Empower rep telling me, if they change at all, interest rates generally change on Saturdays. Tempted to try for Friday coups; go in with a check on Friday, open CD with a paper check, collect three days of double interest on amount deposited. Course I also could lose the deal entirely with this approach, if rate changes sooner than Saturday. Monitoring situation closely.
Going with NFCU five year 3.50% APY CD special, provided rate lasts until Friday. It should. ACHing funds in. Smaller $$ commitment than at Empower because of five year term. Still a good core holding for long term.
Have concern regarding what sort of reaction next weekâs widely anticipated rate cut will trigger in the CD world, should it actually materialize.
ETA
There is no drama. The above is wrong. Just discovered Empower is guaranteeing the rate until end of business tomorrow (Friday). Three days of double interest. What a happy outcome.
Posting once again regarding Empower FCU. This because APYs there for 18 month through 30 month CDs continue to look very good. They change rates on Saturdays. But the interest rates which commence tomorrow are already up and, unlike at too many other financial institutions, they were not cut.
I opened my second Empower CD today, a two year at 2.95% plus the Christmas giveback. Took advantage of opportunity to inquire, once again, about membership, from two different reps in person. The answer I received was same as the one I had been given on the telephone before I posted earlier, up thread, about this. In essence anyone can become an Empower member. No office visit is required. You must first, of course, join a qualifying organization (see my post up thread). They emphasized that the application can be completed online.
The Empower interest rates for longer CDs, e.g. the five year, are not impressive. But for anyone wanting to diversify into something shorter, this is a really first class opportunity.
shinobi, this certainly didnât work for me!! I even joined an organization & paid $25 for the membership. They came back & said I had to be employed by that organization. Made me very angryâŚ
Your suggestion is to âspeak to a representativeâ and yet the whole point is one representative tells shinobi one thing while another tells pattyb53 something different. The one thing we can EXPECT is consistency.
As for @pattyb53, have you tried talking to a second representative and did you use the same organization that shinobi recommended in his original comments?
It sounds as if she might have. The cost to join CNYPCUG is, indeed, $25.
I cannot account for her experience, famewolf, except to agree she might have run into a bad Empower rep, one who is unfamiliar with their organizational associations.
I have, at this point, spoken with three reps, all of whom gave me precisely the same information. So could my information nevertheless still be bad? Unfortunately, in this day and age, the answer is âyesâ. Everyone here knows that. But the answer also, in my view, is âprobably notâ.
Consider that I myself, years ago (it was more than ten years ago), joined Empower on the same basis Iâm writing about here, as a person living outside NY State and with only my CNYPCUG membership to get me in.
It is something of a miracle, in my view, that the Empower CD rates have held. This gives pattyb53 another week. I hope she keeps on trying to join Empower. One other thing, a small thing but possibly worth mention:
When I initially called Empower on this, before writing my first post way up thread, I remember it took the rep extra time to confirm CNYPCUG was a qualifier. This was because it is, to them, an âorganizationâ and not an âemployerâ. The Empower list of qualifying organizations is less prominent and available than their employer list, so it took them a while to locate CNYPCUG. Why? I dunno. And of course organizations have no employees; they instead have only members. At least this surely is true for CNYPCUG. I write this having myself been a CNYPCUG member some years ago.
shinobi, I was thinking that maybe you lived in NY & thatâs a reason you got in. But maybe 10 years ago they were a little more âeasy goingâ. But I will try again on Monday.
Actually I had tossed all my Empower info away, but I can pull it up again. I wonder if any of our folks tried to get in on Empower. The rate is nothing that great but itâs a challenge now to see what they say when I recite your experience to them.
Yes, as shinobi originally stated & I have started checking back. I found a sheet from CNYPCUG that stated right in front on me, " Through a special arrangement with Empower FCU members qualify for membership in the credit union.".
So there, I have ammunition to give to a rep or supervisor. I originally e-mailed a copy of my membership payment of $25. Iâm ready now!!
Iâm uncertain of the context of that comment. The rate is not great compared, for example, with Sharonviewâs 4% five year CD, which no longer is available. And there have been other âno longer availableâ CDs in the last year of similar terms with higher rates.
But I just went in heavy at Empower at both 18 months and at two years. And here is why:
At 18 months I will receive a minimum APY of 2.90%. The Christmas giveback bonus can reasonably be anticipated to move that number up to between 3.05% and 3.33% APY. Looking at Kenâs charts for 18 month certificates, the highest in the USA right now is at Andrews FCU. Their 17 month CD is paying 2.95% APY. The second best on Kenâs chart is Empower itself at 2.90%. And incidentally, I reconfirmed with the Empower folks that the Christmas giveback bonus remains an Empower feature. They did correct me a little, pointing out that the giveback, while it happens during the Christmas holiday season, is not customarily announced on Christmas day, but instead a few days later.
My two year CD pays a base rate of 2.95% APY. Looking again at Kenâs charts, that rate is higher than any nationwide rate. And this does not take into consideration the Christmas giveback bonus. I anticipate an actual APY of between 3.09% and 3.39%, with the giveback.
As always, Ken lists local-only and regional-only CD deals which yield a little more than the above. But at this time I believe the Empower rates are very good. Course it would be great today to have rates same as they were back at the peak. But back then I had no money to invest . . . . . . . at least not unless I had cashed in some CDs early and paid the penalty. I didnât do that because, at the peak, nobody rings a bell to let everyone know itâs the peak. So I didnât know.
Argyll is right ⌠there is absolutely nothing on the Empowerâs website indicating that membership in some PC userâs group qualifies you for membership. Nothing. Yet, if during the course of your applying for membership you can convince someone with the right authority that you should be able to join, then you are in. Itâs that simple. Let us know how that goes.
Early morning update, information not yet on Kenâs website though it probably will be, soon:
NFCU now offering a sweet 18 month CD having 3.00% APY. This CD, as always at NFCU, is easy to open online.
Also, at least so far, the NFCU five year CD rate of 3.5% APY is holding. How much longer only God knows, with rates elsewhere tumbling and with a Fed rate cut widely anticipated on Wednesday.
Both of the above are effective and available on 07/29/2019.
I posted the above twelve days ago. The âthis morningâ there refers to twelve days ago! The writing speaks for itself, but only to those who actually read it.
I warned the information could be bad. Any info you get from a rep can be bad. But I was told just twelve days ago that CNYPCUG remains a valid way into Empower. I would not have posted that information twelve days ago otherwise. Period.
I also posted that, more recently. As the post suggests, Empowerâs list of qualifying organizations is neither on their website nor instantly available to reps. Only their employers list is on the website. The rep who took my call had to look elsewhere to find the organization list, and it took her extra time to locate it, as I mentioned before.
Q: So shin, did you not see coming this new NFCU 18 month deal? It was only last week that you dumped a whole lot of 18 month CD money into Empower at a lower rate . . . at least a lower nominal rate. Any regrets?
I did not see the NFCU 18 month deal coming. I had no clue and I was taken completely by surprise earlier today. The NFCU deal is still better considering one needs only $1000 to obtain a rate higher than what it takes $100,000 at Empower to achieve. Thus, NFCU will work for many more folks than will the Empower deal. This is a good thing.
Nevertheless, I have no concerns or regrets. I fully anticipate, at Empower with their giveback, besting that 3.00% APY level. However, 3% is a great CD APY at 18 months. I certainly expect to get some of that NFCU action for myself later this week. Since the deal only went live a few hours ago, it should remain available for a while. First, though, I think I will pile on just a bit more of the NFCU five year action. The NFCU five year CD deal is becoming a bit long in the tooth. Iâm less certain of its endurance and I want to get more before the deal disappears.
Q: Diversification?
Yes, some shorter, some longer is the way Iâm headed at this point. Had I been able to get into Hanscom (they rejected me) I would also be sniffing around their four year CDs. Hanscom has had the best four year CDs for a long time. But given how things are, at least Iâll have CD action at 18 months, two years, and five years. Things could be worse.
Additional comment regarding 4 year certificates:
Hanscom is presently at 3.1% APY. But Ken is showing many local and regional deals well in excess of that figure. Some exploration of those local/regional offerings could yield fruit.
So hereâs what happened this morning. I finally got through to the original rep handling my app. I gave her the name of my organization. She asked if I could e-mail a copy. I tried & it kept feeding back that her e-mail was not good. I e-mailed it anyway, so she probably didnât get it.
So then I go here & see your info on NFCU 18mo 3%. It is really hard to get a real voice to talk to at Empower. So I could keep on trying or just forget & go to NFCU.
I certainly am in no position to offer you counsel, pattyb53. Iâm comfortable with where I am. If you have the big money it takes to get the Empower deal, and if it were me, I would try for the Empower giveback. The NFCU 18 month has only been around for thirteen hours at this point. I think you have some time to arrive at a decision on it. On the other hand, the Empower 18 month rate is only guaranteed until close of business Friday. So if you opt for Empower and the giveback you have time to do the deal, but you do not have time to dawdle. Course I thought the rate would collapse last Saturday . . . and I was wrong!
I retried to e-mail the CNYPCUG Member Benefits to my rep at Empower FCU. This time Iâm sure it went through. It has been several hours & I havenât heard back. So only time will tell if that rep will return the call or e-mail. Maybe like when you talked to them about honoring it, they are still checking!!
At present GTE Financial is offering a 5 year Promo Add-On which pays interest as follows:
3.3% APY
Q: But shin, are you not aware that is 0.2% less than the current NFCU interest rate for their five year?
Iâm aware. Iâm also aware the GTE offering is an unlimited add-on and the NFCU offering is not!
For those who see falling or steady interest rates ahead, that 3.3% APY could be the highest add-on CD situation out there and available today. I know of none higher. If you do, please post!
Todayâs deal is for those seeking to locate a decent four year CD. Hanscom appears superficially to be the leader in this realm.
Maybe not.
There might be a bit of juice in the MAC FCU deal in Fairbanks. Their APY for the four year CD is same as Hanscom, 3.1%. But the MAC APR is also 3.1%. Hence external compounding might offer the opportunity to boost the APY above Hanscom.
Q: Might?
Yes, I have not yet spoken with MAC and I do not know how frequently interest is permitted to be withdrawn. You cannot reinvest MAC interest until it is in your hands.
Q: Shin, can you provide a toll-free number so we can call?
