5% 12-Month CD Available to All

The Patelco Credit Union is offering a 5.00% APY 12-month CD. The minimum deposit requirement is $1K. This special CD also has a bump-up option. You may request a bump in the CD rate once during the term to equal the rate of the regular 1-year CD.

It's probably unlikely that the bump-up feature will be useful. Currently, the regular 12-month CD has a rate of 4.54% APY. However, for this special CD, you don't give up any interest by chosing the bump-up feature since there's no no-bump option.

Patelco has another nice savings type account called the Treasury Income Account. The current rate is 4.73% APY and is tied to the average of the previous 12 weeks' auction yields of the 6-month U.S. Treasury Bill. The minimum deposit to open this account is $25K. It also has some withdraw restictions.

Patelco Credit Union is one of the few credit unions that is open to residents of any state. If you don't meet the FOM, you can join the California Association for Older Americans.

Patelco has some nice online banking features. It looks like you can open the certificate of deposit online and transfer funds from other financial institutions online.

The only issue I have with Patelco is the lack of NCUA insurance. Instead of being federally insured, Patelco has chosen to be privately insured by American Share Insurance. With private insurance, you have to worry about the financial health of the insurer. With federal insurance through NCUA or FDIC, you don't have this additional worry.