Steven Dashiell is an editor for Bankrate and CreditCards.com and formally a personal finance writer at Finder, specializing in credit cards, banking and growing and protecting your income. His insights and expertise has been featured on Nasdaq, U.S. News & World Report, Time, CBS, ABC, Fox Business, Lifehacker and Martha Stewart Living, among other top media. Steve holds a BA in English from University of Maryland, Baltimore County, minoring in composition and rhetoric. In his spare time Steve nerds out on birds, paints and plays a whole lot of Street Fighter.
We sat down with Steve to talk credit cards, banking and industry trends.
While rising interest rates can make borrowing money painful, they also make saving stronger. Most kinds of savings accounts offer higher APYs as interest rates increase, and that means consumers can press the advantage to start earning on their savings. Consumers that already have a savings account should review existing accounts to see if they’re getting a competitive rate. And consider moving their funds if a better rate is available.
Generally, you should never rely on credit cards as a crutch for your financial needs. That’s because the interest that can accrue on credit card balances runs the risk of you falling even further behind financially. You can turn to credit cards to help float your finances during tough times, but first create a plan that allows you to pay off your credit expenses while incurring as little debt as possible.
It depends! If you’re chasing the highest interest rates on the market alongside some excellent mobile banking features, then digital banking is for you. Digital banks also tend to feature handy new saving tools, such as automatic roundups, which round up your purchases to the next dollar and deposit the extra into a savings account. However, you can only manage your digital bank account online, so if you prefer banking in person, you may want to stick with brick-and-mortar banks.
