So happy PSECU AST option is working out for you. This was a great route & % rate is unbeatable now.
Instead I managed to open several of those great CD’s at the time. It nearly depleted my liquid funds but I knew I had several old CD’s that would start to mature soon.
Understood, pattyb53. Happy you got in back then.
Depletion of liquid funds, and liquid funds in general, are concerns for me. It’s a reason I participate over on the liquid funds thread as well as here. I’m uncomfortable not having a decent measure of liquid cash available “just in case”. You never know what’s gonna happen.
I have timed the first tranche of my PSECU CD funds injections so as to dovetail precisely with the upcoming maturity of an existing large CD elsewhere. This happens early in February. So at no point will I be without an adequacy of liquid funds.
Nice thing about the PSECU AST for me is that it protects for future use my other add-on situations, and in particular CDs at GTE and at Freedom Credit Union. Course at GTE you never know what will happen in future. All one can do is hope for the best. 
Respectfully, pattyb53, it remains this morning important not to forget the Step CD offering at Keesler. What you wrote is true. Period.
But the blended interest rate on that Keesler Step CD is only very slightly off the mark. I just checked the Keesler rate page and that high rate for their 30 month Step CD is holding at this hour.
I’m not going into Keesler myself now only because I really do not have sufficient funds to achieve the $100k threshold. But other participants here might be able to qualify for that 3.2% APY CD, or at least for one of the 3.1% APY certificates at Keesler.
For those with cash who are not participating in the PSECU AST program, Keesler right now is a terrific CD deal. Unfortunately the rate can change at any time. Here is a link so you can obtain the current rate whenever you might be reading this post:
Click here, then click on “certificates” and hope the rate is holding
Keesler is one of those “gotta join” credit unions. I’m a happy member and I’ve never even owned a Keesler CD. But I mean, just for comparison look at Langley CU. Anyone can join Langley and they offer a 3% CD, not as high as at Keesler though still decent. But the thing at Langley is that you have to appear in PERSON in Virginia to purchase your CD. And on top of that they limit you to ten grand. Who needs that craziness! Stick with Keesler.
The 3.1% for a non-jumbo CD is likely to beat anything you’ll come up with over the next year (unless you have a higher-rate add-on CD already in place, of course). Unless you think you’ll need the money in a year, I’d do that before one of those 2% 11-month CDs you’ve mentioned, even if I didnt have the funds to reach the higher jumbo tier.
Well, I do. The PSECU AST CD is at 3.25% APY.
Apples and oranges. The Keesler offering is a 30 month Certificate of Deposit having severe penalty for early withdrawal. The Marcus NPCD opportunity is, for all practical purposes, liquid money.
For everyone, a warning:
Do not buy that Keesler Step CD unless you are certain you will not need your money for the next thirty months. That thing has a KILLER early withdrawal penalty. But if you can leave the money alone for thirty months, it’s a great CD!
You truncated the part where I said “unless you think you’ll need the money after a year”. All I was saying is that it’s likely that this 3.1% for 30 months will (greatly?) out-earn 2% for 11 months plus whatever rate is available for the remaining 19 months. And it was only said in response to your comment that you’ve skipped Keesler because you dont have the funds for the jumbo rate - the jumbo rate might be a bit better, but the regular rate is still quite attractive in today’s environment, too.
While I did quote you, I wasnt necessarily talking at you specifically. I was offering my own opinion on the options you had mentioned.
I apologize, glitch99. I hate it when people do that to me. I didn’t realize my truncation was altering the meaning and intent of your post. Again, sorry.
I probably do not really understand what you’re getting at. I’m feeding my currently sparse liquid funds into PSECU slowly via AST. By “going slow” I can nurse the small amount of money I have to last until my February CD maturity, at which point I will have much more money with which to work. I’m going with PSECU at 3.25% instead of Keesler at 3.10% for obvious reasons, not related entirely to the higher interest rate. You see:
If I’m able to continue nursing the situation at PSECU then I retain access to the higher rate for as long as I can keep the injections going. It’s locked in. My funds are limited. If I direct money to Keesler at the expense of PSECU then I risk PSECU shutting me down. Meanwhile the Keesler deal could go away, since the rate there can change at any time, and I’m left with nothing. Better to direct funds to PSECU and keep that lollipop alive for as long as I have the money to do so.
A question has arisen as follows:
What happens if I, as a PSECU AST participant, MISS an injection? In other words, on transfer day insufficient funds are in savings to satisfy the prearranged transfer.
I don’t have a solid answer to that one. But my best understanding is that PSECU will permit at least one missed transfer, allowing you to jump back in on the next scheduled transfer date. However:
If you miss a second or third transfer you risk being reviewed and thrown out of the program. I don’t know exactly how many misses it takes to place yourself in jeopardy. But once you’re out, you’re out for good.
Personally I have arranged things so there will be sufficient funds to see me through a number of funding iterations at the front end of the process this month and next. Come late March, early April, things could become a little difficult and ragged. But by then I expect to have injected via AST pretty much all the money I need to transfer.
Yes, you have a rather specialized set of circumstances that are dictating your current decisions. And the only reason your comment focused on the keesler jumbo option (“I’m not going into Keesler myself now only because I really do not have sufficient funds to achieve the $100k threshold”) is because the rate difference happens to straddle your other options, not because there was a significant difference. That’s kind of my point - I really wasnt speaking to you regarding your choices, it was a much more general opinion regarding choice “a” and choice “b” (neither of which really apply to you currently).
I don’t think we’ll know the percentage until they post it to accounts. They posted it last year on January 11th, so stay tuned… 
This is a heads up regarding NFCU:
A poster named Darrell, over on Ken’s site, has just posted the following regarding NFCU:
When opening my IRA the agent mentioned that they will be opening a similar standard CD beginning in February sometime. She was not specific on the rate, but her suggestion seem to indicate that it would be a 3% 37 month cd.
Obviously it remains very early and the above is highly speculative. But keep your eyes open. And importantly, remember:
The current, ongoing, NFCU 37 month IRA CD, which we discussed here up thread, is an ADD-ON CD paying 3% APY having a tiny $50 buy in.
Any such CD offering with those terms, but available as a standard CD, would be a SCREAMING no brainer.
I received $4.01 on $802.65 interest earned in 2019. Or a whopping one half of one percent. Turned my 3% CD into a 3.015% CD for the year. Yippee!
My Thrive account got the same, a 20-cent bonus on $40 interest earned. I’m heading to Sizzler tonight!
I received $3.87 Hanscom loyalty dividend. My 3% CD looks like it hasn’t changed. WOW 
Thanks, glitch99. Apparently, while Hanscom offers a loyalty dividend, it is not especially meaningful or important.
For sake of comparison, here is a list of recent Empower FCU year end bonuses:
2019 8%
2018 15.4%
2017 16.8%
2016 16.22%
2015 10.02%
2014 11.06%
2013 9.54%
Why the number was that low last year I have no clue. But members know there is no guarantee.
Just the customary reminder, perhaps (sorry) a bit late this time, that unusual double interest opportunity lies just ahead. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a national holiday, is this coming Monday.
Make those deposits tomorrow (Friday) and collect four days of double interest. 
IIRC, the entire Hanscom bonus was $457k, spread over all interest bearing accounts. I wasn’t expecting much, and was rewarded with accurate expectations.
Don’t know how I missed out on Empower FCU. I’m usually in on most good deals. 
Maybe I was broke at the time. 
…and they expanded it to include interest paid on loan accounts, too. Given that the deposited money earning interest is what funds the loans that charge interest, that halves the value of the bonus for depositors. Not that doubling my 20-cents would make any difference.
What is mildly interesting is the calculation that says they apparently collected or paid out a combined $91.4 million in interest/dividends in 2019.
Darn it. I was going to post this earlier today and I forgot. Anyway:
Executive summary: Be on notice Ken most likely has deep sixed the Keesler CD lollipop with his blog post this morning.
Discussion: As posted here repeatedly the Keesler CD 30 month deal is among the very best out there. I just checked and, at this hour, the 3.1% and 3.2% rates are holding. However:
Ken has gone front and center with a big deal post about how Keesler membership is open to all. Obviously that is not news here. Our participants have known this forever.
But it was news to Ken. He has now finally put two and two together, the high Keesler CD APYs and membership available to all . . . and to Ken this duo was front page news.
I have highlighted these Keesler CDs, the standard and the jumbo, here repeatedly. But our little club here is a WHALE of a lot smaller than the horde over on Ken’s website. So do not be surprised if Ken’s blog post today spells the end of this great CD deal. If you are a reader here, you cannot say you were not forewarned . . . repeatedly!!
ETA
On a personal note, I see where Ken’s write up is listing the next most lucrative 30 month CD as having an interest rate well down into the twos . . . which stinks. I am continuing to feed the maws of my slightly longer PSECU 36 month CDs paying 3.25% APY. The going is only a little slow, all the funds injections should be complete before end of March, and at 3.25% these are and will be very nice CDs indeed to have.
It’s a great deal IF you have money to put in it. 
As the show “in living color” used to have a skit about… “No job. No problem. No credit. No problem. No Money? PROBLEM!”
Your point is very well taken, famewolf. Good as the Keesler deal is, it’s not an add-on. This has been the blessing for me at PSECU . . . . the ability to, in effect, invest money I don’t as yet have in hand.