Decision made!! I’m going with NFCU 18 mo 3% CD.
I might have gone with Empower, but they never responded on the CNYPCUG member benefits. (probably to much trouble to bother.) I’m a little disappointed, because I wanted to get in on all the “Xmas giveaways”.
Sorry this has not worked out for you, pattyb53. I think you might have had better fortune had you sought help from a different rep. Also, remember, when I checked with them regarding CNYPCUG, I never submitted anything to them as proof. They have CNYPCUG on their list of organizations. But your rep, unlike the person who took my call, apparently did not know how to access that list. Some reps are simply not as adept as others. When you reach a clinker you have to call back and speak with another rep, a DIFFERENT rep.
Anyhow, that is what I do. Or else sometimes I request, very nicely and politely, to speak with a “supervisor or group leader”.
Going in heavier now on the NFCU five year CD at 3.5%. Surely hope deal remains good tomorrow, else I will have bit of a mess on my hands. Also hope I’m making the right move. Always am nervous about making such a long commitment. Besides I’ll most likely be dead before maturity. Five years seems like an eternity at this point.
Yeah. Eternity. That is the word I was reaching for. 
Anyway, tomorrow being month’s end, looking for deal to to endure at least through close of business. And that is all I will need.
Yes, I’m leery of going for 5 year CD’s. Although I like 3.5%, my last renewal of Driver’s License was 5 yr & it expires 2023. I’m gauging my CD’s to not go past 2023. 
When times were looking good my only 2023 CD maturity is Sharonview 4%. I picked up a couple CD’s that mature 2022 @ 3.66% & 2021 Freedom 3.56%, Hanscom 3%. Too bad we can’t go back & put more funds when those rates were higher.
So now anytime I find a short term 3%, I probably will grab it. (if I have some money)
Yes again, hindsight!! It’s hard to even get someone to talk to at Empower. I should have asked you upfront for the name of your rep. I never would have mentioned your name (I don’t even know it). But maybe it would have gotten me in the door. Next time!! 
Worth a pass probably based on this alone.
Got a rate change notice from depositaccounts that navy fed’s 5 year rate just went from 3.50 to 2.50.
Apparently it’s a false alarm because navyfed still shows 3.50.
Very scary, though, and I really appreciate your post, famewolf. Thank you.
I am piling money into NFCU for that five year. Sure hope it survives July.
ETA
Now I have more time. At the moment I saw famewolf’s post I had funds sitting in my NFCU checking, waiting to move into a 5 year CD! I got out of here like a shot, went over to NFCU, and opened that CD pronto. Prior I thought I had all day to get the CD open. Maybe not.
Anyway, I suspect many other people are buying that 3.5% CD plum. I mean, where else you gonna get 3.5% so easily? And a 4% CD today is only a dream unlikely ever to reappear, at least in my lifetime.
So you have to “get while the gettin’ is good”.
I am ACHing more money today into NFCU. It will not arrive until tomorrow and I have a vastly reduced expectation of being able to open yet another 3.5% CD then, in August. But it’s worth the risk even on chance of unanticipated good fortune on the morrow.
If the NFCU gravy train evaporates, my hope is to be able to scrape together just enough money to participate at 3.3% at GTE. It’s $100K there if you want to play. I do not have that kind of dough without cashing in some existing CDs. Plan is to wait and see if the GTE deal survives July, then move forward (or not) accordingly.
Bottom line this afternoon’s anticipated rate cut is casting a pall. It’s like the sword of Damocles hanging over savers’ heads.
I’m in the same boat!! Part of money got to NFCU yesterday, but they balance will get there tomorrow. I could change my mind, but right now I’m going for the 18 mo. 3.5% sounds good but that 5 yr turns me off.
Is the GTE 3.3% for the longer period?
I’m pretty certain you will be fine with the 18 month going into August. That product was only newly announced a couple of days ago (see my post up thread at time that happened). Ken has only gotten around to blogging the deal today!! So no sweat on the 18.
The five year is another matter entirely. Ken touches on the fragility of that five year deal this morning in his writeup on the 18. I expect the deal to be dead tomorrow or, at latest, close of business Friday. But remember I have a horrible record with such predictions. So who knows.
But I’m betting money is pouring into that NFCU five year right now like Niagara Falls. And that certainly includes some of my own!
Yes, the GTE deal is a five year deal, and it is an add-on deal which is darn nice. It is a fine deal except that it requires one hundred thousand dollars to open such an account at GTE. So it is a deal for whales only.
Remembering I really have no clue, I anticipate the GTE 3.3% deal to survive August.
Q: Shin, why do you say that?
The GTE deal has a much higher barrier to entry than the NFCU deal. There are a great many fewer whales out there than just normal folks with $1000 and a dream, which is all it takes at NFCU. You want “in” at GTE on that deal you gotta have the big bux. With less demand, I think the GTE deal is more likely to survive. But again nobody, least of all myself, knows for certain. We all will know so much more by this time tomorrow.
When I opened my NFCU site this morning & saw 3.5%, at the last minute I opened it. It will be my latest CD investment, maturing in 2024. So tomorrow when the rest of my ACH transfers are complete at Navy I can decide on the 18 mo or maybe the 3.5% will still be available. Decisions…
Update:
I’m just off the telephone with NFCU. Attempted to get some feel for what would happen tomorrow with the five year CD. The rep was very nice and she checked on my behalf with the NFCU CD department.
They refused to make any comment whatsoever, one way or the other. So if the rate dies a mean and ugly death tonight and they know this, they are not saying.
I realize this is very thin soup. But it is all I have to offer. I tried. And I failed.
Thank you for that, Argyll. You are the man. You have always been the man. You will always be the man. Period.
And, yeah, 7200 listings is HUGE. I had no clue there were so many.
For others:
The only reason I mentioned CNYPCUG up thread is because that was how I joined Empower many years ago. It costs $25 to join CNYPCUG. But with SO many other entries on that list, as Argyll has now pointed out, could there be a better, a less expensive way into Empower?
Well, I dunno. But it certainly would not shock me!
Thanks Argyll… If I still had my $100K I would start all over with a new application. It doesn’t make sense why they gave me such a “run around”. It almost would be worth some satisfaction just to see what would happen.
Or I could try to get ahold of my original person & see what she has to say. When they first turned me down the reason was “I had not been employed by CNYPCUG.” I may still try tomorrow.
Today is August first. Pleased to report a happy outcome at NFCU. Their special CD (18 month and five year) rates have held. I risked ACHing funds yesterday. Those funds are now tucked away in a five year CD yielding 3.5% APY. Life is good.
Plan is to do this all over again and open yet another five year CD tomorrow, August second.
Yes shinobi. I did the same thing this am 8/1. Decided to skip out on the 18mo 3% & go for 5yr 3.5%.
Now are you worried about security, going over $250K insurance? Don’t think Navy will go down… 
Naw, I’m not close to that kind of really big money. But I’m still very content. 
Next up will be to see if the Empower rate holds. We will know Saturday morning. If it does, and using Argyll’s approach, it should be possible to go just a bit shorter there and make out at 18, 24, and 30 months. The Empower five year CDs are not good.
Also I just checked the MAC rate sheet for their four year CD (only). So far so good. But it remains early where they live. Still, a 3.1% APR is sweet at four years. MAC FCU is an opportunity I’m definitely considering for my four year CD action.
ETA
And finally, having just checked, can report that five year GTE 3.3% add-on CD remains alive. I do not have the $100K needed at this point. But for those with the dough, it seems to me an opportunity to guard against falling interest rates.
I can’t help but wonder if this is exactly what banks want you to do? This wasn’t a rate cut driven by fundamentals, it was (mostly) driven by outside influence. I don’t know how sustainable it is. I can see banks being glad to take advantage of the panic from falling rates, to lock in money at artificially low rates for the long term.
On a side note, it’s rather humorous to see y’all excited about locking in 3%-3.5% long term, when a mere 6 months ago you were passing on 4% because it wasn’t good enough. 
Well, I’m pretty much done. Did yet another round this morning at NFCU, locking in 3.5%. Waited first until the jobs report numbers were released. Might have hesitated if it had been some sort of “blowout” number. It was not, and even the revisions to past months only gave indication of lower interest rates ahead, not higher. So I jumped in “one more time”.
Have to wonder how much longer NFCU can dangle this lollipop in front of savers before withdrawing it abruptly. I’ll not even hazard a guess. Only God knows what they are thinking. I do not, but when a gift horse emerges from the mist you climb aboard and ride as long as you can.
Other gift horses? Well I checked and GTE continues to offer their 3.3% add-on deal at this hour. It is a good deal in my view, but only for those with the big money who believe CD interest rates will remain depressed.
It’s a morgue over at Ken’s place, only finding junk there. Except at NFCU, these are not halcyon days for CDs. Thank goodness for that 3.5% APY deal. I can use the income.
Yes, me too… Navy has a big add on my e-mail today 3.50% 5yr CD.
I have just about depleted my liquid funds. I couldn’t go with Empower FCU even if they would allow me membership. (I gave Empower a little “power blow” the last couple days, to no avail). 
I even had to close my PurePoint no penalty CD 2.6% $10K, to pay part of my Double Cash CC bill coming up. But I have a USAlliance FCU CD that matures close to the end of the month to tide me over. If NFCU still has the 3.5% CD at that time, I may put part of that CD there.