Community Banks Still Providing Top Interest Rates

Back in early September (before the really bad economic news started rolling in), I wrote about the excellent interest rates available at community banks.  Since that time there has been a lot of upheaval and change within the banking community.  A lot of that change relates to increased loan underwriting standards, making it more difficult to borrow money at the big banks, most of whom are stuck with bad balance sheets from bad loans.

Also, the personal finance blogosphere continues to give us a steady diet of this “deal” and that “deal” at the name brand online banks.  Unfortunately, those “deals” include shrinking interest rates.  So I thought I would take another quick look at interest rate deals at the community banks.  What I found is that there still plenty of comparatively better interest rates at many of your local brick and mortar banks.  Read more