Low interest rates help those that are trying to buy a home or a new car, but they hurt anyone who has money to invest. With low interest rates being the norm for so long now, anyone who has to rely on interest income is in a very bad position as it looks like nothing will change for quite some time.

The people that are hurt by low interest rates are those people that like to invest in bank certificate of deposits (CDs) and other investment that are guaranteed by the government. Government bonds would also fall into that category. Seniors often have their money in this type of safe investment vehicle because they need to be guaranteed that they will not lose the money. In exchange for the low risk, they are willing to make less that they might be able to in the stock market. However, with rates so low right now, they are making practically nothing on their money.

The best CD interest rates might not be found at your local bank or even the bank in the city nearest you. The Internet and Internet banking have allowed people to search for the highest yields online and invest their money in places never thought of before. It used to be that you had few choices when buying bank CDs or money market accounts. You could walk in to any of the local city banks and see which ones had the best rates. That was it. Sometimes you might find a bank that was doing a promotion and giving a quarter or half point higher than all the other banks just to get the business.

By looking on the Internet you will be able to find banks that give the best rates and maybe even ones that have promotions for an extra quarter point or so. You need not worry that you might be sending your money to an institution that is in another state or even clear across the country. You will be able to electronically transfer the money to them and so it doesnt matter where the bank is physically located. However, take note that even the highest rates you will find online are still very low compared to a handful of year ago.

If you have a bank CD that is about to mature, there is something you should be aware of. If you let it automatically renew, you will not be given the best CD interest rates for your renewed CD. The bank will never tell you this but in order to get the highest rate they offer, you will have to go in to the bank, close out the maturing CD, and then open a new one. This is very inconvenient to have to do every time one of your CD’s matures but that is the only way you will get the best interest rate. You would think that your CD would automatically be renewed at the going highest rate but with most banks, this is not the case.