7% 70-Month / 5.75% 47-Month CD at a Michigan CU.

Feb 18, 2006 - 1:18 PM by Ken Tumin

The Research Federal Credit Union is having a 70th Anniversary Certificate Special with CD yields higher than I've seen in a long time. The highest is a 7.00% APY 70-month CD with a $10K minimum deposit requirement. The next highest is a 5.75% APY 47-month CD with a $5K minimum. These CDs are also available in IRA accounts. Below is a list of all the CDs:


Term      Rate    Yield   Minimum Deposit
 7 month  4.36%   4.46%   $  2,500
27 month  4.89%   5.00%   $  5,000
47 month  5.60%   5.75%   $  5,000
70 month  6.78%   7.00%   $ 10,000

The credit union has a fairly restrictive employer-based field of membership with three branches in the cities of Warren, Milford and Detroit Michigan.

For the person who emailed me this deal and the details about membership, Thanks!

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In order of date posted. - Sort by votes

Anonymous - #1, Saturday, February 4, 2006 - 11:48 AM

So can someone from out of state join this program?

Banking Guy (anonymous) - #2, Sunday, February 5, 2006 - 2:52 PM

Note, I had to make an edit to the post regarding the field of membership. If you think you may be eligible to join based on the FOM, I recommend contacting the credit union for more information.

Anonymous - #3, Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 2:31 PM

Looks like this hot deal got killed by this site. This 7% cd deal was around for over a month, but posting it here killed it in just over a weekend. I wonder if the income he generates from this site is worth the all the money he could have made from doing this deal. A little more discretion should be used when posting fragile deals like this one.

Banking Guy (anonymous) - #4, Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 6:49 PM

Do you think many people were able to take advantage of this deal? Even with the FOM loophole it wasn't easy or cheap to join. Perhaps a couple of people with huge deposits could scare a small CU?

Anonymous - #5, Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 8:04 AM

Not many people were able to take advantage of this deal after it was posted here. On Friday the deal was still in effect. By Monday, the offer had additional restrictions posted on their page. By Tuesday, it was removed. This is a classic CU reaction to a flood of inquires about a hot promotion. CU's often use their discretion to limit marginal requests for membership once the flood gate of applications come in. I guess we now have to deal with the "Bank Deals Blog effect" to go along with the FW effect. For much of last year there were widely available 6%+ cd deals that I had hoped weren't published here because of thoughtful discretion. After seeing this deal die, I now have my reservations about your posts. It's seems reasonable to post hot CU promotions after discussing it first with a Credit Union's management(with the exception of the truly national CU's like PenFed), but indiscriminate posting of these deals makes Credit Unions leary of offering them because they no longer are effectively targeting their intended membership groups.

Banking Guy (anonymous) - #6, Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 9:12 AM

I had thought most credit union's FOMs were able to limit demand from outsiders. But I suppose many credit unions may not review eligibility carefully if they're trying hard to attract customers. But once many requests come in, I guess they start tightening up the review?

Also, I thought many CUs and local banks don't allow account opening by phone or mail and instead require a branch visit.

Seems like if the CUs and local banks clearly specify who's eligible on their website, they should be able to avoid mass requests from those outside their markets.

The banks and CUs need to do a better job at listing what can be opened by mail, phone, online, or branch visits. This could save them a lot time from answering emails and phone requests. And perhaps they wouldn't be so concerned with offering specials.

7% 70-Month / 5.75% 47-Month CD at a Michigan CU.

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