Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts

Finance
2378

No extra SS# for HIMMA+s - They’re worth more selling them to illegals. Just kidding!!!

I read @shinobi 's post with surprise and sadness, as I wanted to open another one this week. I will call tomorrow, but expect they must have modded their rules. I opened one in each of Aug, Sept, and Oct. The first was a small amount just to get an account opened in case they closed the offer before I had more funds. The following two were significantly larger amounts, with correspondingly larger rates.

I did have to explain why I wanted another account when I already had one (and then two) already open. I explained that it was due the higher rate for the larger deposit, and they opened them.

Here, you can see I suggested multiples back in September.

Sorry that they are not allowing new accounts, and hope the offer stays open long enough for everyone to rollover their maturing accounts, or enact the @shinobi strategy.

2379

I think the real danger is losing the 1% bonus of HIMMA+. The rate will fluctuate regardless of when you open the account. My accounts have each lost 5 or 10 basis points since opening.

2380

I am most respectful of this. It makes a lot of sense. I want to add something to what I wrote earlier:

We all know, and it should go without saying, that as a rule an individual rep at any financial institution can give out bad information. I reported what I was told by the KFCU rep with whom I spoke. She seemed knowledgeable, and she did ask me to wait, and she left me hanging on for a while, during which time she checked what she was telling me with another information source within KFCU. So I felt OK about the information I posted. However:

The rule still applies, nevertheless. And this is especially true at KFCU from everything I’ve ever seen here and elsewhere. Hence I am timing my new HIMMA Plus account opening for next week in order that, if something goes wrong or if something unforeseen surfaces, I will have available that additional business day (as compared with this week) to try to put everything right. And even with that extra help, this is KFCU so I realize unforeseen trouble could surface. It goes with the territory.

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2381

And how!! Yesterday I was very fortunate to talk to a knowledgeable agent. With her help I opened an acct for my husband.

The rep was able to give me the acct # immediately. Of course it sounds simple now but at the time we went through the process of docu sign etc. Even though the $5 savings is not in acct with her help I got the ACH transfer of small deposits processed. Today I verified deposits with Alliant CU & made ACH transfers. (but funds will not arrive at Keesler until Monday the 4th) Holiday holdup again….

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2382

This post comes with a nod of the head and thanks to Honkinggoose, without whose help I would still be where I was.

I think arguably the best liquid funds account out there now, not an RCA, is the Keesler HIMMA Plus account. Course even the great HIMMA Plus interest rate turns into a rather mushy pumpkin after six months. And I was getting close.

In the wake of Honkinggoose’s up-thread post I was able to get myself another six months and a higher interest rate to boot. The experience was not perfectly smooth, but it was smooth enough. So much at Keesler, no matter what it is you might want to accomplish, depends on the rep who is assisting you. My rep did not at first know how to pull this off for me. But she kept at it and eventually the deed was accomplished. She told me she had learned something, and that was fine with me.

Need to point out that when I opened my first HIMMA Plus my funds were limited. This of course limits one’s interest rate. Right now I happen to be fat with liquid money, temporarily, until I have to pay off a BUNCH of credit card charges relating to my CD side hustle. So it was a good time for me to renew my HIMMA Plus and snag an extra six months and a higher interest rate simultaneously.

First I drained my old HIMMA Plus of almost everything, via ACH, with the money pouring into Alliant. Next I did two moves of those same funds, again via ACH, back into my Keesler savings. This was done to create (what Keesler views as) “new funds”. You have to have new funds to open, or add to, a HIMMA Plus. This is a tightly enforced Keesler account rule for this account type.

On the day the second tranche of funds arrived there I telephoned Keesler and requested to close my existing HIMMA Plus, moving the small residual balance to my Keesler savings. No problems up to this point.

Next I requested to open a new HIMMA Plus using the new money which had just come into savings. This is where a wrinkle appeared. The rep did not know how to accomplish that given the circumstances. It took a while but she made a couple of calls to her back office and learned what she needed to know to make it happen.

I ended up with a new HIMMA Plus with an updated open (i.e., start) date and a higher interest rate owing to the larger opening amount. So now I’m set until July with a liquid funds account paying 1.40% APY. Life is good.

ETA

There is one additional aspect some might find intriguing:

My new HIMMA Plus account has exactly the same MICR number as my original HIMMA Plus account did. This messed with my head a little until I figured it out, and it sort of explains why Keesler limits members to one HIMMA Plus account at a time per social security number.

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2383

Jeez, now my rep is shot. :smile: Guess I need a new nic … maybe wounded duck.

This is new, or at least after Oct 1, as I have 3 H+ accounts with different MICR numbers, all under my ss# … or at least the one I gave them. :crazy_face:

I tried to open another one yesterday, and was shot down. They tried to tell me only one per SS#. After my evidence otherwise, they explained that they no longer allow multiples because people would just keep opening new ones to extend their rate lock. This must have come from their VP of common sense.

And you are entirely correct about “what you get” depends on “who you get”. If I ever get back down to that next of the woods, I’ll drop a line in their suggestion box for a new company mission statement (or whatever it’s called today) — Consistency.

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2384

Honkinggoose, you are quite simply a font of valuable information concerning the Keesler HIMMA Plus account type. Once again, thank you so much for posting. I was gonna quote this or that portion of your latest post but, what the heck, the entire post is gold!! And it does give me some pause regarding future HIMMA Plus milking, to wit:

Your post points to the possibility that Keesler brass has hesitation regarding members’ attempts to snag the HIMMA Plus 1% bonus more than once. Hence, happy as I was when I posted above about how I accomplished this, I no longer am confident about being able to pull that stunt off again later this year. :cry:

This entire thread focuses on liquid funds. People need pots of liquid money for different reasons. For me it’s my side hustle. Point is, there is no way for me to avoid this. I cannot tie the money up. So an interest rate of 1.4% APY, given the current horrid liquid money circumstances, is salve for this dilemma. I surely hope Keesler does not turn the screws tighter. RCAs, the only alternative, would not work for me for a couple of reasons.

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2385

I’ll need to snag another HIMMA+ in Feb as my present one will expire. Instructions are clear, but should I wait until late Feb or do it now?

Decisions, _____. :wink:

2386

Dont discount the possibility that they just reopened the original account and the promo rate will still expire as originally scheduled…

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2387

I was in a similar spot . . . . . decided "a bird in the hand . . . ".

Point is, if you knew for certain the HIMMA Plus account type is gonna be available at end of February, why bother to act now? There is no reason.

The possible wrinkle is that nobody knows how much longer Keesler is gonna dangle this lollipop out there. And where else you gonna find 1.4% APY on liquid funds, guaranteed for six months? I have no answer to that.

ETA

“There is no reason”

Check that. There might be a reason:

If Keesler is deluged next month with these sorts of renewal requests, the Keelser brass might decide then and there to shut the HIMMA Plus account type down. I am happy to have “done the deed” already. A bird in the hand . . etc…

2388

I did go over this specific point with the rep who helped me. Thing is, in addition to her word I also have the fact that my account now shows a new, and very recent, opening date, not the date I opened originally back during last August.

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2389

Didn’t you just open a second one under a another name? If so, you’re good for another 5 months. FYI, I plan to do that next week. Once, I am in your shoes, I will probably wait until Apr to open another under my name. That is, unless a reliable canary tells me they shutting it down.

On the plus side, since they started limiting their members geographically, there may not be a deluge. :hopeful emoji:

2390

compared to say cap. gains

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2391

any backdoors for new members thru associations etc? Local Mississippi, Louisiana & Alabama Credit Union - Keesler Federal

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2392

IIRC, their employee memberships are pretty much limited to MS companies or Keesler AFB. As with most CUs, family members of current members are eligible without geographic limitation. Otherwise, you have to live in certain southern MS counties or some SE LA parishes.

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2393

I did open a HIMMa+ acct for my husband.

So I have 2 HIMMA+ accounts now, but mine are completely separate. I’m not so concerned about rushing to close the original one that will end in Feb. I sure hope the % rate does not drop.

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2394

I was hoping for an association join or vet. back door. Sounds like a lot of people here qualify?

What’s the next best thing these days, I’d even consider muni. bonds for a tax adv. option too.

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2395

A lot here qualified via that exact backdoor. Which they closed last year.

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2396

Ken is featuring an interesting new Kasasa account today. It has the normal “12 debit card purchases”, “enrolled in e-statements” and “enrolled in and log into online banking”. The rate, 2.01% on up to 50k, isn’t one of the highest, however it also includes a Kasasa savings. This is the interesting part - 1.05% on up to 250k.

Select Bank Kasasa Cash And Kasasa Saver Offer Competitive Earnings (depositaccounts.com)

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2397

Their website application implies it has to be completed in a branch, requiring you to select one of the 5 locations. It also takes your name as one field, not first and last, indicating an off-line application will be used.

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