Pennsylvania Deposit Account Rates and Deals

Valley Green Bank is listing a special 14-month CD with a 1.95% APY. Minimum deposit is $5,000, and new money is required. This special is listed on the bank's front page and in this promotions page as of 8/25/2010.

The bank also has some competitive standard CD rates including a 2.00% APY 24-month CD and a 2.75% APY 60-month CD. These rates are listed in the bank's rates page as of 8/25/2010.

It appears that a branch visit is required to open an account. It's a small bank with two full-service bank offices located in Philadelphia.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little weak: 3 stars (adequate) at BauerFinancial, 1 star (lowest) at Bankrate.com and an overall health score of 3 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our financial overview of Valley Green Bank). These ratings are based on 3/31/10 financial data. The bank has been a FDIC member since 2005 (FDIC Certificate # 58084).

Searching for the Best CD Rates

To search for the best nationwide CD rates and the best CD rates in your state, please refer to the CD rates section of DepositAccounts.com.

PNC Bank has another $100 bonus for opening a checking account. It's not as good as the $125 July bonus, but this $100 bonus appears to be the best PNC bonus currently available. Here's the direct link to the promotion. It requires direct deposit of at least $400 per month along with 10 check card purchases. According to the small print, the checking account must be opened via the online application by 9/30/2010. Here's some of the small print as listed in the promo page with my highlights of the important things to note:

Offer available only to new PNC customers. New personal checking account must be opened via online application between 8/01/2010 and 9/30/2010. To qualify for the $100 reward a Qualifying Direct Deposit must be received and at least 10 check card purchases made with your PNC Visa Check Card must be posted to the eligible account within 60 days of account opening. Your checking account must remain open in order for you to receive the $100 reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 60 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as "Promo Reward Cash Trans" on your monthly statement. A "Qualifying Direct Deposit" is defined as a recurring direct deposit of a paycheck, pension, social security or other regular monthly payment electronically deposited into a Free, Performance, Performance Select Checking account, or the Spend account for Virtual Wallet (each an "Eligible Account") on a recurring month-to-month basis. The amount of each recurring Direct Deposit must be at least $400. The recurring Direct Deposits must be made by an employer or an outside agency. Credit card cash advance transfers, transfers from one account to another or deposits made at a branch or ATM do not qualify as Qualifying Direct Deposits. Offer only available to new PNC Bank checking account customers who open the Eligible Account using the on-line application. Offer only available to residents of DC, DE, FL, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NJ, OH, PA, VA and WI. Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time and may vary by market. This is an online offer that is not available through the branch.

PNC Bank's Virtual Wallet

One of the checking accounts that can qualify for the bonus is the Spend Account which is part of PNC's Virtual Wallet. Another part of Virtual Wallet is the Grow Account which is a savings account that pays 1.10% APY on balances up to $25K as of 8/8/2010. Please see my PNC Virtual Wallet review for more details.

PNC Q2 Results and Its Deposit Strategy

PNC released its second quarter results in late July. It reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit. One thing I found interesting in PNC's press release was the description of its plans to grow checking account deposits while shrinking CD deposits. Here's an excerpt:

Average deposits of $182 billion declined $.8 billion compared with the first quarter of 2010 and $10.4 billion, or 5 percent, compared with the second quarter of 2009. In both comparisons, average deposits decreased due to the continued reduction of high-cost and primarily nonrelationship certificates of deposit and other time deposits, partially offset by growth in average transaction deposits. This was consistent with PNC’s overall deposit strategy focused on growing demand and other transaction deposits as a lower-cost funding source and the cornerstone product of customer relationships.

You can see PNC executing this strategy with these checking account bonuses and its very-low CD rates (one example: 1.50% 5-year CD in Florida).

The conversion of National City branches was also mentioned in the press release:

PNC successfully completed the National City conversion of 16 million accounts, 6 million customers and 1,300 branches in nine states.

I know many readers will miss those National City CD specials that were so popular a couple of years ago.

PNC Bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 6384).

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals at other banks, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus blog posts. Some additional bonuses are also listed in the checking account deals section of the discussion forum.

The Police and Fire FCU (PFFCU) in Philadelphia has again added new limits on who can qualify to join the credit union. PFFCU continues to offer a 4.00% APY 5-year CD and a 3.00% APY 3-year CD (Update: These CD rates just fell by 50 basis points), so unfortunately, fewer people will now be able to take advantage of these hot CD deals. For a little while anyone in the country could qualify to join PFFCU by becoming a member of Weavers Way Cooperative Association. In early July, PFFCU limited credit union membership to only Co-op members who are residents of PA, NJ or DE. PFFCU has again changed this. Co-op members must now be residents of Pennsylvania. Here's how PFFCU's members group list was changed:

Old

Weavers Way Cooperative Association
--must be a resident of PA, NJ or DE

New

Weavers Way Cooperative Association
--must be a resident of Pennsylvania

Thanks to the reader who mentioned this news in the comments. The reader also had a good point in that PFFCU could further narrow this. Those in PA who are looking for long-term CDs may not want to wait too long to join PFFCU. Based on how PFFCU has changed this, I wouldn't be surprised if this gets furthered narrowed to Philadelphia.

This is very frustrating to savers who just want a decent return on their hard earned savings. Why would PFFCU make such a change? A reader in my last PFFCU post gave his opinion which makes sense:

Sadly it isn't that surprising. Like most banks and credit unions I am sure PFFCU is awash in liquidity and deposits these days and doesn't have a profitable way to put hugely increased deposits to work.

Perhaps they think it makes more sense for them to offer better rates to a smaller group than have to cut their rates to the point that they remain solvent as a much larger institution. Because, let's face it, most of the rate chasers that bring in money from far away don't become potential loan customers.

I just started a forum thread about an American Banker article which describes how many banks are "drowning in deposits".

For those in Pennsylvania and who are interested in these hot CD deals, please refer to my PFFCU review for more details about the credit union and these CDs.

Northwest Savings Bank is offering a $100 bonus for opening a new Switch Checking Account. Details of this promotion are listed in the bank's promotions page as of 7/29/2010. Some important details include:

• $100 minimum opening deposit
• To qualify, customers must initiate a monthly direct deposit of $100 or more
• Switch Rewards, Switch Free, or Switch Interest Checking Account qualify
• $100 credit will be posted to the account within 7 days of the first verified Direct Deposit
• $100 credit is subject to a 1099 reporting

A reader in a previous Northwest Savings post mentioned that his $100 opening deposit triggered the bonus. So a real direct deposit may not be required. As usual your miles may vary.

Here's a summary of the checking accounts. The GO! Rewards Checking is a free checking account. It's not a high-yield reward checking account. The rewards are based on the amount you spend with the debit card. Another perk with this account is that you earn 10,000 points when you open the account. Note, online bill pay is free only if you pay at least one bill per month.

Refer-a-Friend Deal

The bank also has a good refer-a-friend deal in which you can earn $50 for each friend who opens a qualifying account. Plus, you can get a $10 Apple iTunes gift card just for inviting 5 or more friends, and there's the chance to win an iPod nano.

Only for Those in Certain Areas of FL, MD, NY, OH & PA

There's an online application link at the promotion page. However, on the first page of the application it states:

All residents of the United States that are within the Northwest market area are welcome to apply for an account.

Branches are located in parts of Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Decent CD Rates

The bank also has some decent CD rates. They're not good enough for a separate post, but I wanted to mention them for those who may live near one of their branches. You have to enter your zip code to see the rate table so rates may vary by location. For South Florida, the best rates include a 3.00% APY 6-year CD, a 2.80% APY 5-year CD, a 2.10% APY 3-year CD and a 1.50% APY 18-month CD. These were listed at the bank's South Florida rate sheet as of 7/29/2010.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are strong. At DepositAccounts.com we give the bank an overall health score of 5 out of 5 (see our financial overview for Northwest Savings Bank). The bank has been a FDIC member since 1939 (FDIC Certificate # 28178).

Other Bank Bonuses

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

PNC Bank has another checking account bonus. They are offering a little more than last month. From the home page of their website, they're listing a bonus of up to $125. Here's the direct link to the promo page. To receive the first $100 requires direct deposit of at least $400 per month along with 10 check card purchases. To receive an extra $25 requires signing up for online banking and making 5 payments through Online Bill Pay. Offer is scheduled to end on July 24, 2010. The promotion applies to both the Virtual Wallet and the Free Checking Account.

There's also a $150 bonus being advertised in the St. Louis area. This was advertised in yesterday's (7/11/10) St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The ad is available online here. The requirements for this $150 appear to be the same as for qualifying for the $100 that's mentioned at PNC's website: 1) direct deposit of at least $400, and 2) at least 10 debit card purchases.

Here's some of the small print as listed at PNC's promo page with my highlights of the important things to note:

New personal checking account must be opened between 7/11/2010 and 7/24/2010. To qualify for a $100 reward, a PNC Bank Visa Check Card must be issued to you, a qualifying direct deposit must be received, and at least 10 purchases made with your Check Card must post to your checking account within 60 days of account opening. To qualify for an additional $25 reward, the first conditions must be met and a minimum of 5 payments must be completed via PNC Online Bill Pay, also within 60 days of account opening. Your checking account must remain open in order for you to receive the $100 or $125 reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 60 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as "Promo Reward Cash Trans" on your monthly statement. A qualifying Direct Deposit is defined as a recurring Direct Deposit of a paycheck, pension, Social Security or other regular monthly income electronically deposited into a Free, Performance or Performance Select Checking Account, or the Spend Account for Virtual Wallet. The minimum amount of any single Direct Deposit must be at least $400. The Direct Deposit must be made by an employer or an outside agency. Transfers from one account to another, or deposits made at a branch or ATM, do not qualify as Direct Deposits. Limit of one premium payment per new account legal equity ownership. For this offer, legal equity ownership will be defined by the customer name(s) and social security number(s) on the account. PNC Bank customers with an existing checking account are not eligible for this offer. Offer only available to residents of DC, DE, FL, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NJ, OH, PA, VA and WI. Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time and may vary by market.

Some additional details about this Free checking account and the other checking accounts are in PNC Bank's Schedule of Service Charges and Fees. There was some concern in my last PNC post that the debit card would have a fee. This does not appear to be the case for the Free Checking account. The only potential recurring fee I see in the above document is $10 per year for having the Banking Card linked to a checking account. The CSR did not think this applied for the Free Checking. However, terms can vary based on your state so you may want to confirm this.

PNC's Virtual Wallet is composed of a checking account and two savings accounts. One of the savings account is the Growth Account which has a fairly competitive yield of 1.10% for up to $25K (as of 7/12/10). Please refer to my PNC Virtual Wallet review for more details.

In June, PNC Bank announced the completion of the National City conversion which added 1,300 branches to PNC. PNC Bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 6384).

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals at other banks, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts. You can also find additional checking account bonuses, in the Checking Account Deals Forum.

WesBanco is offering a $100 checking account bonus. WesBanco is calling it a $125 bonus, but $25 is for referring a friend. I consider refer-a-friend bonuses separate from new-account bonuses. One nice feature is that it does not require direct deposit. On the downside, they have a tough debit card usage requirement that's more difficult than their previous promotions.

Here's the direct link to the promotion. The requirements are below. The promo is scheduled to end on 8/31/2010.

• $50 for direct deposit OR e-statements
• $50 after your first 20 debit card purchases
• $25 for referring your friend

Below is the offer's important small print:

The minimum balance to open an account is $50. Customers with a current checking account, or who transfer funds from an existing WesBanco deposit account, are not eligible for the bonus. Debit card purchases: You must make twenty debit card transactions in 90 days of account opening to earn $50 bonus. Refer a friend: $25 bonus will be credited to account after referred friend opens checking account. One of the following must be chosen in order to earn $50 bonus and debit card sign up is required. Direct deposit: Bonus will be paid after the second recurring direct deposit of at least $100 is credited within 90 days of account opening. E-statements: Bonus will be paid after signing up for e-statements within 90 days of account opening. Valid e-mail address is required to receive the bonus. All bonuses are subject to change without notice and limited to one per customer. Customers that have received a new account opening or debit card usage bonus on any previous WesBanco checking account are not eligible for this offer. Employees are not eligible for bonus. Offer valid through August 31, 2010.

WesBanco does offer a free checking account which has no minimum balance requirements or monthly fees. Online Bill Pay is free.

I've posted on similar deals from WesBanco over the last couple of years. In those past posts readers have commented that WesBanco does require a branch visit.

Branches are located in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The bank is a FDIC member (Certificate # 803).

Credit for this find goes to FW member depreshun who mentioned this promotion in this FW thread.

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts. Some additional bonus deals are also in the checking account discussion forum. This checking account forum also has updates when bonuses have been extended. I just posted updates for bonuses at Chase and ING Direct.

Update 7/7/2010: I'm afraid PFFCU is off the nationwide list. The credit union has added the following requirement for Weavers Way Coop members: "must be a resident of PA, NJ or DE". I'm afraid this makes it clear that they don't want out-of-area members.

I'm adding Police and Fire Federal Credit Union (PFFCU) to my list of nationwide accounts. Thanks to Alan who described in the comments how anyone can join Weavers Way Cooperative Association to qualify for PFFCU membership. This association is one of many listed under "Associations and Organizations" in PFFCU's Membership Eligibility page. I also called PFFCU this morning, and according to the CSR, members of Weavers Way continue to be eligible to join PFFCU.

I wanted to be extra careful since there have been many cases in the past in which a credit union wrongly lists a membership in an organization for eligibility when it was suppose to be an employee of the organization. This happened with PFFCU last year when PFFCU had incorrectly listed the Pennsylvania SPCA as an eligible association. PFFCU rejected several readers who had joined the SPCA. PFFCU eventually moved SPCA out of the association list and under the employer list.

There were also concerns that one would have to pay $400 to Weavers Way Cooperative Association to become a member. Here's what it states at the Weavers Way website

Your member equity investment is your share of ownership in the Co-op. You can pay $30 each year until you have $400 invested in Weavers Way, or just pay your $400 when you join, and never have to worry about it. Your equity belongs to, and if you decide you no longer want to be a member of Weavers Way, you can have it refunded to you.

So you can join Weavers Way for only $30.

One important point that applies to all credit unions that I've known is that once you become a member at a credit union, you are always a member of the credit union as long as you remain in good standing. If you lose your job to an employer that qualified you to join the credit union, you can remain a credit union member. The same goes with an association. Once you are a credit union member, you are under no obligation to retain membership in that association.

4.00% APY CDs Continue

Why would you want to join a credit union like PFFCU? It's because they are currently one of the very few federally insured institutions in the nation that are still offering a 4.00% APY 5-year CD and IRA CD. Other top rates include a 3.50% APY 4-year CD and a 3.00% APY 3-year CD. Note, the 2-year CD rate did go down since my Monday post. The rate is now 2.00% APY.

The only issue regarding PFFCU's CDs is that the early withdrawal penalty is larger than average. Here is what is stated in the Truth in Savings Disclosure

If your account has an original maturity of 30 months to 5 years: The penalty we may impose will be the greater of: * seven days dividends on the amount withdrawn, or * all dividends that have been earned not to exceed 360 days.

For more details about PFFCU, please refer to my June 28th PFFCU CD and credit union review. For more details about how to join Weavers Way and PFFCU, please refer to Alan's comments.

Continental Bank is offering some very competitive short-term CD rates. The best ones include the 6-month and 9-month CDs which have a 1.50% APY. The 18-month CD is also competitive with a 1.75% APY. The bank also has a reward checking account. However, the rate isn't the best. It currently pays 2.01% APY on balances up to $25,000 (0.76% for above). The typical reward checking requirements apply. These rates are listed at the bank's rates page as of the morning of 7/01/2010.

It appears that a branch visit is required to open accounts. Branches are located in the Pennsylvania cities of Blue Bell, Bala Cynwyd, Devon, East Norriton, West Norriton, Limerick, Plymouth Meeting, King of Prussia and Philadelphia.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little weak: 3½ stars (good) at BauerFinancial, 2 stars (below peer group) at Bankrate.com and an overall health score of 3 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our Continental Bank financial overview). These ratings are based on 3/31/10 data except for Bankrate which is based on 12/31/09 data. The bank has been a FDIC member since 2005 (FDIC Certificate # 58061).

Searching for the Best Reward Checking & CD Rates

• Best Reward Checking Rates
• Best CD Rates

Visions Federal Credit Union continues to offer some competitive CD and IRA CD rates. The rates have dropped since my March post, but they remain competitive. The noteworthy CD rates for a minimum of $500 include:

• 1.51% APY 6-month CD and IRA CD ($2,500 min)
• 1.77% APY 1-year CD and IRA CD
• 2.28% APY 30-month CD and IRA CD
• 2.38% APY 32-month IRA-only CD
• 3.05% APY 60-month CD and IRA CD

These rates are listed at the credit union's rate table as of 6/30/10. Above the table there's a date range of 6/30/10 to 7/06/10.

For the non-IRA CD rates above, you can get an extra 25 basis points with an account relationship. Refer to the bottom of the rate table for details about eligible relationships. A VisionsPlus Checking with Visa Check Card and a Gold credit card can qualify you.

Membership is available to those who live, work or worship in Broome, Chenango, Tioga, Schuyler or East/Central Chemung Counties in New York and Bradford County in Pennsylvania. There's a $1 membership fee and a $25 minimum deposit into the Share Money Manager Account. Please refer to the credit union's FAQ page for more details.

Branches are located in the New York cities of Binghamton, Elmira, Endicott, Endwell, Horseheads, Johnson City, Newark Valley, Owego, Spencer, Syracuse, Vestal and Watkins Glen. In Pennsylvania, the branches are in Sayre and Wysox. Visions FCU is part of the CU Service Centers network which allows you to take care of many bank transactions at member branches around the nation.

Visions FCU has strong ratings for safety and soundness: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial, 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com and an overall health score of 4 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our Visions FCU financial overview). These ratings are based on March 2010 data except for Bankrate which is based on 12/31/09 data. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 17429). It's a large credit union with $2.46 billion in assets.

Police and Fire Federal Credit Union continues to offer very competitive long-term CD rates. It's one of the very few institutions in the nation to still offer a 4.00% APY 5-year CD. Other top rates include a 3.50% APY 4-year CD, a 3.00% APY 3-year CD and a 2.25% APY 2-year CD. Minimum deposit is $500. These rates are listed in the credit union's CD rate table and IRA CD rate table as of 6/28/2010. These long-term CD rates have held since last summer.

The credit union has an online application for its certificates. However, you must first be a member and have money already in one of the credit union's liquid accounts. Once you become a member, you can use an online bank to push money into the credit union savings account via an ACH transfer. Once the money is in there, you should be able to purchase the CD using this online application. This approach has worked well for me at other credit unions.

In addition to Philadelphia police and firefighters, membership is also open to other employee groups and associations. Please refer to the credit union's Membership Page for the full details.

Update 6/29/10: The reader Alan found that members of Weavers Way Cooperative qualifies for credit union membership, and the cooperative is easy to join. Refer to Alan's comment and the Weavers Way membership page for more details. Update 7/29/10: The credit union has added an additional requirement for Weavers Way members: they must also be residents of PA to qualify for credit union membership.

Note, it is generally true for all credit unions that once you join a credit union via your membership in an organization or based on your employer, you do not have to maintain that membership or employment to continue to be a member of the credit union.

In May 2009 the credit union had incorrectly listed the Pennsylvania SPCA as an eligible association. According to the credit union it should have been under employers. Several readers had tried to join the credit union via the SPCA, but they were rejected. The credit union now has the SPCA listed under employers. So if you do intend to join via one of the associations, it's wise to verify the eligibility by phone with the credit union before joining the association.

Branches are located in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

The credit union continues to have strong ratings for safety and soundness: 5 stars (superior) at BauerFinancial (based on 3/31/10 data) and 4 stars (sound) at Bankrate.com (based on 12/31/09 data). It's a large credit union with $3.6 billion in assets. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 2551).