6.00% 18-Month CD at a Virginia CU (Northwest)
Nov 15, 2007 - 6:42 PM by Ken Tumin
Northwest Federal Credit Union is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a 6.00% APY 18-month certificate. The minimum deposit is $10,000.
Unfortunately, the field of membership seems primarily limited to Select Employee Groups. Please see their Who Can Join page for more details. There is a long list of member companies. Membership requires a minimum deposit of $5 into your share savings account.
Update 11/10/07: National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is listed as a qualifying organization. According to this FW post membership into NWF qualifies you for credit union membership. I just spoke with a credit union service rep and he stated that only employees and volunteers of NWF qualify. At the NWF website, there is a separate registration page for volunteers that's different than the membership page. Some additional details I received from the CSR include: 1) possible hard credit pull (CSR wasn't exactly sure), and 2) special CD cannot be opened online. It can be opened by mail or by phone. If opened by phone, funds must be available in a credit union account (such as the savings account) where it can be transfered into the CD.
Update 11/13/07: Last Friday, I emailed the credit union asking if a NWF member would qualify for credit union membership. I just received a reply today, and the good news is that they said YES. Here's what they stated:
Since this came after my call, I would assume this would have a better chance of being correct.
Update 11/15/07: It appears membership in NWF is no longer able to qualify you for membership into this credit union. A reader just sent me the following and it seems consistent with comments from other readers:
Branches are located in the Virginia cities of Chantilly, Herndon and Vienna. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 5500). It's a large credit union with $1.49 billion in assets and 89,083 members.
Thanks to the reader who emailed me info on this CD special.
Unfortunately, the field of membership seems primarily limited to Select Employee Groups. Please see their Who Can Join page for more details. There is a long list of member companies. Membership requires a minimum deposit of $5 into your share savings account.
Update 11/10/07: National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is listed as a qualifying organization. According to this FW post membership into NWF qualifies you for credit union membership. I just spoke with a credit union service rep and he stated that only employees and volunteers of NWF qualify. At the NWF website, there is a separate registration page for volunteers that's different than the membership page. Some additional details I received from the CSR include: 1) possible hard credit pull (CSR wasn't exactly sure), and 2) special CD cannot be opened online. It can be opened by mail or by phone. If opened by phone, funds must be available in a credit union account (such as the savings account) where it can be transfered into the CD.
Update 11/13/07: Last Friday, I emailed the credit union asking if a NWF member would qualify for credit union membership. I just received a reply today, and the good news is that they said YES. Here's what they stated:
the National Wildlife Foundation is considered a Select Employer Group and all employees as well as volunteers and members are eligible for membership with Northwest Federal Credit Union.
Since this came after my call, I would assume this would have a better chance of being correct.
Update 11/15/07: It appears membership in NWF is no longer able to qualify you for membership into this credit union. A reader just sent me the following and it seems consistent with comments from other readers:
Board of Directors officially clarified that you MUST be an EMPLOYEE of the National Wildlife Federation. Simply becoming a member of the National Wildlife Federation does NOT qualify a person for membership in Northwest Federal Credit Union.
Branches are located in the Virginia cities of Chantilly, Herndon and Vienna. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 5500). It's a large credit union with $1.49 billion in assets and 89,083 members.
Thanks to the reader who emailed me info on this CD special.
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dana (anonymous) - #1, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 9:47 AM
Didn't call to verify, but looks like National Wildlife Federation will qualify ($15)
Anonymous - #2, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 12:11 PM
from their website it looks like you have to be an employee--if just joining National Wildlife Federation qualifies, that would be cool. Please report back. Thanks.
Anonymous - #3, Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:51 AM
Does anyone have any idea how long this promotion will last?
Anonymous - #4, Friday, November 9, 2007 - 2:10 PM
will it make a hard pull?
thanks
Anonymous - #5, Friday, November 9, 2007 - 8:56 PM
Re: anonymous 12:10
from my experience in completing the application, it seems they do a soft pull (verify identity only). I could be wrong, though. If you decide to buy this share certificate using the online application, do not use the debit/credit card option as that only allows a $1k transfer amount...and you cannot change funding later in the application.
Anonymous - #6, Friday, November 9, 2007 - 9:00 PM
Re: anonymous 8:51
I do not know how long this offer will last. But FYI one CSR told me on 11/7 that the offer had been going on for 2 weeks (with no promo so they could work out the kinks) and one CSR said it just started on 11/8. Very good customer service, YMMV.
Anonymous - #7, Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 11:09 AM
yep, I can second that, the CSR I talked to was very nice and helpful. Also membership with the National Wildlife Federation is sufficient to qualify!
Anonymous - #8, Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 8:24 PM
Agreed. But apparently they were having trouble disseminating that information. I know there was a meeting Friday afternoon the subject of which was this very issue. When I called on Wednesday, the rep who took my call fortunately did not know if NWF membership was enough to qualify. She sought an answer from a supervisor. It was "yes". That's how I was able to get gain entry. I'm sure it's a good CU. But as Banking Guy pointed out, it is large. There are MANY reps and they work different hours. Thus, distribution of information amongst the reps is apparently not easy for them.
Anonymous - #9, Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 8:29 PM
Anonymous at 6:24pm:
What are you agreeing with?
With the previous poster who says membership is sufficient
or with Bankingguy's article that
says it is not?
I'm not sure I understand what the result of the Friday meeting was supposed to be. Did the meeting say that membership is sufficient?
Anonymous - #10, Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 9:29 PM
Sorry for the confusion. I was agreeing with the post immediately prior to mine.
Anonymous - #11, Monday, November 12, 2007 - 3:05 AM
Thanks for clarifying.
Anonymous - #12, Monday, November 12, 2007 - 10:26 AM
When will the promotion end?
Anonymous - #13, Monday, November 12, 2007 - 10:31 AM
Good to hear NWF membership will qualify for this credit union and great promo. I'm not (yet) a member of either NWF or the credit union. For those who have successfully completed credit union application using NWF criteria, I'd very much appreciate details on process. (Because of holiday, credit union is not accepting calls today.) For example, in looking at application, it seems the only two options are employment ("I am eligible to join because I work for:") or relationship to member ("I am eligible to join because I am related to this Current Member:"). Where in the process is membership in NWF or any other affinity group allowed? Can application for both NWF and credit union be done concurrently? Thanks.
Anonymous - #14, Monday, November 12, 2007 - 11:32 AM
I guess I was just fortunate last week. None of the NWFCU links posted by Banking Guy worked for me. They were dead. Only days later did I realize the incompatibility of the NWFCU website with my Firefox browser. When I (finally) tried with MSIE the same links worked instantly and perfectly. Anyway, because I was not able initially to use the net, I telephoned NWFCU and ended up doing everything over the telephone, speaking with a live person. This did help to facilitate the membership application and account opening process for me. If NWFCU has an arrangement with the NWF, for concurrent application, I am not aware of same. I did my NWF membership totally separate from my application with NWFCU. It was quick and 100% painless. NWF is a good organization and I'm happy to have become a member. I telephoned them with CC in hand. They took my information, charged $15 against my CC, and gave me my NWF member number, all within about six minutes or less. It was a piece of cake.
Anonymous - #15, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 8:27 AM
Not sure who's telling people they can join by becomeing a member of National Wildlife. This is the response I got,
Thank you for contacting NWFCU. National Wildlife is one of our select employer groups, however you
must be either an employee or a volunteer. If you have any further questions please contact the Call Center at (866) 709-8901.
Anonymous - #16, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 2:30 PM
Membership in the National Wildlife Federation DID meet the membership requirements for the credit union. I was able to open a share account as well as open the 18 month certificate over the phone this morning and Funded both via an ACH.
Furthermore, if you are an employee or retiree of (almost) any federal agency ( Treasury Dept, FBI, Secret Service, US Department of Defense etc) you're eligible.
If I had known that I'd have saved $15 & not joined the NWF, but what the heck, I like animals anyway. :)
Their new accounts rep was very friendly & helpful, so I'm well satisfied with them so far!
Anonymous - #17, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 2:50 PM
If "Keep in certificate" is selected for "Distribution of Quarterly Dividends Earned", does it mean the dividends also earned 6.0% just like the certificate?
Anonymous - #18, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 3:29 PM
Wow, these guys are really efficient. I completed the online application over the weekend, called their call center this morning and had the share savings account opened with internet banking access by 4 PM today ... total processing time less than one business day.
I'm just waiting for my wire transfer to hit the account so I can open the 6% APY 18-month CD.
I qualified as a retiree from a member company, but CSR did verify that simply joining NWF would make you eligible to join the CU.
Do this ASAP if you're interested, CSR said they got more than 100 new account applications over the weekend.
Anonymous - #19, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 3:59 PM
It's a relief to receive confirmation, finally now that others have posted, that NWF membership (only) can gain one entry into NWFCU. I was beginning to wonder if my personal experience last week was a fluke, or worse, a mistake. I was afraid they might call me and tell me my accounts, all three of them, were invalid and therefore canceled. My best counsel to others: 1. Move quickly and 2. Call. Good luck to all. This is a really nice deal right now.
Banking Guy (anonymous) - #20, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 6:32 PM
I just received a reply to the email I sent Friday asking about NWF membership. They said that NWF members would be eligible. I've updated the post with this info.
Anonymous - #21, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:17 PM
Are these CDs insured by the FDIC?
Do the standard limits apply?
Banking Guy (anonymous) - #22, Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 7:41 AM
Northwest FCU CDs are federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). I have the link to the NCUA page on this credit union in the post. For more info on NCUA, please refer to this post.
djc314 (anonymous) - #23, Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 6:56 PM
I am a bit confused.
Can you open up the CD on line or when you fill out the application is it just to open a savings account and then once the bank account is open and the money confirmed then you are able to open the CD?
At one point in the sign up process they did ask how many days you wanted the account to be but I do not remember ever seeing a rate show up.
If there is a lay time what if in the delay they end the 6% rate?
Also, at one time I was a student at ITT and I used that as my membeship id as ITT was listed as a member of the credit union...not sure how they will confirm this as it was a long time ago...
Anonymous - #24, Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 8:37 AM
The 18 month promo is a 540 day CD (I had to check that too). The rate was still being offered yesterday (11/14) but is subject to change any day. I had trouble with the online transfer form because a transfer from Fidelity requires an extra line of numbers, but they accepted my check by overnight FedEx. Luckily, they were still offering the rate when my check got there. They've been very professional and pointed me to forms on the site to add POD beneficiaries which I scanned back to them by e-mail. Proud to be a member of the National Wildlife Federation. Thanks so much for the valuable information listed on this site!!!
Anonymous - #25, Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 8:44 PM
Obvious question for Banking Guy, whom I thank for his (albeit scary) 11/15/2007 update: Is the decision of the Board of Directors retroactive? Or is it from today, Thursday, forward only? Thanks!
Banking Guy (anonymous) - #26, Friday, November 16, 2007 - 8:12 AM
I don't know.
If the board decided to interpret the FOM stricter than what's in their official charter, it may have no affect on current members who joined via NWF membership. However, if the official FOM in the charter does only state NWF employees, this could have an effect on your membership.
If you became a credit union member via NWF membership, I would recommend contacting the credit union about what effect the board's decision will have for your specific case.
Anonymous - #27, Monday, November 26, 2007 - 4:28 PM
Wow, still can't believe this 6% rate is still available as of 11/26/07. Was advised by the CSR that it was still open.
Anonymous - #28, Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 6:08 PM
This promotion is over without any trace. It ended it just like this without notice. My check has not cleared yet but NWFCU has setup the CD without balance. Hope I can get in.
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