Sovereign Bank (Owned By Satandar) Is Offering 2% 6 Month CD's

Re #409 on Sovereign Bank. That account is not so good as it might sound at first. According to the Web site, only half of your deposit will go into the 6-month CD. The other half will go into a 3-year CD at the same 2.0% APY! And there are much better deals to be had on a 3-year CD out there.

It also seems you must go into a branch to open it -- although it does have branches in many states. (BTW, Banco Santander is THE big Spanish bank.)

From the site:

http://www.sovereignbank.com/personal/promotions/q2-2010-all.asp?scmp=10q2&prd=bb&pos=bbp

^ Minimum deposit of $5,000 and a maximum deposit of $499,999 to open a Save & Invest CD Package, which must be opened on or before June 4, 2010. Half of your opening deposit, or at least $2,500, is placed in a Save CD, which is a 6-Month certificate of deposit account. Your Save CD will earn interest at a rate of 1.98%, which corresponds to an annual percentage yield (APY) of 2.00%. The remaining half of your opening deposit is placed in an Invest CD that matures on June 14, 2013. That means the term of your Invest CD is the period of time from the day you open your account until June 14, 2010, plus 36 months. Please visit a Sovereign Bank Branch to learn more about the Invest CD, including how you earn interest. A penalty will be imposed for early withdrawals from the Invest CD and for any early withdrawals from the Save CD within the first 6 days after the Save CD is opened. Personal accounts only. 

Re Sovereign, yes, right. But I want to state, I'm very happy to see this one posted even if I'm not interested. I don't want to give the impression that it is junk, I don't want to see it. No, I am happy to see all input on what is out there to consider. And only time will tell whether this was a good or great deal or not. So, thanks to Anonymous #409 for posting.

As for a cap, they do not say -- so who knows. But I find it hard to believe a bank would take the risk of having to pay out maybe 20% or 30% or more in a year (last year, the S&P went up more than 30%, even though the projections at the beginning of the year were that it would only go up a little!). So people should definitely check into that before deciding to get in.