North Carolina Deposit Account Rates and Deals

I received info from PenFed contact yesterday concerning January CD rollovers. The good news is that those who participated in the November Certificate Reservation program will have the advertised rates honored (3.50% 3 years, 4.00% 4 years and 4.25% 7 years). Several readers in my previous PenFed post have also confirmed the same thing. However, those who missed the November Certificate Reservation program won't be getting those top rates. It appears that the interest rate environment was turning out to be worse than what they had expected. Below are the details that I received:

At the December meeting, our Board of Director approved lower Money Market & IRA Certificate rates for January 2010 than previously announced. We became aware of the change in rates on December 29. It is very rare for the Board of Directors to make a change in the rates after we project them, but in this case; other factors in the market forced us to lower our projected rates slightly.

As indicated in all of our disclosure statements, our rates are always subject to change. Below, I have provided a few key points regarding the rates along with a January 2010 rate chart.

* All members who participated in the CD Rollover Subscription program will have their reservations honored, and they will receive the advertised rate from that promotion: 3 yr/3.50%, 5 yr/4:00% and 7 yr/4.25

* With the exception of CD Rollover Subscription enrollees that will receive the promised CD Rollover Subscription rates, the 0.25% APY certificate rollover bonus will be applied to all qualifying certificates rolling over between December 29, 2009 and February 1, 2010, inclusive. These certificates will receive the "Rollover " rates reflected in the chart below. Update 1/06/09: I received a clarification about the below rates. For those members with CDs maturing December 29-31, 2009 and February 1, 2010 (and did not participate in the CD Reservation program), and wish to rollover, they will receive the rate in effect for that month - plus the 0.25% bonus.

        APY for
CD      CD Subscription  APY for    APY for
Term    Participants     Rollovers  New Money
----    ---------------  ---------  ---------
6 mo    -                1.00%      1.00%
1 yr    -                1.25%      1.25%
2 yr    -                1.75%      1.75%
3 yr    3.50%            3.25%      3.00%
4 yr    -                3.50%      3.25%
5 yr    4.00%            3.75%      3.50%
7 yr    4.25%            4.00%      3.75%

For more details about PenFed CDs and membership, please refer to my previous PenFed post.

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

Update 1/05/2010: I received info from my PenFed contact about the rollover CD rates. Please refer to this new post for the details.

Happy New Year! Thanks to everyone for reading, and let's hope that 2010 has some improvements for us savers.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union did increase some of its CD rates for January, but I'm afraid they're 25 basis points lower than what I was told by my PenFed contact. Perhaps they had more members agree to renew their CDs than what they had planned. Nevertheless, the new rates are competitive. They went up 50 basis points for terms of 3, 4 and 5 years. Unfortunately, the 7-year rate went down by 25 basis points. Below is the summary of PenFed long-term CD rates as listed at the PenFed Money Market Certificate page as of 1/01/2010:

• 3.00% APY 3 year
• 3.25% APY 4 year
• 3.50% APY 5 year
• 3.75% APY 7 year

I'm currently unable to confirm the renewal rates. I would think those who were early to participate in PenFed's Certificate Reservation Offer should be getting rates 50 basis points higher than the above rates. I'm hoping this will also apply to those who were late to participate since I was told of these higher rates by my PenFed contact and by two PenFed CSRs. It may just be 25 basis points higher than the above rates. I had one CD that matured today, and I had set it to renew. I logged in this morning, and it still hasn't rolled over to the new CD. When I receive renewal rate info, I'll be sure to update this post. Please leave a comment if you receive info on this.

Update 6:00pm 1/1/10:

I called PenFed today, and I have some new info based on my conversation with the PenFed CSR. However, I should note that the CSR didn't know much. I sent an email to my PenFed contact to find out what happened and who will be eligible for what rates. I don't expect a reply until Monday at the earliest.

I again logged into my PenFed account. The CD that matured today still shows the old CD rate and term. According to the CSR, the new rate and term should show up tomorrow after the holiday.

I'm assuming that those who were able to participate in the November Rollover Subscription Promotion (before it was canceled) should get the rates that PenFed listed which are 50 basis points higher than above. I'll know more when I receive the reply.

For those who missed the November Rollover Subscription Promotion but had set their CDs to rollover (like me), there is a question about what rates we'll get. According to the CSR, we'll just get 25 basis points over the listed rates which comes out to 4% 7yr, 3.75% 5yr, 3.50% 4yr and 3.25% 3yr. I told my PenFed contact that I and many of my readers were informed by PenFed reps that the rates would be 25 basis points higher. I'm hoping we'll be able to get those rates.

It appears the Board of Directors decided in December for the lower rates. The CSR didn't know much more.

PenFed Certificate Details

For more details about PenFed's CDs and joining PenFed, please refer to this PenFed review post. Details of the CDs are available in the second page of PenFed's account application. A few important details to note:

• Early withdrawal penalty for the terms of 3 to 5 years is 180 days of dividends (all dividends if redeemed before 180 days from issue date)
• IRA CDs available with the same rates
• IRA CD holders over 59½ can avoid most of the early withdrawal penalty (see see post)

Note, there's no grace period. However, the early withdrawal penalty for the first 180 days is not 180 days of interest but just the interest earned from the issue date. So if you change your mind about renewal a couple of days after the CD matures, you should be able to do an early closure and lose only those couple of days of interest. Many banks don't pay interest during the grace period if you don't renew. So this PenFed feature is no worse.

Membership

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. You can also be eligible to become a member of PenFed if you are an employee or volunteer of the American Red Cross (refer to this PenFed page).

Branch Locations

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.

Financial/NCUA Info

PenFed's ratings for safety and soundness are no longer the best, but they remain respectable: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data).

PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the US with $13.4 billion in assets and 889,874 members. It's federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 227).

Blueharbor Bank is offering a special 14-month CD with a 2.20% APY. The bank also has a some competitive standard CD rates. The most competitive one is the 2.50% APY 25-month CD. These rates are listed in the bank's rates page as of 12/30/09.

The bank continues to offer a high-yield reward checking account that pays 4.00% APY on balances up to $30K (see account review). Its basic savings account is also a good deal with a 1.50% APY for all balances as of 12/30/09. Minimum balance to avoid monthly fees is $200.

It appears a branch visit may be required to open an account. The bank is located in Mooresville and Huntersville, North Carolina which are just north of Charlotte.

It's a new bank that was just established in January 2008. Thus, it's labeled as a start-up at BauerFinancial. Its rating for safety and soundness is 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com based on 6/30/09 data. It's a member FDIC (FDIC Certificate # 58691).

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

Update 12/27/09: The 12-month special CD rate has fallen to 2.25% APY.

Bank of Granite continues to offer one very competitive CD. It's a 12-month CD with a 2.45% APY. Last month this special had a 12-month term. There's also 1.75% APY 6-month CD. Minimum deposit is $5,000. These specials are listed on the bank's front page as of 12/16/2009.

Bank of Granite continues to offer a reward checking account that pays 4% APY on balances of $25K as of 12/16/09. I have more details on this account in this post.

It appears a branch visit is required to open an account. Branches are located in several North Carolina cities including Winston Salem, Hickory, Granite Falls, Charlotte, and Wilkesboro.

Bank of Granite's ratings for safety and soundness continue to be a little weak: 2 stars (problematic) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 1 star (lowest) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 5950).

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com (overview of DepositAccounts.com)
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

Lumbee Guaranty Bank is offering a very competitive 15-month CD special. It has a 2.45% APY with a checking account or 2.02% APY without checking. Minimum deposit is $5,000. The 9-month CD special is also fairly competitive with a 1.92% APY with checking or 1.66% without. These rates are listed in the bank's CD rates page as of 12/10/09.

The checking requirement is not too bad if the reward checking qualifies. They offer a nice reward checking account which currently pays 4.50% APY on balances up to $25K (see post).

It appears a branch visit is required to open an account. Branches are located in Fayetteville, North Carolina and in several nearby cities including Pembroke, Fairmont, Lumberton and Saint Pauls.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1971 (FDIC Certificate # 20568).

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

Lumbee Guaranty Bank is offering a high-yield reward checking account called LGB Rewards Checking. It has the following rates and features if certain monthly requirements are met:

• 4.50% APY on balances up to $25,000
• 1.00% on portion of balance over $25,000
• 0.10% base rate if requirements are not met
• ATM fee refunds nationwide up to 4 per month ($1.50 refunded per item after 4)

The monthly requirements include:

• 10 Visa World Check Card purchases
• 1 direct deposit or ACH auto debit
• Receive e-statements

Additional features of the account regardless of the monthly requirements include:

• $100 minimum initial deposit
• No minimum balance requirement
• No monthly service charge

The bank's microwebsite has an online application, but it appears they require a branch visit to complete the application process.

Branches are located in Fayetteville, North Carolina and in several nearby cities including Pembroke, Fairmont, Lumberton and Saint Pauls.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1971 (FDIC Certificate # 20568).

Other Reward Checking Accounts

To find reward checking accounts in other areas of the nation, please refer to the reward checking section of DepositAccounts.com. To learn more about reward checking, please refer to this reward checking overview.

Founders Federal Credit Union is offering some very competitive long-term CD rates. These include:

• 4.06% APY 48 months
• 3.29% APY 36-47 months
• 2.50% APY 24-35 months

Minimum deposit is $500. Rates are 10 basis points higher for IRA CDs. These rates are listed at the credit union's rates page as of 12/08/09.

Membership is limited to those who live, work, worship, volunteer or attend school in certain designated areas. The credit union's eligibility page doesn't provide details. Two years ago it used to list Chester and Chesterfield counties of South Carolina and the cities of Wellford and Duncan. I called the credit union today, and I wasn't able to get more details. If you live near one of their offices, call and see if you can be eligible. They also have a long list of eligible companies and organizations in which you can qualify to join the credit union. Membership requires a minimum $5 deposit into the regular savings account.

Branches are located in the South Carolina counties of Chester, Chesterfield, Lancaster, Spartanburg and York, and in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

Founders' ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The credit is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 24063). It's a large credit union with over $1.5 billion in assets.

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

Self-Help Credit Union (SHCU) continues to offer some competitive CD rates. The deposit rates haven't been that great since my 2008 SHCU post, but its 12-month and 24-month CD rates have held for the last several months while other institutions have been cutting their rates. So these rates are now quite competitive. The current 12-month CD rate is 2.07% APY and the 24-month CD rate is 2.33% APY. These are listed at the credit union's rates page as of 12/06/09. The rates change every business day, but these 12-month and 24-month rates have been stable for the last few months. The CDs are also available in an IRA.

SHCU's CDs used to allow unlimited additional deposits, but SHCU ended this feature in 2008. One downside to these CDs is that the early withdrawal penalty is equal to half the term in interest. It's not too bad for the 1-year CD, but it's severe for the longer-term CDs. This would come out to 6 months of interest for a 1-year CD and 1 year of interest for the 2-year CD. Refer to SHCU's Truth-in-Savings disclosure for more CD details.

There have been some changes at SHCU since I first reported on this credit union in 2005. They now have two credit union charters: Self-Help Credit Union (SHCU) and Self-Help Federal Credit Union (SHFCU). To learn more about these credit unions and their missions, refer to these credit union FAQs.

Membership

One can open accounts at both SHCU and SHFCU by mail. Application forms are located at this page.

In the membership application forms, the following is stated:

Membership in the Credit Union is open to anyone who is, or becomes, a member of the Center for Community Self-Help. All new members of the Credit Union must pay $5 to purchase a membership share in the Credit Union. In addition, persons or organizations who join the Center for Community Self-Help must pay a $20 a membership fee to the Center for Community Self-Help.

People in any state can join. This is described in this Membership FAQ:

Can people or organizations from outside Self-Help locations in North Carolina, California, and Washington DC become members of Self-Help?

Yes. We currently have members from almost every state in the union. Members have access to any of our deposit products.

North Carolina and California Branches

For those who prefer to open accounts at a branch, SHCU and SHFCU now have full service branches in several cities in North Carolina and California. These branches do business under different credit union names, but they are all divisions of SHCU or SHFCU. This SHCU page has links to these credit union websites. Refer to these for branch locations. Most have their own rate tables which list the same rates as SHCU's website.

Financial/NCUA Info

SHCU's ratings for safety and soundness are little mixed: 3 stars (adequate) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 1 star (lowest) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). SHFCU was just established in 2008, so it doesn't yet have ratings. Both SHCU and SHFCU are federally insured by the NCUA (SHCU Charter # 66258 and SHFCU Charter # 24802).

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

• CD rates at DepositAccounts.com
• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals

There was disappointment and confusion when PenFed canceled its CD Rollover Subscription Promotion last week. According to my PenFed contact, the canceling was due to an IT issue rather than high demand. Consequently, they have a new rollover certificate promotion that's just as good as before. Unfortunately, if you don't have PenFed CDs that mature in January, you won't be able to participate. However, there's good news regarding the regular January CD rates. Here are the details that I received of the new rollover promotion:

• The current Rollover Certificate promotion is for existing PenFed Money Market and IRA certificates that are due to mature in January 2010 AND the member elects to rollover.
• The former Certificate Reservation program only included 3, 5 and 7 year certificates. The new promotion includes 3, 4, 5 and 7 year certificates.
• With the former Reservation program, members secured the following yields: 3 yr/3.50%, 5 yr/4:00% and 7 yr/4.25%. **The new Rollover Certificate promotion will yield the following (which includes the 0.25% bonus): 3yr yields 3.50%, 4 yr yields 3.75%, 5 yr yields 4.00% and 7 yr yields 4.25%.
• All members who participated in the Certificate Reservation program will have their reservations honored and they will receive the advertised rate.
• If a member has a PenFed Money Market or IRA certificates that is due to mature in January and wishes to call PenFed and confirm the rates for the Rollover promotion, they may do so as our representatives have been provided with the January's 2010 certificate rates.
• A member with a maturing certificate in January may participate in the promotion by accessing their accounts via PenFed Online. On PenFed Online, the member can locate their certificate(s) and elect to have the certificate "rollover" at maturity. They may also contact a member service representative to assist them with the rollover election.

I also called member services (800-247-5626), and the rep was aware of the above rollover rates for January.

One thing to note is that these rollover rates include a 0.25% bonus. Thus, there should be a nice bump-up in the non-rollover rates for the 3-, 4- and 5-year CDs. The regular January CD rates should be the following:

• 3.25% APY 3 year
• 3.50% APY 4 year
• 3.75% APY 5 year
• 4.00% APY 7 year

The 7-year remains at 4%, but the 3-, 4- and 5-year CD rates are 0.75% higher than what they are now. These are very competitive compared to long-term CDs at other institutions.

For more details about PenFed's CDs and joining PenFed, please refer to this PenFed review post. Details of the CDs are available in the second page of PenFed's account application.

Membership

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. You can also be eligible to become a member of PenFed if you are an employee or volunteer of the American Red Cross (refer to this PenFed page).

Branch Locations

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.

Financial/NCUA Info

PenFed's ratings for safety and soundness are no longer the best, but they remain respectable: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial and 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 6/30/09 financial data.

PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the US with $13.4 billion in assets and 889,874 members. It's federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 227).

Update 12/02/09: There's a new CD rollover program. Refer to this post for the details.

Update 12/01/09: The CD Rollover Subscription Promotion has been cancelled. The PenFed board approved a 0.25% rollover bonus for all certificates maturing in January with terms of 3, 4, 5 and 7 years. Note, I'm still checking with my PenFed contact regarding some more details to see if there's any chance of the originally advertised rates being available.

For those who opened the 6.25% CDs three years ago that mature in January 2010, PenFed has a good deal for you. PenFed is offering the following roll-over CD rates:

• 4.25% APY 7 years
• 4.00% APY 5 years
• 3.50% APY 3 years

These rates are listed at PenFed's Certificates Reservation page as of 11/20/2009. The page states that this offer expires when $250 million has been reserved or on 1/31/2010.

For those who opened a 6.25% APY CD that was longer than a 3-year term, congratulations on your decision to go with the longer term.

Unfortunately, if you don't already have a PenFed CD that matures in January, you won't be able to take advantage of this deal. Nevertheless, this promotion is a feature you might want to consider if you're not yet a PenFed member. Many institutions (mostly banks) only give the best rates to new customers. It's nice to see an institution that rewards its existing customers with the best rates.

Update 11/23/09: I asked my PenFed contact to see if any exceptions could be made for those who have CDs maturing in December or February. Here is the reply:

Your email inquiry regarding our Rollover Certificate Promotion was reviewed by upper management today with much thought and consideration.

It was concluded that PenFed will in all likelihood extended the promotion to February 2010, but it will depend on what January's demand for this promotion looks like before a final decision can be determined. At this time, PenFed will not be including certificates that mature in December 2009 as part of this promotion

The above rates are much higher than PenFed's normal CD rates. The best deals are the 3-year and 5-year rates which are a full percentage point higher. The 7-year CD is just a little bit better. Below are PenFed's current CD rates as of 11/20/2009:

• 4.00% APY 7 years
• 3.00% APY 5 years
• 2.75% APY 4 years
• 2.50% APY 3 years

It's important to note that the 7-year CD has an early withdrawal penalty equal to one year of interest. Terms from 3 to 5 years only have a 6-month penalty. If you have PenFed's IRA CD and you're over 59½, you can be exempt from most of the early withdrawal penalty (see post).

For more details about PenFed's CDs and joining PenFed, please refer to this PenFed review post. Details of the CDs are available in the second page of PenFed's account application.

Credit Card Deals - New AMEX Card

PenFed just announced its new Travel Rewards American Express Card. Cardmembers who spend $650 within the first 90 days will earn 20,000 bonus rewards points (which can be worth around $200). The standard rewards that you can earn include:

• 5 Points for every $1 you spend with airlines
• 3 Points for every $1 on dining and hotels (until 12/31/2010)
• 1 Point for virtually every dollar you spend anywhere else
• No limit to the points you can earn

Note, there is an annual fee of $50 that is waived for the first year (see disclosure). Refer to this FW thread for more discussion on this card. Other good AMEX reward credit cards include those from Fidelity, Citi and Costco.

PenFed has long had one of the best cash back credit cards with 5% cash back at gas pumps, 2% cash back at supermarkets and 1.25% cash back elsewhere (see review).

Membership

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. You can also be eligible to become a member of PenFed if you are an employee or volunteer of the American Red Cross (refer to this PenFed page).

Branch Locations

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.

Financial/NCUA Info

PenFed's ratings for safety and soundness are no longer the best, but they remain respectable: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial and 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 6/30/09 financial data.

PenFed is one of the largest credit unions in the US with $13.4 billion in assets and 889,874 members. It's federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 227).

Other High Certificate of Deposit Rates

• My weekly list of hot nationwide and local CD deals
• My weekly list of all nationwide CD deals
• Index of state CD and bank deals