CD Discussion Thread

Finance
2420

Weiss Research is out with new ratings for end of Q1 2021. Some might be of interest to participants here:

Safety rating for GTE Federal Credit Union (Tampa, FL)
Was upgraded to B- from C+

Safety rating for Sharonview Federal Credit Union (Indian Land, SC)
Was downgraded to C- from C

Safety rating for Sun East Federal Credit Union (Aston, PA)
Was upgraded to B- from C+

Not thrilled about Sharonview because I have CD money there paying 4% APY, I need them to stick around until 2024, and itā€™s only the middle of 2021.

2 Likes
2421

Interior FCU kept their promise. My CD matured today $ fundā€™s already in Savings.

Just transferred all funds over to TIAA. Canā€™t really transfer to final destination until tomorrow (Friday). So caught again with the same old weekend drama.

Iā€™ll maybe be a couple days ahead of those folks that had CDā€™s mature on weekend. lol

3 Likes
2422

Iā€™m able now to add my own data point as well, pattyb53. And I have to admit Iā€™m feeling a good measure of relief. After all, given my Friday maturity I needed to ā€œgit 'er doneā€ in a matter of hours or face loss of three days of interest. Quite a large amount of money was involved.

I was up early and so was Interior. They were better than their 6:00 am transfer promise, and I took full advantage. Seeing the money in savings I went straightaway to the Interior wire form and filled it out quickly. I already had practiced with the form yesterday, but obviously could not submit it then not knowing the amount of money I would want to wire.

The only problem I encountered was uploading my driverā€™s license. This was my own fault because I stupidly did not read the instructions. So I went back over everything, finally saw and read the instructions, followed them, and all was good from there forward. You have to, in essence, send them a general purpose message, attach your license copy, and include certain wording which they provide for you if only you read the instructions first.

Anyway all that was accomplished long before the credit union opened. I later received an answer online to my message acknowledging they had my license. An hour or two still later they telephoned me and did a comprehensive wire data double check.

Interior sends wires in two batches, the first at 11:00 am ET and the last at 3:00 pm ET. I badly wanted to make the first batch, which is why I started so early. And my wire was included in the first batch. This helped me avoid drama at the destination financial institution which closes at 5:00 pm and has no weekend hours.

Anyway bottom line I am completely satisfied with Interiorā€™s wire service which was WELL worth the twenty bucks. My CD money is now earning interest at an APY actually slightly higher than I was getting from Interior, Iā€™m a happy camper, and life is good. :slightly_smiling_face:

2423

shinobi, you are a warrior!
I never could have managed that wire. Right off the bat, getting the DL deal would have ā€œdone me inā€.

So you beat me. I have my funds at TIAA now & able to transfer a max limit of $50k per day. I have a pretty good deal with TIAA, a Money Mkt account @ 1.29%. (old acct), not available any longer.

On Monday Iā€™ll transfer the $50k to Keesler HIMMA+, and keep the remaining funds at TIAA.

You are in the best deal with the old ā€œadd-onā€ account. Next round Iā€™ll remember to go for them. lol

1 Like
2424

I disagree with you, pattyb53, with the utmost respect of course.

But you have mentioned in the past you have children. And Iā€™m confident you have a driverā€™s license. Ask a child, or grandchild, to scan your license and create a file of the image. You could store a copy of that file on your computer. I prefer to store my own license image file on a thumb drive. Whenever an image is requested by a financial institution you just upload it to them. Itā€™s always the same image except when your driverā€™s license renews. But that should only happen every few years. Meanwhile you just use the same image over and over. You do not need to re-scan your driverā€™s license each time. Itā€™s ā€œonce and doneā€ until next time your license is renewed.

For me last time I needed to update my driverā€™s license image was back in 2018. Will not need to do so again until next year.

If you donā€™t already own a scanner you might want to consider picking one up. I own at least four of them, all bought over the years at off price. But to be honest Iā€™m only using one.

You are totally killing it at TIAA. And I, like a dunce, closed my account with them. Arrrrrg!! :crazy_face:

2425

Technically, @shin is correct, but you should follow is his own example and

I donā€™t disagree with the above, but you donā€™t absolutely, positively need one.

I hate to suggest this, but it is more practical than buying a scanner if this is the only time you need one. You can use your phone/digital camera to take a picture of your license. If you are in the Apple ecosystem (and I presume the same for Alphabet), you can then download the image to a thumb drive attached to your Mac/PC, and then promptly delete it from your Apple drive/phone/cloud.

1 Like
2426

You guys are so advanced with computer lingo, way out of my league. But I stumble along and managed, at the beginner level.

What is a thumb drive??

My son recently gave me a new phone, iPhone 11, & I wish I could do the things itā€™s capable of. This phone is fantastic.

Anyway Iā€™m just a country gal, trying to get by in the changing technology world. lol

2427

Theyā€™re all being way overcomplicated for little olā€™ you. Just take a picture of your license on your phone. Then email it to yourself so you can open the message on your computer and get the picture. Then save the picture on your computer wherever youā€™ll be able to find it, and use that file whenever you need to send a copy of your license.

If keeping that picture file of your license on your computer causes any grief whatsoever, it means you have much, much bigger issues to contend with than a picture of your license being compromised. So dont worry about it.

4 Likes
2428

Thanksā€¦

My usual method is to, take a photo of the ID, get the e-mail address & just email everything to the (Bank, Credit Union, etc.)

glitch99, I think I can manage your suggestion. Sounds easy & quick. lol

2429

And to add my own experience - my CD matured today, Sunday. True to what I was told, the money has been transfered to my savings account this morning, ready and available for any withdrawals that come in Monday morning.

Glad I did start the ACH process on Friday, for two transfers (the funds are going multiple places, so using wire transfers would get expensive). But I only initiated the transfers where it bouncing wouldā€™ve caused minimal grief, waiting on the other two for when the money was actually in the account.

1 Like
2430

Iā€™ll have to admit that Interior FCU is a wonderful place of which to deal. I did explain to the rep that I spoke to last week, I would leave my $$ there if they had a competitive rate. He understood, but Interior has nothing to offer.

Looks like we three are ready & set move forward with those funds. Nothing really special for me.

I guess several of you folks with add-onā€™s are ā€œkicking your heelsā€ in joyful glee.

2431

Only in one limited sense, patyb53.

Yes, of course it is a help still to be able to access a higher CD interest rate in these challenging times.

But my add-on options at PSECU expired a while back as a practical matter, those CDs maturing later next year whereas I needed help on into 2024 which was unavailable to me at PSECU.

This left me with just two add-on CD options, one of those (GTE) being of uncertain quality. Where I messed up, and badly, was in passing up an MACU add on back when I had the opportunity. I was too fussy, too smart by half, and of course I had no inkling back then how badly in future I would need all the add-on help I could get. So I passed on MACU and possibly on other add-on CDs (cannot remember exactly).

The dilemma when you have too few add-ons is resource concentration. True without add-on CD availability you are being forced to accept lower APYs. But your upside is your ability to continue to spread your CD money around. I do not think concentration of CD funds in only one or two places is a good thing. So I envy your flexibility.

1 Like
2432

Ya got guts, glitch99. In a similar situation a few weeks back I didnā€™t have the cajones to pull that stunt.

Am happy it all worked out. Good for you and congrats!!

2433

Yes MACU is wonderful! I have a 2.4% 5 year add on with them that has 3.5 years left. Only bad thing is their add on CDā€™s are limited to 100k. I will be maxing that out once my PSECU add on expires in late 2022 which will give me 2 years at 2.4%. I still have $600 a month going into PSECU. Sure wish I could increase that but once you decrease you canā€™t increase with them again.

2434

{For owners of GTE Financial CDs only}

NHL news is wildly off topic here, except that:

Your Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club is set to repeat as winner of the Stanley Cup. Florida has two coasts. On the east coast condos are collapsing. On the west coast Tampa, the City of Champions, is about to take out the Province of Quebec in its entirety. Itā€™s a rout, at least so far. And this coming fall TB, the GOAT, will return as QB of Tampaā€™s NFL champion football team.

All this is highly constructive and uplifting for the Tampa region en toto. It is no wonder, perhaps, that the GTE rating at Weiss was just upgraded. The Tampa locale is a fun place to live and a positive setting for GTEā€™s success going forward.

Update

Lest anyone think Iā€™m pushing ice hockey here, Iā€™m not. Iā€™ve not watched a single game of the playoffs so far, though I do plan to watch this evening and root for Tampa Bay, home of my GTE CD money.

But there is a contretemps between our Tampa Bay Lightning coach and (of all people) the MAYOR of Tampa Bay itself . . . who is a woman. She wants our team to LOSE in Canada this evening . . . on purpose. She wants the Lightning to throw the game!!

Tampa Mayor advocating for Lightning to lose tonight . . on purpose!

Because I have CD money on the line in Tampa, at GTE Financial, this has caused me to research that Mayor.

This is not a political thread and I will not be sharing my thoughts. Also, GTE Financial serves a wider area than just the City of Tampa. But because my GTE CD is an add-on, so far uncapped, it is my opinion that I cannot know too much about what is happening in the Tampa Bay region. Right now, for example, Iā€™m keeping an eye on that darn hurricane.

2435

Saint Johnā€™s Parish (SJP) FCU is offering a seven year CD paying 2% APY.

Anyone may join this very small credit union which is rated five stars by Bauer and ā€œAā€ by Ken.

Link to SJP rate page

You need at least $500 to get your CD account open.

Because this is a small credit union I doubt this deal will endure for long if they become swamped.

ETA

Can that be right? It says CD dividends are paid only at maturity!

Wonder how they square that with the tax man. Anyway, be careful.

2436

Yikes! If it were an add-on, Iā€™d be in for openers, but I canā€™t imagine interest rates staying this low for two more years, much less seven.

And before anyone says anything, my imagination is never wrong, or my recollection of it. :laughing:

1 Like
2437

If you do not currently belong to any of these organizations you may qualify for membership by joining the Buffalo Sports & Wellness Association (DBA Healthy Buffalo). Click here to become a member. By clicking the link, you will leave the SJP website and be redirected to a third-party.

^^^^ Healthy Buffalo? WHAT?! If I join, do I have to stop eating buffalo wings? Not gonna happen! How dare these people in the same city that created the famed wings.

:water_buffalo: :money_with_wings:

1 Like
2438

Nobody else has picked up on this so I will. Iā€™m not familiar with longer CDs that pay no interest until maturity. This is my best understanding of how the tax laws work and be aware I could easily be full of prunes on this because Iā€™m not sure:

My understanding is that you must pay tax yearly on CD interest, even if you do not actually collect that interest, if you could have or were entitled to collect that interest. So if you have collectable CD interest that you intentionally allow to compound instead, you must pay tax yearly on that interest amount.

Less clear to me is what happens if the financial institution flatly denies, and disallows, you the right to collect your CD interest . . . . and might not even be declaring your interest so you would know how much it is.

Of course if SJP FCU is sending the IRS a 1099-INT each year then itā€™s really clear that you must pay tax yearly.

But it theyā€™re not sending a 1099 until your CD matures . . . . . . . . . Hmmmm.

2439

I go by whatever is stated in the 1099 since that is what the IRS is given and knows. Imagine the worst case scenario. You report the accrued interest which is not credited to your CD, and that interest is not on the 1099. When the CD matures, the ensuing 1099 will show the total interest. But you have already reported the interest as it accrued, so youā€™re going to have to explain to the IRS that you have paid tax on part of the interest unless you want to pay tax again.