Rather than muddy the CD Discussion Thread, I’m creating this topic to discuss positive/negative experiences with Andrews Federal Credit Union.
They have a compelling offer right now for a 9-month CD with 2.75% APY (see https://www.andrewsfcu.org/whats-new/promotions/specials.html#goto_1). It is easy to qualify for membership by joining the American Consumer Council (free with promo code “Andrews”), and you also have to open a $5 share account with Andrews.
While this is interesting, online reviews are overwhelmingly negative due to customer service issues. That said, most of the ones complaining were on the borrowing side, not the saver side. Opening a CD online appears to be painless, but if one ever did need customer service (to, say, make sure they don’t renew the CD), then it might not be pretty.
I joined and opened a share & 9-month CD last night. The process was easy. Today, I was sent a message indicating that they could not transfer more than $1,005 through ACH. Message was a bit unclear but I read elsewhere that you can deposit through a shared branch. I asked about that through the secure message. Hopefully, that is an option and I can keep the process moving.
P.S. No hard pull notification yet. (It could come later if they have not fully processed me).
I have an old account with Andrews FCU. Remember when they offered their Black Friday 3% CD. Well that CD matured last year & I kept the acct open with a small savings.
I plan to open this 9-Month CD Special 2.75% this coming week. I have a Navy CU CD that matures 7/12, so will use those funds to open this one. (hope it doesn’t close to soon)
I noticed on the print out that each member is limited to one Special 9-Mo CD during the promo period.
They responded today. They clarified that the limits had been expanded for this promotion and apologized for the misinformation. They also confirmed a check deposited at a shared branch works as well. My choice on how to proceed. So far, so good with these guys.
Thanks for the update. Did you leave the application incomplete until they called you? That’s where I’m at right now … it says that I’d have to wait until they called me to discuss how to make a deposit.
Did they specify what the limit really is? If it is higher than I plan to deposit, I could just go ahead with the application.
Yes, web site showed it as incomplete. I conversed with them through their message system. Not sure on limit as I was only doing $3,000. You may want to try the messaging system - they seem to respond within 24 hours or less.
Was that an interactive chat, or the leave a message dialog? I have tried the latter three days ago.
I’m about to give up on Andrews. I’ve been trying to open the require share account and 9 month CD since late last week, and have been unsuccessful. I’ve tried four different methods of customer service contact and cannot get through. I left my number for a callback and it said it was 9th in line. That was 3 hours ago, so not hopeful.
The issue is that I cannot enter a value > $10000 when setting up the CD, and I certainly don’t want to try to fool it with a lower number and fix it later, because the offer is one per customer. I may have better luck opening just the $5 share account first and then see what new options for customer contact may appear for existing customers, but I really don’t want to hassle with opening/closing an account unless I’m assured to get the CD promo.
Unfortunately, it was the leave a message dialog. Sorry that you’re having trouble.
You may have found the limit if you could not enter > 10000. I was going to mention that I recalled seeing some info on this when stipulating the amount. I think you are referring to the same thing.
Oh, it’s kind of a sport at this point. They never did call back, and no response to the message I left late last week. I did go ahead and complete the account application with just the share account and a transfer of $10,005 to it (the max they’d allow). Now it is sitting in “referred state”.
I cannot recall having had problems with the Andrews call center. However, when opening a CD with them a while back I placed about half my calls to an Andrews branch office, instead. I think it was because the call center wait time was long (cannot recall for certain). Regardless, the folks at the branch office took very good care of me. IIRC, I actually sent my deposit to the branch office, receiving in return their personal attention to that deposit.
This morning 7/13, I did an ACH into Andrews. These funds will go directly into the Andrews Savings. I will add more funds next week to the savings until I’m ready to open the 9-Month Special 2.75%. The site said each member could only open one of these Specials.
Firelands FCU 9-Mo 3%, advertisement makes me stop & think. Is this a sign that maybe I should put a hold on finishing my Andews FCU 9-Mo 2.75%??
First of all I can’t qualify & you must appear in person to open Firelands. So what to do? My funds will be in Andrews 7/16. Any suggestions?? As Shinobi said in an earlier post, go 50/50, Savings 2.26% & 9-Mo CD 2.75%…
I don’t know how much you are trying to put into CDs but the difference may not matter much. I would do as you indicated - split the funds. If nothing else comes up better, put some of the rest in the next best CD that comes up. You could also consider a longer term option that has a decent rate if you don’t mind locking the funds up for say 2-3 years. Just my random thoughts.
I think you should focus less on yield . . . and more on maturity date or, said another way, availability of funds.
Am not saying to ignore yield. Merely reminding that early November draws nearer and looms larger with each passing day.
FWIW, I myself have considered a small move away from liquidity. But so far the difference in income is insufficient to compel me to surrender my beloved dry powder.
Opening the CD was very quick & easy. I ACH’ed funds into Andrews FCU savings until I had enough money in Savings to open the CD. The transfer of the savings money into the CD was all handled online. I didn’t have to phone Andrews at all.
I’ll trust that there’s a distinct difference in ease of dealing with them once you are an established customer.
I am now on Day Nine of trying to get an account opened there, and have had bumps along the way such as three attempts at using their “We will call you back so that you don’t have to hold on”, one instance of finally reaching a human who said they had no idea what the status was of my application and had no way to find out, etc.
That said, things have started to move finally. They needed me to unfreeze ChexSystems (which is reasonable), send in all sorts of identification (which is not unheard of), and unfreeze TransUnion. The latter disturbs me a bit but I did it after they promised in writing that it would be a soft pull. A freeze isn’t supposed to block soft pulls, but since they understood my concern and answered me specifically, I played along.
Once I provided that, I felt good about getting through the process and am getting quick responses via their web chat. At this point, though, they’ve asked me to give them permission to process the application. Um, yeah, OK, that would be good.
Watch out, if you tell them to transfer $10005 you will ONLY get a $10000 CD, you won’t be able to add money later. I was misled by their “check this checkbox if you want to deposit more than $10000” checkbox.
I called them up and they cancelled the CD and told me to wait.
They did tell me that this rate will be good through September so there is supposedly time.
I hear you. That’s why I never finished the application the way I had initially attempted it, because I was waiting for the contact they promised after checking that checkbox. So mid last week, I decided it best to cancel that application and start a new one with just the share account. The $10,005 I transferred was just to the share account, with no mention yet of the CD.
Trial deposits in both directions happened overnight, so I’m now able to transfer between Andrews and my external account. I’m still not sure of their ACH limits. They told me in chat $5000 for a pull from them (I thought it was $10000) but I could push in as much as I wanted. So I’m now pushing the remainder to the share account to fund the CD. [Under “Help” on their external transfers page it says this: The daily limit for inbound and outbound transfers is $5,000. The monthly limit for inbound and outbound transfers is $25,000.]
Lesson learned about Andrews: If you think there is any possibility you might go for one of their deals, go ahead NOW and set up your $5 share account (after joining American Consumer Council with code “Andrews” if not otherwise eligible), and get your transfers set up. Then you’ll be ready to roll should a deal attractive to you pops up.
