Big banks seem to just get bigger and bigger...

Capital One Financial acquired North Fork Bancorp, and other large banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Commerce Bancorp, continue to build branches.

This is leading smaller local banks to lure new customers via their online banking.  Emigrant Savings is offering a 5% certificate of deposit that customers can lock in for anywhere from 18 months to ten years. It is offering this "My Way" CD through its emigrantdirect.com Web site, where it recently raised the interest rate on its prime savings account to 4.5%.

Online customer acquisitions has become a resource of new depositors for many smaller banks, and the highest yielding CDs are being offered online by such banks as Millennium Bank of Reston, Va., Corus Bank of Chicago, and M&T Bank Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y. HSBC offers the highest rate liquid savings account of 4.8%, but only via its Web site.

Regional banks have been competing to gather deposits and have been willing to pay for customers to park their money for years, not months. Their efforts have been hindered by the lack of a substantial difference between long-term and short-term interest rates, making it difficult to convince a depositor to deposit money for the longer term.

Free financial software to balance checkbook entries, or use the software as an electronic checkbook register.