I just stumbled across a reference to the Money Aisle website and thought I should share it with all our readers.

The site is an interesting concept and once you’ve registered with them, it allows you to input an initial dollar amount and then choose if you want a high-yield savings account or an online CD to put it in. Once you make that choice and enter the other necessary details such as your zip code, state of residence, your term (for CDs), it will actually post these values to several banks that will compete online and bid for your business. What’s more, the process (the site calls it an auction – which in a sense it is) runs into several rounds (up to 10 in fact) and then provides you with the winner who has offered you the highest possible rate.

The best part of the site is that there’s a trial mode that allows you all of the above, except that it withholds the identity of the winning bank from you until you register.

For example, in trial mode, I put in an amount of $5000 for a CD of term 12 months and entered my state of residence as PA. There were 93 banks competing for my business. The auction began with a rate of 2.60% APY in round and ended with a rate of 4.05% APY with 168 total bids. Since I was in trial mode, I could not see who won the bid, but I liked the concept nevertheless.

Safety features – The site provides a clear notice right on the homepage that confirms that all of the banks it deals with are FDIC insured (which means that your investments up to $100,000 are insured). The service has also received rave reviews from several sites such as the New York Times Business Section, Smart Money among many others.

I haven’t yet tried it, but I’m eager to. I do most of my High Yield saving with ING Direct, so I’m going to try this the next time one of my CD’s is up for maturity.

Have any of you tried out this service? Do you feel strongly about it? Let us know.