Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts

Yeah, but this is a no penalty CD, so it is effectively a liquid account since you can close and transfer out without any penalty or delay.

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What would be the benefit of changing the standards for the table in this instance since there are already 4 savings/money market offerings above 2% at this time and 4 savings/money market offerings at exactly 2%.

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Because this is Ally, which is consistent with their rates and not a small bank offering a teaser rate just to attract new customers and then offering shitty rates later on?
I only mention this because I opened an account with SalemFive for 2.05%, but then realized Ally offers 2.0% on their no penalty CD, and instantly regretted moving my money there since I can almost guarantee that SalemFive will not bump up their rates as quickly as Ally will in the future.

Do you think we’ve all been blind and been unaware there are no penalty cd’s? Several of us are active in both threads. If it has the name CD in it, it belongs in the OTHER thread. You’ll note Ally’s No penalty CD is in their list (or it should be since I’m the one who added it when these threads started). Several other banks at various times have offered no penalty cd’s with rates better than ally’s in the last 6 months. While Ally is the smoothest of them in that funds are typically available seconds after you close your account not all “no penalty” cd’s operate that way. So we should list Ally here and all the rest there? No…it belongs in the cd category and Liquid-Bank ACCOUNTS (checking, saving, mma etc) belong here. We can always add a note to that effect at the top but it’s worked just fine till now without one.

Next time take an extra 2 minutes to browse both tables when moving money around. There are also bump cd’s that let you raise your rate…6 month and 9 month cd’s for “short term” that typically offer the promo rates you talked about. Ally is typically BEHIND by one or two steps from the “leader” at any given time as is the case now with about 4 banks offering 2.25% (or recently have offered).

Isn’t that the whole point of liquid accounts - the ability to move money quickly when something better comes along???

So you agree that the Ally no penalty CD is a “liquid account” but that it shouldn’t belong in the “Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts” thread. kewl. Your logic is very sound. There really is no reason not to include ALL liquid accounts on this list. If the bank wants to name it a ‘mma’ account or a ‘savings’ account or a ‘CD’ or heck a ‘magical wand account’, it really shouldn’t matter as long as the liquidity is there. And these accounts can be liquidated instantly.
Next time, take an extra 2 minutes to think about what ‘liquid’ means and the point of this thread vs the point of the ‘CD’ thread (which doesn’t even have current info on their wiki for Ally). Also, you know the reason I never checked the CD thread??? Because I want a LIQUID account!!!

I understand your desire to discuss the point and sympathize with you concerning the response you received when arguing your point using logic. My question is: what’s keeping you from adding it to the wiki?

I was just being courteous and thought there would be pushback. I will periodically update the wiki, I have no problem with that. I just didn’t want to add an update that would then be removed by someone else because it had ‘CD’ in the name. :sweat_smile:
I am not doing it for my sake since I learned from my mistake, I was just trying to help others. I will leave it to someone else to add to wiki if they like. scipta can be the decider since he is OP of thread.

Then add a section for “no penalty CDs”. If you add it to the list of “Savings, Checking, and Money Market Accounts”, it probably will be removed, because not matter what the terms its still a CD not a savings, checking or MMA.

When I see new posts in this thread, I come here expecting to find new rates being posted. Tonight, 11 new posts, and zero new rate updates. The old FW thread was so popular because it specifically prohibited any discussion. It’s not so strict here, but can we please keep the noise to a minimum? Start a thread for rate discussion if so inclined, and it probably will be more active than this rate thread.

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The Ally no-penalty CD is not equivalent to a liquid account. You can add only up to 10 days after opening. You can withdraw just once, and that closes the account. According to their reps, you have to open a new CD if you want to add or leave money at Ally.

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I think this is an excellent suggestion. Hybrid liquid offerings are, by their innate nature, most difficult to classify . . . . absent specific labelling.

The other popular no-penalty “CD” offering, which pops up from time to time, is from AgFed. I own a bunch of those “CDs” now, I have owned them over many years cashing in from time to time then buying more, and I gotta tell you:

Those AgFed no-penalty “CDs” are incredibly liquid. I mean, they are essentially like any money market account or savings account. When I call 'em and request liquidation, it happens on the spot. And I have my dough the next day using Alliant to pull it away from AgFed. I have never had a problem.

Best to open several CD’s with the minimum amount required to maximize flexibility.

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I think the best is to add a section “Other alternatives” with no-penalty CDs, non-FDIC insured money market from Vanguard & Fidelity like Ken does, etc. – other options of interest to people for keeping money available for immediate withdrawals.

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Ally Bank OSA now at 1.85%

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Consumers Credit Union tightening their Reward checking accounts significantly starting October 1st.

Just got a letter saying, first the 3.09% APY will require direct deposit of $500+ per month. That’s not a big hurdle to automate a back and forth ACH between other accounts though.

But more importantly, their 4.09% and 5.09% APY levels are reduced by the fact that the first $10k will only earn 3.09% APY no matter what your balance. So for the 4.09% APY level, you can only earn that on the next $5k, and for the 5.09%, only on the next $15k.

So in short:

With $10k deposit, you’ll earn 3.09% APY no matter what tier. No change except the extra $500 ACH/DD requirement.

With $15k deposit, you’ll earn 3.42% APY (in second tier), instead of 4.09% previously.

With $25k deposit, you’ll earn 4.29% APY (in third tier), instead of 5.09% previously.

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You are making it far more complicated than it is. They had higher caps for tiers B and A ($15k and $20k, respectively), compared to the $10k cap for tier C. Now, they’ve simply made the cap the same $10k for all tiers - you will qualify for tier A, B, or C, and get that tier’s rate on your $10k balance. With a $15k balance, you are now going to earn only .2% on the extra $5k no matter what tier you qualify for.

Aside from lowering the tier A/B caps to $10k, the only significant changes are requiring that your 12+ debit purchases for the month total at least $100 and your electronic deposit be at least $500 (debits/BillPay no longer qualify). Unless you were spending $1,000 on their credit card each month to get the higher balance caps, this really isnt a big deal, and even then it just means the max balance on which you could earn the highest rate has been slashed in half.

Oy! Like it’s not complicated enough in the two paragraphs after that statement?

Ok. “The caps are being reduced to $10k and the debit purchases need to total $100”. Is that better?

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Looks like Alliant bumped their rate another nickle, to 1.8%.

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Please keep the wiki tables sorted by APY (from highest to lowest), then by SINCE date (from oldest to most recent). I believe this makes it easier to identify (and reward) leaders vs laggards when it comes to rate increases. Since Ally only now went to 1.85% and four others beat it to the punch, Ally should be at the bottom of the 1.85% listing.