The news: in response to ING Direct's offensive move, VirtualBank raised APY of its eMoney Market account to 3.05%, an inch higher than ING Direct's 3.00% APY. To be exact, the 3.05% APY is awarded to accounts with a balance less than $10,000 balance. Anything above, the slightly lower 3.00% APY applies. Gee ... it is a good incentive to deposit less money there.

I admit it becomes pretty boring to following the price war of money market/saving accounts now. Like comparison shopping for the cheapest gas nearby, it does not take long to figure out where you can consistently get competitive price/rates. In this game, you might want to stick to one of the big names like ING Direct (3.00% APY), VirtualBank, or Emigrant Direct.

Between VirtualBank and ING Direct, it probably does not make much sense to chase the highest yield possible, with the understanding that they will always stay competitive compared to each other. For example, if you follow ING Direct's Tuesday's hike to move your VirtualBank balance to ING Direct, you might feel sorry today now that VirtualBank matches and beats the yield. After all, you will lose 5-7 days of interest each time you change horse, and these 5-7 days cost you about $5 for every $10,000 in lost interest.

Similarly, it does not make much sense to move from ING Direct to VirtualBank even with today's news. If the current yield gap of 0.05% stays, it will take 300 days for you to make up the loss of 5 days interest at 3.00% APY during the transfer. You can probably expect at least 10 individual rate changes during these 300 days.