Hudson City Savings Bank (OTC:HCFB) which serves the Connecticut, New Jersey and New York markets, is now offering some of the best CD rates in America, paying out 2.50% APY on 24-month certificates of deposit and a 3.00% APY on 36-month CDs.

As far as I’ve been able to find, there are no other banks that offer higher CD rates than this, although Flagstar Bank is offering the same interest rates on their 36-month CDs.

Here are the current terms of the CD as of this writing:

• 3.00% APY 3-Year CD ($5,000 minimum balance)
• 2.50% APY 2-Year CD ($5,000 minimum balance) 
• 1.75% APY Internet Money Market Savings ($2,500 minimum balance)

If you want to invest in the 3-Year CD, it’ll cost you $5,000, but if you live in the three states Hudson City Savings Bank serves, you can get in as low as $500. 

There are no other local limitations, and you can apply for the CD at the national level, i.e. it doesn’t matter where you live in the U.S., you can get in on the great interest rates.

Hudson City Savings Bank has been named as “The Most Efficient Bank” more than once, which allows them to offer better rates than the majority of their competitors, as you can see with the CD rates I mentioned here. They have 125 branches in the 3-state area they physically operate in.

CDs acquired from Hudson are insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000 until the end of 2009, where, along with all banking investments, will revert back to the former $100,000 per customer, unless that is changed. For now that is the known circumstances concerning insuring all banking accounts under the FDIC umbrella.

Do go to the bank’s web site to confirm the CD rates, as then can change quickly. But as of October 2, the CD rates stand as I’ve written here.

WTDirect is among the top five percent of U.S. banks for savings rates, and they even give you a chance to test drive the account with no risk to yourself.

At the time of this writing, opening a savings account with WTDirect gives you a return of 1.66 APY for the first two months no matter how much you put in the account to begin with. Once that two-month period is over, you then must maintain a minimum of $10,000 in the account to get the highest savings rate.

That’s a nice feature because a number of banks bring down the interest rate in a savings account as the account gets bigger.

There is also no restrictions on needing have a checking account with the company in order to have a savings account with a higher interest rate. Another nice feature is there is no minimum amount needed to open or maintain an account, and no fees regardless of how much money you have in it.

Also included is the current FDIC guarantee of up to $250,000 for your savings. As with all U.S. FDIC-guaranteed accounts, that will revert back to $100,000 as of January 1, 2014.

What’s nice about this for savers, depending on how you like to do your banking business, is this is one of those built-in savings accounts which can work good for those not concerned over moving their money in and out of an account. For two months you can get a good return with no minimum amount in the account, and no fees.

And if you like your experience, and have $10,000 available, you can always just keep your money in the WTDirect savings account if you choose to in order to get the higher interest rate.

You are also allowed to transfer any of your funds between your WTDirect savings account and other financial institutions you use; something not all banks allow.

West Boston Savings Bank has created an online division called EBSB Direct.  The online savings account is ideal for individuals who have a large amount of money to save, as the interest rates are best for balances over $50,000.  For balances over $50,000, EBSB Direct is offering a 2.81% APY through September 30, 2009.

For balances between $5,000 and $50,000 during the same time period, the rate is 2.00% APY and the minimum balance to open the account is $5,000.  If you don’t have a lot of money to deposit, you  will probably be better off checking around for banks that don’t have such a high minimum balance requirement.  With EBSB Direct, when your balance falls below $5,000, you pay a monthly fee of $15 and will not earn interest on your savings. You can save up to $1 million maximum in an EBSB Direct savings account.

The bank offers unlimited external account linking, which means you can connect your EBSB Direct savings account with as many other accounts as you like to transfer money via the ACH bank-to-bank transfer service.   To verify external banks, EBSB Direct will make small deposits to the external bank that you can confirm in order to verify the account you are linking is your own.  They have a maximum transfer limit of $150,000 per transfer, which makes it easy to transfer money between your accounts whenever you need to.

EBSB Direct is available nationwide, and can be opened online. You can make your initial deposit and subsequent deposits with ACH transfers from other bank accounts.  The account you use to initially fund an EBSB Direct savings account does not need to go through any further verification process in order to perform additional bank-to-bank transfers in the future.

According to the bank’s published FAQ’s, there is no credit report accessed when you open an account.  You are limited to a total of 6 withdrawals per month from your account as is true with many pure savings accounts, and there is no check writing feature. If you meet the minimum balance requirement to earn the interest on your savings, interest is compounded and credited monthly.

With such an emphasis on savings these days, it is almost impossible to not be exposed to the savings options that are now available thanks to technology. Specifically speaking about online savings accounts, this option for savings can be one of the best you can implement into your financial planning.

Here are 5 reasons why you need to have an online savings account:

Bank Interest Rates Not So Good
Check the interest rates with your banking institution and then check around with other local banks. Chances are good the APY will be really low when compared to online accounts. Do a search for high-yield savings accounts and you can probably find several with2% APY and above. While the interest will not make your filthy rich all on its own, it definitely will earn you more money that you will find at traditional banks.

Automate Your Savings Plan
With an online savings account, you can most likely set up an automatic deposit electronically from any other linked account you have online. If you anticipate your paydays as every other Friday, you can set you savings account to automatically pull over a deposit each time your paycheck is deposited. Once you automate your deposits, you no longer have the chance to spend the money before tucking it away. Plus with the automation, you can essentially set it and forget it. You don’t have to try hard to keep up with our savings account, making you more likely to actually save.

Not Too Accessible
When you have a traditional savings or checking account, you can easily access the ATM on both accounts using your debit card. Not true with an online savings account. Because you can easily pop over to an ATM to get at your money, you may be more inclined to leave it where it is, earning interest.

Set Up Bill Pay
Many online accounts allow you to pay your bills directly from the site. While you can do this also with traditional checking accounts, the money you keep in there for monthly expenses doesn’t earn as much as your online accounts. By setting up online bill pay, you can help avoid missed or overdue payments which rack up late fees and interest charges, costing you more money that necessary.

Establish Multiple Accounts
There are some online savings accounts that allow you to set up several accounts under one account number. You can designate these additional accounts for specific purposes, such as vacation, car purchase, or emergency savings accounts. You can redirect deposits into each account automatically, giving you more incentive to save more often.