Business: Savers Shop for More

In the search for higher interest, they put the squeeze on banks

Anyone opening a new savings account has long had his pick of desk lamps, hair dryers or blenders, but the East New York Savings Bank is showing up the purveyors of discount detritus for the pikers they are. Full-page newspaper ads offered depositors something more than "a tacky little toaster" in return for $160,000 left on deposit for eight years —an $84,000 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II. When the Desert Empire Bank of Cathedral City, Calif., tried the same gimmick in 1977 in return for a $ 1 million six-year deposit,...

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