New Hampshire Deposit Account Rates and Deals

Service Credit Union is offering a competitive CD special: 2.02% APY for 11 months. Minimum deposit is $1,000. It's only available online (not by phone or at branches), and it's scheduled to last to 3/19/2010. The special is shown on the front page of the website as of 3/12/2010.

The credit union continues to offer two other competitive CD specials. The rates have gone down a bit, but the CDs are still very competitive: 1.77% APY for 7 months and 2.15% APY for 19 months. These rates are listed in the credit union's rates page as of 3/12/2010. Unlike the 11-month CD special, these are also available at the credit union branches.

The online application uses the Andera account opening system. Transfers are done via ACH or by debit/credit card.

Service Credit Union membership is available to anyone living or working in New Hampshire (except Coos County which is way north in NH) and in the Falmouth MA area, as well as anyone related to an existing member (by family), or anyone who has served in the US Military. Please refer to the credit union's membership eligibility page for the full details. Membership requires a $5 minimum balance in the share savings account.

Branches are located in the New Hampshire cities of Bedford, Epping, Lebanon, Keene, Manchester, Newington, Portsmouth, Rochester, Salem and Somersworth and in Falmouth, Massachusetts. There are also branches in Germany to service military members.

The credit union's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial (based on 12/31/09 data) and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com (based on 9/30/09 data). The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 68375). It's a large credit union with $1.4 billion in assets and 124,270 members.

Bellwether Community Credit Union in New Hampshire is offering a special 11-month CD with a 2.00% APY. Minimum deposit is $500, and it's also available in an IRA. This special is listed in the credit union's deposit rates page as of 3/2/2010.

Membership is open to all residents of New Hampshire. Refer to the credit union's Who-Can-Join page for the full details.

The credit union's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 9/30/09 financial data. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 60747).

Citizens Bank has a checking account promotion in which you can earn $100. The details of the checking account bonus are listed at www.citizensbank.com/220. Offer ends 3/26/2010. The requirements to earn the $100 include:

• $50 for setting up direct deposit of $250 or more
• $25 for making 5 online bill payments
• $25 for making 5 signature-based debit card or credit card purchases

Some important details mentioned in the small print includes:

Requirements must be met by 4/30/2010. Bonus will be deposited into the checking account by 6/30/2010 and reported to the IRS. Checking account must remain open for at least 6 months or the amount of the banking bonus will be debited from the account at closing.

The Green Checking qualifies for this bonus, and it's a free checking account with no monthly fees. Minimum opening balance is $50.

The Green Checking also qualifies for the Green$sense program. Citizens Bank says you can get paid up to $120 per year in Green$ense. However, this would require 100 debit card purchases, online bill payments or automatic payments per month for 12 months. For each of these non-paper transactions, Citizens Bank pays you 10 cents. Since this is considerable work, I'm not including this $120 in the bonus amount.

This is very similar to the promotion the bank was running late last year. One small change is that they now require a minimum direct deposit of $250 instead of $50. In that post, a reader mentioned that there's a hard pull in the application.

There's an online application at the promotions page. However, it only accepts zip codes in their market area. Their market area includes Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Citizens Bank operates under two FDIC charters: Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania (FDIC Certificate # 57282) and RBS Citizens, N.A. which has branches in several states outside of PA and NJ (FDIC Certificate # 57957).

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts.

River Bank is offering a competitive 5-year CD yield of 3.51% APY. The shorter terms are not quite as competitive. The ones that are a little above average include the 1.70% APY 15-month CD and the 1.40% APY 9-month CD. An extra 0.10% is available for money market or checking account customers. These are also available as IRA CDs. Minimum deposit is $500. These rates are listed in the bank's deposit rates page as of 2/18/2010.

River Bank also offers a competitive savings account called xStream Savings which has a 1.45% APY with no minimum balance requirements. It does require a minimum $40 automatic monthly transfer. This rate is listed in the bank's savings rates page as of 2/18/2010.

There's an online application, however, the second page form only allows residents of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to apply. It appears funding can be done by an ACH transfer. Under the CD rates table, the following is stated regarding when the CD rate locks:

The CD interest rate is guaranteed for five business days following the date of internet application. If we do not receive your deposit within this period, the interest rate will be the rate in effect on the day the deposit is received.

The bank is headquartered in North Andover, Massachusetts. In addition to North Andover, branches are located in Andover, Lawrence and Methuen, MA and in Salem and Derry, NH.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 9/30/09 financial data. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1981 (FDIC Certificate # 23288).

Service Credit Union is offering a limited-time CD special that's very competitive: 2.15% APY for 13 months. Minimum deposit is $1,000. It's only available online (not by phone or at branches) The offer is scheduled to last only to midnight Monday (2/15/2010). The offer is shown on the front page of the website.

The credit union continues to offer two other competitive CD specials: 2% APY for 9 months and 2.25% APY for 19 months. These rates are listed in the credit union's rates page as of 2/14/2010. Unlike the 13-month CD, these are also available at the credit union branches.

The online application uses the Andera account opening system. Transfers are done via ACH or by debit/credit card.

Service Credit Union membership is available to anyone living or working in New Hampshire (except Coos County which is way north in NH) and in the Falmouth MA area, as well as anyone related to an existing member (by family), or anyone who has served in the US Military. Please refer to the credit union's membership eligibility page for the full details. Membership requires a $5 minimum balance in the share savings account.

Branches are located in the New Hampshire cities of Bedford, Lebanon, Epping, Keene, Manchester, Newington, Portsmouth, Rochester, Salem and Somersworth and in Falmouth, Massachusetts. There are also branches in Germany to service military members.

The credit union's ratings for safety and soundness are strong: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com. Both are based on 9/30/09 financial data. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 68375). It's a large credit union with $1.4 billion in assets and 124,270 members.

Sovereign Bank is offering a checking and money market promotion in which you can earn a bonus of $150 and receive a 1.50% APY guarantee for 3 months in the money market account. The promo is scheduled to expire 3/13/2010. Here's the promo page link.

First, here are the requirements for the $150 checking account bonus:

• Open a new Sovereign Premier Checking, Business Owner Premier Checking, Interest Checking, or Partnership Checking account by March 13, 2010, with a minimum opening deposit of $100
• Open any Sovereign savings or money market savings account with a minimum opening deposit of $100 or already have a savings or money market savings account
• Enroll in Online Banking at account opening
• Set up and receive one direct deposit within 60 days of opening your account
• Request a Sovereign Debit Card and make 5 Debit Card purchases within 60 days after you open your account

When you qualify, you will receive a credit of $150 to your new checking account within 75 days after you open your checking account.

Some important small print:

• Offer available only to residents in the following states: ME, VT, NH, CT, RI, MA, NY, NJ, PA, MV, MD, DE, and District of Columbia.
• Direct deposits you initiate from an account at another bank do not qualify
• The amount of the bonus credited to your account will be reported to the IRS as interest
• Current personal checking customers or anyone who has had a personal checking account with Sovereign Bank in the last 6 months are not eligible for this offer.
• Current savings customers are eligible

An important note regarding the Interest Checking is that direct deposit is required to avoid a $10 monthly fee. On the plus side is that they provide free checks. The Premier Checking is even worse in terms of potential fees. A $15,000 combined balance is required to avoid a $30/month fee. For the savings accounts, the Money Market Savings appears to be a good choice since it has no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance requirement. Note, the monthly fees and minimum balance vary considerably based on your state.

Here are the requirements to qualify for 1.50% APY for 3 months:

• Open a new Premier Checking account and open a new Premier Money Market Savings account by March 13, 2010
• Bonus rate will apply for each day your balance is $10,000 to $499,999 and is guaranteed for 3 months from the date you open your account

Some important small print:

• Same geographic restriction as mentioned above
• Anyone who has had a Sovereign savings, money market savings, or personal checking account with Sovereign in the last 6 months are not eligible for the bonus rate

Unlike the checking account promotion, this requires a Premier Money Market Savings account. Details of this account are in the promo page (click more for this account in the promo page). The Premier Money Savings is free of minimum balance requirements and has no monthly fees as long as you have a Premier Checking account (which, as I mentioned, has its own fees)

When I called Sovereign Bank in April 2008 regarding a similar promotion, I was told that there's no account closure fee if an account is closed after 90 days. Otherwise, it's $25. The CSR also said they don't perform a hard credit inquiry. They just use ChexSystem in the application.

There's an online application link in the promo page. However, the small print states that residential addresses must be located in the northeast states (see above).

Branches are located in the Northeast in the states of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The bank is a FDIC member (FDIC Certificate # 29950).

Other Bank Bonuses

Refer to the Bank Bonus page for the other bonuses at banks and credit unions around the nation.

• 3.51% APY on balances up to $25,000
• 1.01% APY on portion of balance over $25,000
• Reimburses up to $25 in ATM fees nationwide per month

• 12 debit card purchases
• 1 Automatic Payment or Direct Deposit transfer
• Receive electronic statements

• $50 minimum initial deposit
• No minimum balance requirement
• No monthly maintenance fee
• Free Bill Pay

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

Update 3/05/2010: The bank has restricted the online CDs and money market account to residents of New England and New York State. I just called their toll-free number and received this info.

EBSB Direct has started offering online CDs, and it's offering a competitive 10-month CD with a 1.77% APY. Minimum deposit is $1,000. This is listed at the bank's website as of 12/14/09. The site also lists a 36-month CD, but the rate is much less competitive at 2.35% APY.

I first reported on EBSB Direct in May when it launched its internet savings account. The savings account rate has remained fairly competitive, but it requires a $50,000 balance to qualify for the top rate, which is currently 1.67% APY.

The website doesn't include many of the CD details so I called the bank this morning at its toll-free number (800-657-3272). Here are some of the details I received from the CSR:

• Available nationwide
• Funded via ACH transfer from an external account
• CD rate locks when you submit your application
• Rates are typically changed on Wednesdays
• Beneficiaries can be added in the application
• At maturity, there's a 10-day grace period
• Receiving the CD funds via ACH is an option

EBSB Direct is part of East Boston Savings Bank which operates 13 branch offices in the greater Boston area. The bank has $1.15 billion in assets and $931 million in deposits based on 9/30/09 FDIC data.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little above average: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial (based on 9/30/09 data) and 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com (based on 6/30/09 data). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1991 (FDIC Certificate # 33510).

Other Competitive Certificate of Deposit Rates

If you don't mind a little longer term, you can still get 2% APY at a few banks. One bank is ING Direct which started offering a 2% APY 12-month CD on Friday (see post).

For other CDs, please refer to the following:

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

• $50 for setting up direct deposit of $50 or more
• $25 for making 5 online bill payments
• $25 for making 5 signature-based debit card or credit card purchases