SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Hot Line Provides Callers Top Deposit Rates in the Nation
It’s a rate-shopper’s dream: a 24-hour hot line that provides the top deposit rates in the nation.
Whether you have $100 that you want to put into a 30-day account or $100,000 you want to sock away for five years, an Irvine company has devised a way to provide consumers with daily interest rate information on insured savings accounts.
A month ago, InvestorNet International Inc., which has provided a telephone service for four years on jumbo certificates of deposit, started collecting rates on smaller CD accounts at 500 banks, savings and loans and thrift and loans nationwide.
It places the information on its computerized 900-line telephone service by 10 a.m. every day, said Kim Panici, general manager of InvestorNet. Consumers punch in the terms they’re seeking and get the names, addresses and telephone numbers to the five institutions offering the top rates.
“There’s no other phone service that I know of for the consumer market,” Panici said. “It was tried in New York but failed. Other services put their rates in newsletters, but the published ones are outdated by the time they hit the street.”
InvestorNet also weeds out the failed and failing institutions by checking their financial conditions as reported to regulators, she said.
California is the most competitive market, she said. InvestorNet’s list includes 150 California banks, S&Ls; and thrift and loans.
For those institutions with high rates, a reference from InvestorNet can mean a sudden influx of deposits. The day after a local television broadcast last week described the rate service, Plaza Savings & Loan in Santa Ana picked up $1.2 million in deposits. Plaza offered the nation’s highest rate--7.2%--on a one-year, $25,000 CD. Panici said a 6.75% rate is considered high today.
The number--900-454-RATE-- costs consumers $2 a minute. The average call costs $5, Panici said, and InvestorNet collects about 67% of the fee. So far, the company has been getting 25 to 50 calls a day but it has high hopes of generating more revenue.
