maybe but for 12 months no.
Paying Wamu Credit Card in Cash
Wamu’s credit card FAQ tells of ways to pay our credit card online but I didn’t see a way to pay at a branch in cash. So I email the good people at Wamu to ask about paying cash at a local branch.
It can take up to 24 days to be posted to your account!
The powers that be at Wamu really don’t want cash. You would think with the latest news that their credit is downgraded, they would welcome a little cash.
Wamu Sent Me Blank Checks
Spending spree, right? The checks are attached to my credit card #2 that currently carries a balance of $1909 and some change. The current balance is at 0% from a balance transfer husband made from his AMEX card. At the end of the year the APR goes up to 19% so we have to pay it off before then. The checks promise an APR of 1.9% until November followed by a rate of 16.99% plus prime rate (so around 22.99%). If we balance transferred more from the AMEX card, we might save a little on interest but I am not sure it is worth it. -Wamu also tacks on a balance transfer fee of 3%. Yup, I read the small print.
Tomorrow I will crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense to transfer to the Wamu credit card. Currently I lean towards not.
