Pentagon Federal Credit Union's March CD Rates

Like many other financial institutions, Pentagon Federal Credit Union reduced their certificate rates for March. Nevertheless, the long-term rates are still competitive for federally insured institutions. These include:

• 3.50% APY 3-year
• 3.75% APY 4-year
• 4.00% APY 5, 7-year

These rates are listed in PenFed's certificates page as of 3/2/09. The CD rates typically last for the entire month, but they're not guaranteed to last. Minimum deposit is $1,000. They're also available as Coverdell Education Savings Certificates and as Traditional and Roth IRA Certificate.

Several readers have mentioned being offered an extra 0.25% for renewing their maturing PenFed CDs. So that makes the rates even more competitive.

For more details about PenFed's CDs and joining PenFed, please refer to this PenFed review post. PenFed makes it easy for anyone to join and open accounts online. If you don't qualify based on military, employer or family, you can become eligible by joining the National Military Family Association (NMFA). Please refer to How to Join Overview Page for details. Joining NMFA and Penfed can be done at the same time all online. The yearly membership for NMFA is $20, but your membership in the association does not need to be maintained to continue as a Penfed member.

Update 3/3/09: A reader just noted another way you can qualify to join PenFed. As described at this PenFed page, you are eligible to become a member of Pentagon Federal if you are an employee or volunteer of the American Red Cross.

Credit Cards, Auto Loans, Home Equity Loans and Mortgages

In addition to high CD rates, PenFed has several other competitive banking products. These include:

• Cash back Visa credit card with 5% cash back for gas and 2% for supermarket (see post)
• Competitive auto loans, currently 3.99% APR 12 to 60 months, new or used (more details at this FW thread)
• Competitive Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit, currently 4.57% APR for up to 180 months
• Competitive mortgages, currently 5.21% APR 30-year fixed

Accounts can be opened online, but for those who prefer branches, PenFed has branches in several parts of the country including Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, North Carolina, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Missouri and Texas.

PenFed's financial rating for soundness at Bankrate.com has improved since last year. It's now 4 stars (sound) based on 9/30/08 data (up from 3 stars last year). PenFed's rating at BauerFinancial remains at 5 stars (superior) based on 9/30/08 data.

PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the US with $13 billion in assets and 846,803 members. It's federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 227).

Tags: New York, North Carolina, Hawaii, Texas, Virginia, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Colorado, CD rates, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, IRA rates