It’s been more than a month since the best 12-month CD rates fell below 2%.

Now there’s only one bank still paying 1.90% APY — Doral Bank Direct with a $1,000 minimum deposit.

That’s the online operation of Doral Financial Corp., which is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has 40 branches across the island.

The other top rates for nationally available 12-month certificates of deposit are:

1.80% APY with a $10,000 minimum deposit from Golf Savings Bank, which has 38 branches in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

1.70% APY with a $1,000 minimum deposit from Fortune Bank, which has a single location in Arnold, Mo., southwest of St. Louis.

1.70% APY with a $2,500 minimum deposit from Tennessee Commerce Bank which has one branch in Franklin, Tenn.

The average return on these popular CDs has been slashed in half over the past year — from 1.49% at the end of February 2009 to 0.74% at the beginning of March.

Use our database of CD rates to find and compare the best deals from scores of banks.

Click here to see how much you can earn with these rates using our CD calculator.

When you bid on a home, you usually open negotiations with a deliberately low offer.

Short sales are different.

Lenders must approve any deal that allows a home to be sold for less than what’s owed on the mortgage, and it can take weeks, sometimes months, for them to evaluate and approve (or reject) each offer.

That makes it tough to do a lot of dickering.

Here’s how to make sure your first bid is a realistic offer with a good chance of being accepted.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.

We’d have thought this scheme to sell annuities to desperate savers would have run its course by now.

But insurance agents are still advertising extraordinary CD rates to lure customers through the door.

The come-on continues to work much like it did when we first wrote about “CD Rates Too Good To Be True” in June.

We can’t blame anyone for wanting to earn 2.90% on a 12-month CD when the best nationally available rate is less than 2%. Just check out that post before responding to one of these ads.

Two weeks ago we updated the best savings account rates because three of the top five banks in our previous rankings lowered their rates.

We have to update again. But this time we found a great savings rate for residents of every state except North Carolina.

Southern Community Bank and Trust, located in Winston-Salem, N.C. with more than 20 branches throughout the state, pays a top rate of 2.00% APY (that’s right) on savings accounts that require no minimum balance and charge no fees.

The other top nationally available savings rates are:

1.75% APY with a $25,000 minimum deposit from Franklin Synergy Bank, which has two branches in Franklin, Tenn.

1.60% APY with no minimum deposit or balanced required from balance from Newtown Savings Bank, which has multiple branches in Southwestern Connecticut.

1.55% APY with a $10,000 minimum deposit from The Palladian Private Bank, which is based in Chicago and has 34 locations in 10 states.

1.51% APY with a $1,500 minimum deposit from EverBank, based in Jacksonville, Fla.

Most money markets currently pay less than savings accounts, with one notable exception: the Mega Money Market Account pays 2.00% APY and is available from three jointly owned banks in Oklahoma.

Click here to see how much you can earn with these rates using our certificate of deposit calculator.

“Let’s see if we can soothe some of the anxiety out there about converting traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs this year.

It’s a good move for younger savers who are a long way from retirement and might well expect to be making more in retirement than they are in their late ’20s or early 30s.

It’s not a good move for savers in their 40s and 50s who are closer to retirement, have reached their peak earning years, and will almost certainly see their income drop after they retire.

Follow those simple guidelines and you’ll stand a good chance of minimizing your tax bill and maximizing your balance for these retirement accounts.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.

SunTrust Banks, based in Atlanta, Ga., makes it incredibly easy to earn $150.

All you have to do is open a checking account and use it to pay your bills online.

You probably do that anyway.

This offer is for new customers that did not have a relationship with SunTrust prior to Jan. 31, 2010. It ends April 30, 2010.

If you opened a checking account after Jan. 31, you can still register your account and be eligible for the bonus.

Here’s the deal:

You open a registered personal checking account and pay three bills online within the first two months after opening and SunTrust will deposit $50 into your account (it could take up to 10 weeks for that to happen).

Continue making three online payments each month for three consecutive months and an additional $100 will be direct deposited into your account with the same 10-week caveat.

That’s it! $150 for paying your bills.

To get started go to the SunTrust Web site and send in your email address. They will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to complete the application and start earning your bonus.

SunTrust has 1,690 retail branches in Washington, D.C. and 11 states in the Southeastern part of the country. This offer, however, is available to residents of all 50 states.

The highest available CD rates on 24-month certificates of deposit have fallen for the fourth straight month.

Today’s top rate of 2.30% APY is the result of steady declines beginning with 2.60% in November to 2.50% in December to 2.40% in January — and now this.

And Hudson City Bank is the only one ranked in November that remains on the list, although its rate slid to 2.30% from 2.50%.

The downward trend reflects the descent of the national average rate, which was 1.39% in November and now rests at 1.18% — the lowest its been since Bankrate began tracking those rates in March 1989.

The one positive to take away is that these top rates pay almost double the national average.

The best nationally available 24-month rates are:

2.30 APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000 from Atlantic Coast Bank, which has 12 branches in southeast Georgia and northeast Florida.

2.30 APY with a $5,000 minimum deposit from Hudson City Bank, which has dozens of branches in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. (If you live near a Hudson City branch the minimum deposit is only $500.)

2.20 APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000 from Fortune Bank, a full-service bank with one location in Arnold, Mo., just outside of St. Louis.

2.20 APY with a $10,000 minimum deposit from Golf Savings Bank, located in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., with 28 branches in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Click here to see how much you can earn with these rates using our certificate of deposit calculator.

Let’s say you get a notice that the interest rate on your Chase credit card is going up.

You send Chase a letter rejecting the increase and close the account so that you can repay your balance at the current, lower interest rate.

You’re done dealing with Chase, right?

Maybe not.

According a recent lawsuit, Chase has continued to send “change of term” letters to cardholders with closed accounts, and raised the interest rate on anyone who didn’t go to the trouble of rejecting the new terms again.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.

Home prices didn’t fall as quickly as expected in the final three months of 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors latest report.

In fact, home prices showed so much improvement that we have to wonder if they’ll really fall another 5% to 10% this year as some experts have projected.

The national median price of a home in the fourth quarter of 2009 was down 4.1% from a year ago.

Fewer cities suffered the kind of double-digit declines that were so common during the recession and almost half actually saw property values rise.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.