CD Discussion Thread

Nasa FCU has a 9 month CD at .75%. By no means groundbreaking, but it is an option to lock in today’s meager - and constantly reducing - liquid rates without a long term commitment.

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IRA only IRA only IRA only IRA only

(The below is stolen from Ken’s website. Credit to poster kcfield.)

US Postal FCU continues–as they have for a long time–to offer a 5 year IRA CD rate of 1.50% APY; and membership is open to anyone through membership in the American Philatelic Society. This is one financial institution that offers much higher rates for their 5 year IRA CD than for their regular CD.

I’m fortunate right now to have that IRA add-on CD with NFCU at 3% APY.

But if I had IRA money today looking for a CD home, the above is a pretty good IRA CD deal.

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Philately is the study of postage stamps and postal history. :slight_smile:

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Don’t pumps shut off? You’d drive around from one pump to the next putting in 50 cents of gas? That seems way more effort than low-dollar Amazon reloads.

Well you could pump 50 cents, hang up the pump, get the receipt, and rinse and repeat multiple times at the same pump. At a large gas station with 16+ pumps, I doubt they’d notice or care. Not my cup of tea but would likely work just fine.

Weiss Ratings has just posted their credit union ratings based on Q3 NCUA data.

Link to Weiss Ratings website

Among my credit unions: no upgrades

But I am seeing three downgrades including Navy Federal Credit Union, Sharonview FCU, and Department of Interior FCU.

GTE FCU held at “C+”.

Garden Savings FCU held at “D+”.

Freedom Credit Union held at “A” and is now my sole A-rated credit union at Weiss. This is good because I have an add-on CD at Freedom CU. :grinning:

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One big one you missed: Alliant was upgraded to a ‘C’:

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Thank you for posting. Alliant is not on my Weiss watchlist because I have no certificates of deposit there. It is good Alliant was upgraded and good that you let us know. Thanks

No problem. Perhaps it belongs in the high APY thread, since at .55% I suspect many of us have some portion of our liquid savings with Alliant, and are hopeful that the rate can somehow be maintained next month.

I give you all credit, I could not keep track of the dozens of CDs many of you have open, juggling multiple institutions and their policies all at once.

It’s rather easily accomplished if you have signed up for the Weiss watchlist . . . which is free.

Evansville Teacher’s FCU upgraded to an A-. Maybe the 3.3% RCA rate will continued… :crossed_fingers:

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Happy New Year to you CD aficionados.

Today provides me opportunity to remind all of something discussed here prior, but not recently: CD bonus interest.

My own CD at Empower FCU carries a nominal interest rate of less than 3.2% APY. But the credit union just declared a year-end bonus which has raised that rate up to 3.36% APY. This year’s bonus, at 6.5%, is the smallest I have experienced since joining Empower. But as you might understand, I have no complaints whatsoever!

The overarching point is to be aware of this bonus stuff when you open new certificates of deposit and when you are comparing CD interest rates. The hundreds of dollars Empower just paid me is real money.

One thing to consider, though, and this might possibly be a negative aspect for some individuals:

The bonus I received was awarded in cash into my savings. Hence, it was not added into my CD and will never compound at the high rate of interest I am being paid there. This is not a complaint, but it is a consideration.

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This bonus stuff is new for me… When you opened Empower FCU, was the bonus spelled out?

Thanks & Happy New Year.

Empower is known to be a credit union which declares a yearly bonus. This is on the basis of their history over many years. However:

The size of the bonus varies a great deal from year to year, depending on what kind of year the credit union had looking back across the entire year. In the past I have received bonuses as high as fifteen percent. For 2020 I feel fortunate to have received any bonus at all.

The “bonus” is just a distribution of the credit union’s excess profits for the year.

And I’m pretty sure there’s a thread specifically for this topic, from last year. Discussion should continue there. Edit: It was actually this thread. So carry on. :slight_smile:

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For those like me with tons of Penfed CDs maturing, just curious where people end up parking that money at the moment.

We’re likely moving it to addon CDs (3.3% for 3.5 years) but I’m not sure this is the best solution.

Add-on CDs are good options. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of them. So I ended up purchasing a few MYGAs, with maturities 3yr, 4yr and 5yr.

Which did you go with if you don’t mind sharing? What kind of rates did you get overall for those terms?

Besides the differences between FDIC/NCUA insurance vs. state guarantee fund ($250k in my state), anything else to watch for?

I purchased them last year Jul ~ Sept and they were all slightly above 3%. Now the rates have gone down some to 2+%. Browse what is available for your state at

MYGAs have high surrender penalties so make sure you plan to hold them to maturity. There is also a 10% tax penalty on the earnings if you withdraw before age 59.5. But this can be avoided by rolling into a new MYGA when the old one matures.

If you have 3.3% add-on CDs, that seems to be a better bet.

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Lucky gal, nice add-on CDs.

My first high rate CD is maturing end of January. Unluckily more CDs maturing during this year. At this time I will be placing those fund in Keesler’s HIMMA+ accounts.

Those MYGA rates are good but I don’t wish to tie up funds for such a long period.

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