Good news!
The FOMC held interest rates steady. This gives us another six weeks and should relieve a little of the pressure at financial institutions to lower their interest rates sooner rather than later.
Am glad that is behind us.
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This is for anyone who has one of the Grow MM Promo accounts:
History
At one time, in the past, direct withdrawals via ACH from Grow MM Promo accounts were not permitted. It was necessary first to move the funds to your Grow savings, then ACH withdraw the funds you needed from savings; but not directly from Grow MM Promo.
It has always been possible to direct ACH transfer funds into a Grow MM Promo account . . . just not out.
Update
In a telephone call to Grow earlier today I was told it now has become possible directly to ACH funds out of your Grow MM Promo account, with no longer a need to involve your Grow savings. The rep checked with the Grow ACH desk and that is the information they provided.
Caveat
As at many financial institutions today, you must use the correct account number, one especially configured for ACH purposes, when moving funds into or out of your Grow MM Promo account. This account number can be obtained by telephoning Grow and requesting the number. Quite often, at Grow and elsewhere, such special ACH account numbers will include your member number but with certain special prefixes and/or suffixes which point specifically to your account from or to which funds are to be moved via ACH.
Q: So Shin, have you tried this yet?
Not yet. Am still working up the courage. Will probably attempt just a small withdrawal at first in case things go awry and I turn out to be full of prunes. But really, based on my conversation earlier today I believe it will work. And being able to avoid pre-loading money into Grow savings could end up saving one day’s interest.
It would have been nice to make withdrawals directly from the Grow MM Promo acct. But since it wasn’t possible I opened a Grow Checking Acct shortly after acct was opened.
First, like shinobi discussed I had the Savings Acct to make ACH transfers. That didn’t work for me because of the 6 Regulation requirement moves. A rep told me to open a checking acct & I wouldn’t have this problem any longer. I did & it’s worked perfectly for those ACH transfers. Of course I still have to do internal transfers out of the Promo acct first.
Did anyone else hear that crashing noise? Ally Bank just lowered their savings rate.
If you want to lock in rates on liquid accounts, this week might be a good time to act. For example, I opened a PurePoint. NPCD yesterday at 2.5% APY to, as much as anything else, secure the 13 month lock.
Q: Shin, what if you’re wrong and rates do not fall?
That’s no bigee. I can always cash out the NPCD after seven days, or whatever. I am locking PurePoint. They are not locking me.
Wealthfront has been my go to
I am stuck with liquid money coming in during July and August because of CDs maturing then. There is nothing I can do. I do not want to close the CDs early and pay a penalty. So
I am all but clearing out Grow . . . . for now. Moving money from Grow to PurePoint. NPCDs in order to lock the rate. Will use the maturing CD money to re-fund Grow in a few weeks.
Q: So, shin, you are locking for 13 months at PurePoint. You must really expect liquid rates to fall. No?
Yeah, with end of June ALSO being the end of the quarter, and with economic numbers slipping like they are, it seems to me there might be very little time remaining to lock up yields on liquid funds. So I’m using PurePoint to do that. If it turns out I’m full of prunes I can just cash in at PurePoint. and take back my money.
But, yes, I am worried PurePoint. could drop their 13 month NPCD rate. It’s still at 2.5% right now and I took advantage. That 2.5% NPCD rate is looking to me like a bird in the hand today . . . . . which could look more like a gift horse in a week if rates descend.
I’m sorta doing the same thing. I used $'s from Grow to fund Interior FCU CD & also for Hanscom CD’s.
I think we follow the same path with CD’s maturing in July & August. If no good deals come along then I will put those funds into Grow. It seems like they are only guaranteed until March 2020. (I think) Hopefully Grow may keep that 2.75% rate. Who know what happens with money in the future.
Just a reminder for those using NORTHERN bank. They sent me this today along with a phone call. The person on the phone stated if the balance got over $250,000 the ENTIRE rate dropped. Which is what this email says. It’s possible they are looking for any excuse to get rid of the 2.5% rate lock till end of year.
Hello,
Effective July 1, 2019, the interest rate and annual percentage yield (APY) on your Northern Bank Direct Money Market account will change. The tiers are changing as follows and the blended APY will no longer apply. You will earn the stated APY on your total account balance of the tier that your account balance aligns with.
- Average daily balances less than $250,000.00 will earn an interest rate of 2.47% and APY of 2.50%.
- Average daily balances $250,000.00 up to $999,999.99 will earn an interest rate of 1.24% and APY of 1.25%
- Average daily balances $1,000,000.00 and above will earn an interest rate of 0.25% and APY of .25%
If you wish to prevent the lower interest rate on balances of $250,000 or greater you have several options:
- Open a second Money Market Account
- Set up automatic transfers to an external account
- Set up automatic transfers to an internal account
Actually that’s exactly what the email says…
You will earn the stated APY on your total account balance of the tier that your account balance aligns with.
Yeah…it was a victim of editing.original sentence was “which is not how it normally works but it’s what the email says…” but I deleted a section and voila…anyway I fixed it but it had already gone out to yall. 
Thanks.
Yes, but of course neither of those CDs is liquid . . . . leastways not absent payment of an early withdrawal penalty. I posted over here on the Liquid Accounts thread because NPCDs are, at least in my view, liquid funds.
My liquid funds calculus was/is that the PurePoint. 2.5% NPCD can go away at any time, can become unavailable at the drop of a hat . . . . whereas my Grow account is locked for at least a while longer. Grow MM Promo will be there for me in mid July when I need the account to house maturing CD funds. By then PurePoint. at 2.5% could be long gone.
It’s tempting…just remember they offer no guarantee how long it will stay that rate.
Most banks don’t offer a guarantee. I think you can count the number of accounts with a “rate guaranteed until dd/mm/yy” on one hand.
Your right…but this isn’t exactly just a “bank”…it’s a brokerage that is sweeping the money into and out of up to 4 banks. There is a distinct possibility it could be much more variable in nature than normal.
Bought yet another NPCD at PurePoint. this morning. Gosh I have jumped in with both feet and am out on a limb. I could be so very, very full of prunes on this one. You see:
Every time I move money from Grow to a PurePoint. NPCD I’m taking a 0.25% haircut on the rate. So a rational person would ask:
Q: Shin, why are you doing this, accepting a lower interest rate, thereby shooting yourself in the foot?
What I really need to be doing is nothing at all unless PurePoint. is going to cut their NPCD interest rate. Then, day before they cut their rate, if they do, I need to open a bunch of NPCD certificates. That is what smart money would do. Regrettably for me, and more’s the pity, I do not have the inside scoop on when a PurePoint. rate cut will come . . . . if it even is in the cards to begin with. So at this point it’s all seat-of-the-pants guesswork. And if PurePoint. holds their NPCD rate, which surely could happen, all I’m left with is lost interest and a bag of prunes. 
Don’t quite understand your thinking. With NPCD’s your able to withdraw those funds, but at the same time you’re losing interest in the long run. I know your thinking rates are going down, but also I see a few savings rates staying at 2.5% + at quite a few sites. (Wealthfront or something like that)
He’s going for the longer rate lock. The longest rate lock on savings/mma generally available is end of the year.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs is dropping to 2.15% tomorrow.
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Well I opened up the GTE 5 year ($500 opening deposit) with unlimited addon’s. Gives me some flexibility farther down the line. That and the MACU 3.51% up to 100k with addons are my two insurance policies for lower rates. Debating whether to take the funds from sell of house and put them in the GTE jumbo or invest in stock market on a day when the market is doing crappy. I could sit it in a liquid account or no penalty cd for now.
Ken over at depositaccounts.com had this to say in his recently released cd forecast blog entry: Emphasis mine.
“With the odds of Fed rate cuts increasing to such high levels, it’s looking more and more likely that the rate hiking cycle is long over and we are at the start of a period of falling rates that could last for one or more years. If you want yields of at least 3%, it’s now time to seriously consider mid-term and long-term CDs. I don’t think 3% CDs will be around for much longer. A 3% CD special may pop up now and then, but I’m afraid those specials will probably be rare.”
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