5.60% 12-Month / 5.45% 9-Month CD at Countrywide Chicago

Countrywide Bank is offering higher CD rates for certain areas than on its website. These certificates of deposit are available at its banking centers or by over the phone. These rates can be found by specifying an area's zipcode. The best CD rates that I've found are in the Chicago area with a 5.60% APY 1-year CD and a 5.45% APY 9-month CD. The corresponding APYs available online are 5.46% and 5.30%. Below is a list of 12-month and 9-month CD yields for a minimum of $10K for several cities:

City         12-mo APY    9-mo APY
Chicago      5.60%        5.45%
Denver       5.50%        5.40%
New York     5.50%        5.30%
Miami        5.46%        5.40%
Los Angeles  5.46%        5.40%
Boston       5.46%        5.40%
Houston      5.46%        5.35%
Cincinnati   5.41%        5.30%

One downside with Countrywide is that it does a hard credit inquiry for every account that you open. Many readers have noted this.

In addition to high CD rates, Countrywide offes a 5% APY savings account for balances over $50K. Refer to this post for more information.

Thanks goes to the commenter who mentioned this in the finding deals post.