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Customers at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are expected to have access to their funds Monday after the federal government took over the two institutions.
If your own bank failed, could you expect the same?
Here’s how to check whether your deposits are insured.

A man walks by the headquarters of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.
Liu Guanguan | Getty Images

Most consumers have FDIC coverage

The FDIC was created in 1933 following thousands of bank failures. Since coverage began in 1934, no depositor has lost insured funds due to a bank failure. The independent government agency is funded by premiums paid by banks and savings associations.
The limit for FDIC coverage is $250,000 per depositor, per bank, in each account ownership category.
“The majority of Americans are going to be covered by FDIC insurance because most Americans have less than $250,000 in a specific bank account,” said Ted Jenkin, a certified financial planner and CEO and founder of oXYGen Financial, a financial advisory and wealth management firm based in Atlanta. He is a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

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The amount of insurance is based on legal ownership name, according to Jude Boudreaux, a CFP and senior financial planner at The Planning Center in New Orleans, who is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

For example, a married couple with a business may have up to $250,000 insured in an account in one spouse’s name, up to $250,000 insured in an account in the other spouse’s name and up to $250,000 insured in a business account.

How to check, boost FDIC coverage

If you want to know whether your deposits are FDIC-insured, check your statement, Jenkin said.
“If you’re going to a bank or you’re putting your cash anywhere, that’s the first question you want to ask, ‘The money I’m depositing now, is it FDIC-insured?'” Jenkin said.

The majority of Americans are going to be covered by FDIC insurance.

Ted Jenkin
CEO of oXYGen Financial

You may also check the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator to see whether your funds are insured at your institution and whether any portion exceeds coverage limits.
One way to boost your FDIC coverage is to open accounts at other banks, particularly if you have more than $250,000 in deposits, Boudreaux said.
If you want additional coverage, you may also want to talk to your current bank, Boudreaux suggested. In some cases, they may work with other FDIC-insured institutions to have larger cash deposits protected and insured.

What FDIC insurance covers:

Checking accounts

Negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts

Savings accounts

Money market deposit accounts (MMDAs)

Time deposits such as certificates of deposit (CDs)

Cashier’s checks, money orders, and other official items issued by a bank

What FDIC insurance does not cover:

Stock investments

Bond investments

Mutual funds

Crypto assets

Life insurance policies

Municipal securities

Safe deposit boxes or their contents

U.S. Treasury bills, bonds or notes (These investments are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government).

Source: FDIC

Other financial safety nets also offer protection

Treasury bills are also a strong option now, as short-term bills currently have a good yield and are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. “They’re as good as it gets from a safety standpoint,” Boudreaux said.
Not all accounts provide FDIC coverage, Jenkin noted. For example, a brokerage account opened with a financial advisor will likely be covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC.
Under FDIC coverage, you will be refunded dollar for dollar if your bank fails, plus any interest earned up to the date of the default.
Under SIPC, if something happens to your brokerage firm, you are covered for up to $500,000, with a $250,000 limit for cash.
However, protection under SIPC is limited and notably does not provide protection if your securities decline in value. More

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Despite the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures, most consumers don’t need to worry about bank deposits, experts say.
The standard coverage from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is $250,000 per depositor, per bank, for each account ownership category.
The bigger risks to investors may be exposure to tech and regional banks, but advisors are warning clients not to make emotional money moves.

A customer stands outside of a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

After two bank failures and dramatic moves from U.S. regulators to protect depositors, financial advisors have a message for consumers: Don’t panic.
The U.S. government on Sunday approved plans to safeguard depositors and financial institutions affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday. As a result, consumers will have full access to funds from SVB and from Signature Bank in New York, which regulators also shut down Sunday.

The Federal Reserve is also creating a Bank Term Funding Program to secure institutions affected by the instability sparked by the SVB failure.

While futures initially jumped Sunday evening following the announcement from regulators, bank stocks fell as the market opened Monday.
“Every American should feel confident their deposits will be there if and when they need them,” President Joe Biden said Monday in an address aimed at easing fears about the U.S. banking system.

Most consumers don’t need to worry about deposits

Lee Baker, a certified financial planner and owner of Apex Financial Services in Atlanta, said most consumers don’t need to worry about their bank deposits.
The standard coverage from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is $250,000 per depositor, per bank, for each account ownership category, such as single or joint account holders. And you can split cash among ownership categories and banks to avoid exceeding the limits, Baker said.

We’re not about to head down the road of 40% broad market decline.

Owner of Apex Financial Services

‘A cautionary tale’ on diversification

However, the bigger issue for some investors may be exposure to the financial sector. While some may have a smaller slice of exposure through an index fund, it’s possible there’s greater risk through financial sector-focused funds or individual stocks.
“This is a bit of a cautionary tale as it relates to diversification issues,” said Baker, who is part of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. “I think this can be an illustrative moment for talking to clients.”
Still, despite mounting fears, he doesn’t believe the bank failures are a repeat of the financial crisis in 2008. “We’re not about to head down the road of 40% broad market decline,” he said, adding that there’s no reason to make “major portfolio moves and panic at the absolute wrong time.”

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Investors should ‘stick to the process’

Ivory Johnson, a CFP and founder of Delancey Wealth Management in Washington, D.C., is telling clients to “stick to the process,” explaining that a portfolio should match an investor’s goals and risk tolerance.
“If you were conservative before, you should be conservative now,” said Johnson, who is also a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council. But if your strategy told you to buy tech stocks and regional banks in the current market environment, “it’s time to review your process,” he said. More

Clifton Pemble, President and CEO, Garmin at the NYSE December 7, 2021.
Source: NYSE

Investors have no shortage of worries, be it the economy slipping into a recession due to higher interest rates or the havoc that whiplashed financial stocks last week.
Nevertheless, there are buying opportunities for those who know where to look.

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Here are five stocks to weather the storm, according to Wall Street’s top professionals on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Snowflake

Cloud companies are experiencing a marked slowdown in their growth rates as macro challenges affect enterprise spending. Despite the ongoing pressures, cloud-based data warehouse company Snowflake (SNOW) delivered upbeat quarterly results.
Snowflake expects its product revenue to grow by 40% in fiscal 2024, marking a deceleration from the 70% rise recorded in fiscal 2023 (ended Jan. 31, 2023). Nonetheless, Snowflake continues to be optimistic about its growth in the years ahead and expects to achieve its product revenue target of $10 billion in fiscal 2029.
Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick agrees that Snowflake is “not immune from cloud growth moderation.” (See Snowflake Blogger Opinions & Sentiment on TipRanks)
That said, Zelnick reiterated a buy rating on Snowflake with a price target of $170, saying, “We still firmly believe the long-term outlook remains intact for Snowflake, with its unique multi-cloud architecture, rich platform features, data sharing capabilities and native app development tools positioning it to capture the massive Data Cloud opportunity.”

Zelnick ranks 85th out of more than 8,000 analysts followed on TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, generating a 14.9% average return.

Salesforce

Let’s move to another cloud company, Salesforce (CRM), which recently reported solid results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 (ended Jan. 31, 2023). The company expects fiscal 2024 revenue to grow by about 10%. While that number indicated a slowdown compared to the 18% growth seen in fiscal 2023, it did come in ahead of analysts’ estimates.
Moreover, Wall Street experts welcomed the company’s profitability projections. Salesforce has been under pressure from several activist investors, including Elliott Management and Starboard Value, to improve its profitability. (See Salesforce Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)
Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz, who holds the 264th position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks, said that he is “encouraged by the recent activism in CRM over recent months.” The analyst also highlighted the company’s restructuring efforts and its fiscal 2024 operating margin outlook of 27%, which he observed was “even well above the most bullish expectations.”
“Notwithstanding macro challenges, we reiterate that CRM remains well situated to help its vast customer base manage revenue and process optimization via digital transformation,” said Moskowitz.    
Moskowitz reaffirmed a buy rating and raised his price target for CRM stock to $225 from $200. Per TipRanks, 55% of Moskowitz’s ratings have generated profits, with each rating bringing in a return of 13.1%, on average.

Hibbett

Next on our list is athletic goods retailer Hibbett (HIBB), which sells footwear, apparel and equipment from top brands like Nike and Adidas. The company’s fiscal 2023 fourth-quarter results missed expectations due to macro pressures, higher costs, supply chain issues and increased promotional activity.
Hibbett expects mid-single-digit sales growth in fiscal 2024, driven by its assortment of high-demand footwear. Also, the company is conducting a “systematic review” of its operating expense structure to improve profitability. (See Hibbett Stock Chart on TipRanks)
Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser highlighted that Hibbett’s relationships with key brands, mainly Nike, are very strong. Additionally, the analyst thinks that the retailer has “the best in class omni-channel, consumer facing operation” in his coverage, which is reflected by the 21.4% rise in digital sales in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Poser lowered his fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 earnings per share estimates, given that the company’s recent results lagged guidance. Nonetheless, he reiterated a buy rating on Hibbett and a price target of $82 because he is “confident that HIBB’s guidance is far more realistic, prudent, and conservative than it has been in some time.”
Poser is ranked No. 144 among more than 8,000 analysts tracked on TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 55% of the time, with each rating delivering a return of 17.6%, on average.

Zscaler

Cybersecurity company Zscaler’s (ZS) fiscal second-quarter results crushed the Street’s expectations, with a 52% increase in revenue.
Nevertheless, ZS stock fell as investors seemed concerned about the company’s billings guidance of about a 9% sequential decline in the fiscal third quarter, compared to the mid-single digit declines seen over the last few years. Delays in large deals due to macro woes impacted the company’s outlook.
TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal remains bullish about Zscaler and reiterated a buy rating with a price target of $195 following the results. “In our view, despite macro uncertainty and elevated deal scrutiny, ZS occupies a strong competitive position as it addresses a $72B market opportunity,” said Eyal.      
The analyst thinks that the company is well positioned to achieve its longer-term targets, including annual recurring revenue of $5 billion, operating margin of 20% to 22%, and free cash flow margin of 22% to 25%. (See Zscaler Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)
Eyal holds the 15th position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks. Additionally, 66% of his ratings have been profitable, with an average return of 24.1%.

Garmin

Garmin (GRMN) is a leading provider of GPS-enabled-based devices and applications. Last month, the company reported a decline in its fourth-quarter revenue due to currency headwinds and lower demand for its fitness products.
Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth expects the company’s ongoing innovation and new launches, strength in aviation, and growing opportunities in wellness and automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) businesses to reaccelerate trends.  
Feinseth is particularly confident about Garmin emerging as an industry-leading automotive OEM supplier. The company’s automotive OEM revenue increased by 11% to $284 million in 2022. The analyst expects the automotive segment to see annual growth of 40%, reaching a revenue run rate of $800 million by 2025. He expects this growth to be led by the company’s industry-leading product categories of in-cabin domain controllers, infotainment systems and other in-cabin connected interfaces.
Feinseth, who ranks 189th on Tipranks, reiterated a buy rating on Garmin stock with a price target of $165. The analyst’s ratings have been profitable 62% of the time, with an average return of 12.2%. (See Garmin Financial Statements on TipRanks)

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In Grady Hendrix’s new novel, “How to Sell a Haunted House,” the parents of protagonist Louise die unexpectedly in a car crash — and she runs into trouble trying to sell the house she grew up in.
She’s not alone in her concerns about the house: One recent survey found that half of Americans believe their house is haunted.

Grady Hendrix
Albert Mitchell

After Louise’s parents unexpectedly die in a car accident, she returns home to Charleston, where her plans to get her childhood home ready for sale are soon complicated. There’s her parents’ endless stuff, including the hundreds of dolls her mother owned. There’s her estranged brother, Matt, trying to cheat her out of her inheritance. And then there’s the house itself, which doesn’t seem to want to let her go.
Grady Hendrix, the author of “How to Sell a Haunted House,” said his idea for the novel began during the pandemic, when many of us were becoming more aware of our parents’ mortality. “One of the things I realized is, when our parents die, we have to deal with all their stuff,” Hendrix said. “And what are ghosts but things left behind after someone dies?” 

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Louise is hardly alone in her suspicions about the house: A shockingly large share of Americans may believe their home is haunted too, surveys find, and laws have been passed in some states clarifying what sellers do and don’t have to disclose about alleged paranormal activity, prior murders and suicides.
I talked to Hendrix about his new novel and the subject of haunted houses and trying to sell them. Our interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Annie Nova: One recent survey found that half of Americans believe their house is haunted. Why do you think there’s so much superstition?
Grady Hendrix: I just got off a book tour, and so many people I met believe they live in a haunted house or that they have lived in one. To me, it’s totally normal. A house is where you spend most of your time. You sleep there, you go through all kinds of emotional things there. Why wouldn’t you think it’s haunted?

What are ghosts but things left behind after someone dies?

Grady Hendrix
author, “How to Sell a Haunted House”

AN: What are some of the things that people told you about living in a haunted house?
GH: Their hauntings often seem to follow their personality. I would have people who’d say, ‘Oh my god, our house was haunted. It was terrible. This ghost was attacking us and we had to break our lease and move.’ It’s this really intense experience for them, and they’re very intense as they tell it. And then I’d have someone who’d say, ‘Oh, yeah. Our house is haunted, but the ghost is pretty chill.’
AN: There are so many stories about haunted houses. Why did you turn your focus to the selling of one?
GH: Cleaning out someone’s house after they’ve passed away, you’re dealing with the smell of their shampoo, the dent in the sofa cushion where they used to watch TV. And it’s not just the physical stuff, it’s the emotional stuff: the memories, the scars, the unfair things that you’ve always wanted to talk about but never did. Selling a haunted house was a nice way to address all of these things in one handy package.
AN: When did our fears of haunted houses begin?
GH: The first recorded incidents I saw were in the 1730s, and included property values crashing because a house was supposedly haunted. But in the latter part of the 19th century, you had a huge number of haunted house sightings that coincided with this building boom out in the suburbs. The suburbs started to really expand then, especially in London and some American cities, with property developers throwing up houses basically overnight.

Arrows pointing outwards

A lot of the houses were poorly constructed, and would start to fall apart. You would hear mysterious noises as your walls slowly gave way. You’d get mysterious cold spots because the building wasn’t weatherproofed. Then some of these houses would become uninhabitable, and so you’d have a block full of nice houses with this one haunted-looking house at the end that had been abandoned for 20 years.
AN: What typically leads people to start believing that their home is haunted?
GH: The last time we had a really big boom in haunted houses was around the time of the subprime mortgage crisis. When real estate is getting fraught and the economy is doing funny things, haunted houses appear. But there’s no such thing as an objective haunting. If you feel like your house is haunted, then your house is haunted, you know? Houses are haunted because that’s where people are.
AN: One of the scariest things that Louise inherits is the haunted puppet, Pupkin, with its “leering clown face.” What are you trying to say here about the downsides to inheritance?
GH: Rather than the inheritance angle, I was really hyperaware of the fact that we all have strange relationships with inanimate objects. We have stuffed animals or blankets from childhood that we’re really attached to. We yell at our phones. We argue with our cars. We just invest a lot of emotions into objects. With Pupkin, I really wanted an object that had been invested with so much emotion you couldn’t walk away from it. It wasn’t going to let you.

AN: Is there anything in the book based on personal experience?
GH: I’ve cleaned out the houses of dead friends, and it’s one of those things that’s hard to really describe to someone until they’ve gone through it. You’re dealing with this huge amount of stuff. You’re crushed beneath the weight of it all. It’s a very strange experience.

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The New York Stock Exchange stands in lower Manhattan after global stocks fell as concerns mount that rising inflation will prompt central banks to tighten monetary policy on May 11, 2021 in New York City. By mid afternoon the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had lost 0.6% after falling 2.2% at its session low.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Signature Bank shares dropped as much as 32% on Friday and were at one point halted amid a sell-off in bank stocks that continued for a second day.
Signature, one of the main banks to the cryptocurrency industry, ended the day down 22%.

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The initial move followed a big day for its crypto banking peer Silvergate Capital, which announced earlier this week that it would liquidate its bank. Its losses deepened Thursday after shares of SVB Financial, whose Silicon Valley Bank lends to tech startups, announced a plan to raise more than $2 billion in capital to help offset losses on bond sales.
By late Friday morning, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp had closed Silicon Valley Bank and taken control of its deposits, making it the largest U.S. bank failure since the global financial crisis.
The troubles at Silicon Valley Bank rippled across financial stocks, as investors worried about the likelihood that other banks with large bond portfolios could face similar issues, if they’re forced to sell those bonds before maturity for fundraising purposes. Treasuries have been falling for the past year as the Federal Reserve has been hiking rates.
First Republic Bank, PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bancorp were among the other names whose trading was at one point halted for volatility.
Signature has said it has minimal exposure to crypto, but Silicon Valley Bank’s need to recapitalize on the heels of the Silvergate event has linked the two events in some people’s minds.

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Signature Bank shares Friday

Valkyrie chief investment officer Steve McClurg said the Signature Bank was already hurting on the back of Silvergate’s losses, which now total almost 50% for the week. Its Friday losses are a spillover effect from the Silicon Valley Bank woes, he added.
Ed Moya, an analyst at Oanda, emphasized Signature is caught in the middle of both narratives.
“Signature Bank is getting hit with a one-two punch as concerns grow that any crypto-related bank could be in danger and as financial instability concerns grow for parts of the banking sector,” he said. “There are only a handful of publicly traded banks that have crypto exposure and lots of traders are rushing to bet against them.”

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President Biden has called for renewing enhanced child tax credit payments for parents as part of the family policies in his budget unveiled this week.
But getting Congress to sign off on the terms may not be easy.

Parents and children participate in a demonstration organized by the ParentsTogether Foundation in support of the child tax credit portion of the Build Back Better bill outside of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2021.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal 2024 includes a host of proposals aimed at helping families.
That includes one key proposal — the reinstatement of the enhanced child tax credit that temporarily gave qualifying parents up to $3,600 per child for 2021 through the American Rescue Plan.

Biden’s plan calls for raising the current maximum child credit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 per child under age 6 or to $3,000 per child ages 6 and up.
The budget also calls for permanently making the child tax credit fully refundable, which means people would still be eligible even if their tax liability was less than the credit amount.
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The enhanced child tax credit — including monthly payments of up to $300 per child — helped to cut poverty in half, the “lowest level in all of American history,” Biden said in a speech on the budget on Thursday.
“We were really pleased to see that the White House is redoubling its efforts to support this direct cash payment program,” said Anna Aurilio, federal campaign director at advocacy organization Economic Security Project Action.

The move to expand the credit would be accompanied by other policy proposals in the president’s budget aimed at helping both individuals and families.
The earned income tax credit would be permanently expanded for childless workers, with the goal of keeping low-paid workers out of poverty.

The plan calls for 12 weeks paid family and medical leave, as well as seven paid sick days for all workers. It also aims to expand access to affordable childcare and free preschool. The budget also calls for expanding Medicaid home and community-based services, which would allow older and disabled individuals to stay at home, providing relief for family caregivers and home care workers.
“It’s going to help millions of parents go to work, knowing their children are being taken care of,” Biden said of the budget on Thursday.
Admittedly, the proposals — including the push to renew the expanded tax credit — may be difficult to get through Congress.

Biden aims to up benefits, slash the deficit

With the budget, Biden is aiming to cut deficits by almost $3 trillion over 10 years.
An analysis by the Tax Foundation found the expanding the child tax credit for three years, creating a monthly payment option and making it permanently fully refundable would cost more than $429 billion over 10 years. The earned income tax credit expansion for workers without qualifying children would cost about $156 billion.
However, other research suggests the government spending may have positive effects.
For every $1 spent on the child tax credit would result in $10 in benefits to society, according to Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

The child tax credit just wasn’t big enough to have an impact on inflation, but it was big enough to help families meet rising costs.

Anna Aurilio
federal campaign director at advocacy organization Economic Security Project Action

“People support it,” Aurilio said. “It’s wildly popular, especially right now.”
That is as inflation has pushed prices for everyday items higher than it has in decades.
While some argue stimulus efforts like an enhanced child tax credit would fuel inflation, other experts say that is not true.
“The child tax credit just wasn’t big enough to have an impact on inflation, but it was big enough to help families meet rising costs,” Aurilio said.
In an open letter to Congressional leaders in December, more than 200 economists argued renewing the 2021 child tax credit would help low- and middle-income families cope with rising costs and help promote better economic health.

“Extending the expanded child tax credit is one of the easiest, most effective and direct tools currently at our disposal to help families deal with the impact of inflation on family budgets,” they wrote.
But getting a new policy passed won’t be easy, Aurilio said. “K Street is lobbying hard to revive tax breaks for corporations.”
“We’ve been saying all along that that shouldn’t happen unless Congress also provides relief to families and workers by expanding the CTC and EITC,” she said.
While some Democratic leaders have championed the policy, other leaders, like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, have led efforts for a more streamlined universal child benefit.
“The biggest challenge I think for Republicans or Democrats will be how you’re going to pay for it,” Romney said in an interview last year. “And my own view is that one, by economizing on how large the program is.”
Romney also called for potentially repurposing funds from other benefits, like the child portion of the earned income tax credit.

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A SIMPLE IRA is generally easier and less expensive to operate than a 401(k) plan, the IRS said.
It’s a good alternative for employers who want to offer a retirement plan in today’s hot job market.
There are trade-offs like lower annual contribution limits.

Visualspace | E+ | Getty Images

Small business owners today may feel they’re getting pulled in two directions: stuck between wanting to offer a retirement benefit to their workers but feeling unable to afford costs associated with a 401(k) plan.
But entrepreneurs scared by the affordability of maintaining a 401(k) plan can instead consider an alternative workplace retirement plan known as a SIMPLE IRA, said Marguerita Cheng, a certified financial planner based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The plans — formally known as a Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees — don’t carry the startup and operating costs of a “conventional” retirement plan, according to the IRS.

Employers are more pressured these days to offer a retirement benefit to stay competitive in a hot labor market, Cheng said. Job openings have been historically high, and turnover has been elevated.
“If you have a younger workforce or you have no [retirement] plan, it’s a great way to start offering one,” said Cheng, CEO at Blue Ocean Global Wealth and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.
SIMPLE IRAs are also “a great stepping stone” to a 401(k) in the future, if an employer wants to make their offering more “robust,” she said.

Easy to operate, lower contribution limits

SIMPLE IRAs are generally available to any small business with 100 or fewer employees. The business cannot have any other retirement plan.

The plans require an employer contribution — similar to a 401(k) match — each year. The amount depends on a formula elected by the employer but won’t exceed 3% of a worker’s annual compensation.
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SIMPLE IRAs are “easy and inexpensive to operate,” and don’t carry certain requirements like the discrimination testing that 401(k) plans generally do, according to the IRS. Employers can also get a tax deduction for their contributions.
In the case of a SIMPLE IRA, employees elect to contribute money — it’s not mandatory for them to save. However, the plans carry lower annual contribution limits relative to 401(k) plans: up to $15,500 compared to $22,500, respectively, in 2023.
Each plan allows workers age 50 and older to contribute extra money via “catch-up” contributions (an additional $3,500 in a SIMPLE IRA and another $7,500 in a 401(k) plan). More

The average new-car price in February was $45,296, compared with an MSRP of $41,637, a new study shows.
An estimated 31% of new vehicles were sold above MSRP last month.
Here are some tips for consumers to avoid paying a premium for their new car.

If you’re in the market for a new car, be prepared for the possibility of paying more than sticker price.
The average new-car price in February was $45,296, compared with an MSRP of $41,637, according to the iSeeCars report. An estimated 31% of new vehicles were sold above MSRP last month, according to a joint forecast from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive. That’s down from a high of 48% last July.

On average, new autos are priced 8.8% above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP, according to new research from iSeeCars.com. While that’s down from a peak of 10.2% in mid-2022, the 10 models with the biggest difference are all at least an average of 20% above MSRP.
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“The manufacturers keep raising their prices and then the dealers raise them again,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.
“The difference between dealer pricing and MSRP should continue to fall as the supply chain improves, though getting back to MSRP for most models may not happen this year,” Bauer said.

The biggest premiums paid are for luxury vehicles

As for which cars are priced the most above MSRP: Most of them are luxury models, according to the iSeeCars study.

Coming in first for the highest premium is the Genesis GV70, whose average price of $56,476 is 27.5% above an MSRP of $44,299.

That’s followed by the Jeep Wrangler, which is priced 23.9% above MSRP ($44,396 versus $35,827). The Jeep Wrangler Unlimited is the only other non-luxury vehicle in the top 10, with its price of $55,347 being 21.9% above an MSRP of $45,386.
Of course, not all cars come with a huge price premium.
For instance, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 comes with an average price of $50,116, which is 1.9% below an MSRP of $51,103. Or, the Malibu — also a Chevrolet — is priced at $27,887, just 1.1% above the MSRP of $27,597.

‘Leverage patience’ to find a deal

In addition to rising prices for new cars, interest rates have been climbing steadily over the last year, which makes the cost of financing a car more expensive.
The average interest rate on a new-car loan is 6.3% for 60 months (five years), according to Statista. That’s up from about 4% a year ago. Monthly payments average about $722, according to the J.D. Power and LMC Automotive/LMC report. That’s $59 higher than a year ago.
While these prices might seem prohibitive, buyers who take some time to shop around may be able to find a car whose price is more palatable.

“If you have the time to look for deals, or go further away than your local dealership, you may be able to find a deal,” said Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds.
“It’s when you need a car right away that you run into problems because you can’t leverage patience,” Yoon said.
Additionally, it’s worth considering more than one model.
“If you can identify multiple models that will serve your needs, you will be in a much better position than if you’re fixated on a specific make, model, color and option package,” Brauer said.
“It’s easy to fall in love with a single vehicle, but most consumers, if they are being honest, understand that more than one model will cover their car needs,” he added.

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