I have kept some old accounts opened with a minimum amount of money. Always in hopes that at a later date an offer would come along & I would not have to reopen the account.
So today I see Andrews FCU offer of a 9-Month CD 2.75%. Well I have an old Andrews FCU with a $5 balance. I also just opened MainStreet Bank 15-Month 2.80% CD this past week. Here are two short term CD’s that sound pretty good.
Big dilemma coming up this next because I have a large Navy CU CD that will mature. Where will I place these new funds. Liquid Savings rates are pretty good also, averaging 2%+. Folks think rates are going up in 3-4 months.
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on at Navy Federal but I had accumulated a couple hundred dollars in interest from their 15 month 2.25% addon cd in my savings. I attempted to ach that to my LINKED ally account. I emphasize linked because I used ACH to send money to NF from ally and to link the account on ally NF would have had to receive the two micro transactions used to validate the connection.
I was sent a “returned item” notice from NF. Upon inquiring I was told the federal reserve stated savings account were not allowed to do ACH transactions and if I wanted to do them I would need to open a checking account.
Now first the federal reserve caps the # of ach transactions a savings account can do per month without penalty to 6 but it certainly does NOT state savings accounts can’t do ACH. I also don’t want to open another account simply to get the couple hundred in savings. Not sure what their issue is but I suppose if they won’t give me my money electronically I will tell them to close the savings account and send me a check. That will just leave the CD which will mature next March. At that point I think I’ll close my account because this whole mess doesn’t sound right and I don’t deal with banks that make it difficult for me to get MY money back.
famewolf, It’s true that you need a Checking account with Navy in order to ACH transfer funds. I learned that lesson a long time ago. If you do business with Navy (ACH) just go ahead and open a checking account & do the small deposits. Then when you wish to move funds, the task is simple.
As patty said, NFCU has had this policy forever. They do not allow ACH to outside institutions from savings accounts. I like this because I think it’s a good safety feature.
You can open a checking account free with $0 and keep a zero balance with no fee.
Navy Federal is the largest credit union in the world so a lot of people have learned to work with this.
Thanks guys for the followup on NFCU. It just seemed very arbitrary since they were letting me transfer $10 a month INTO the savings from an external acct via ach which then got put into the cd since it had an addon feature with a minimum amount due. At least I find out it’s consistent. Also glad to hear it has no fee’s or minimum balance because I thought they might be trying to pull a fast one there.
OK, so here is a good example of what I was writing about up thread. Ken just posted this new “high rate” deal for a one year CD, available nationwide:
So there you have a one year CD deal at 2.55%. But those of us with NBD accounts can realize 2.26% and safeguard coveted dry powder at the same time . . . . like eating your cake and having it, too.
The tiny pickup in income is insufficient, in my view, to induce surrender of dry powder which could prove VERY important this fall. You want my dry powder? Well you need to pay me at least 1% over the interest rate I’m already being paid!
shinobi, I think I will take your advice & use Northern Bank Savings 2.26%. There are so many short term CD’s coming up like 15Mo 2.80%. For the difference here, maybe best to just go with NB savings.
You mentioned earlier to wait 4 months & see. Stock market is rising today, maybe something good in the near future. Anyway in a couple days I will have a CD that matures & I will just keep it liquid.
Understood. It’s a quandary. If nothing happens in November to derail the present upward tilt in rates, you’re better off with the higher-yielding short CDs.
But if things go off the rails in November, you are better off having dry powder sitting in AgFed and NBD. Course you can always hedge your bets by going 50-50, 50% liquid and 50% in short CDs.
On the CD side, I would comment there has been nothing decent since Sharonview!! Nothing!! And even Sharonview was only great by comparison. Sad.
BTW, on the liquid side new opportunities appear to be drying up. Ken is featuring new deals worse than our NBD rate at 2.26%, and way worse than AgFed. I wish I had put more into AgFed (technically a CD, after all). And I hope new opportunities surface. S’not happening so far.
Yes, I still have a nice AgFed fund that is paying 2.50%. I’ll keep this one & hopefully one day AgFed will have another good offer.
I also like the idea of a 50-50 deal with those waiting funds I have coming along. But new deals are not good enough % rate to make me shout. So what to do?? Best CD’s I see 9mo 2.75% or 15mo 2.80%. (No 3%'r)
I would normally take a look at the offer from Popular Direct. But, I remember you saying that we might get something BOLD in November. So for now I’m keeping liquid money in Northern Bank savings 2.26%. Plus, I really don’t want to go to 5 year CD’s. (unless a 4-5% offer)
shinobi, you don’t need to apologize for your post.
Like others I did go ahead & move funds into Popular Direct 2% savings. But then I noticed all the hellabalu & rucus (sp) concerning their putting a freeze on withdrawing funds from the account. I decided to take my money out & run. BUT, I had to leave $500 in the account for 6 months & that will end in October 1018.
So that’s my follow-up to “the Popular Direct item.”
