Utah Deposit Account Rates and Deals

HeritageWest Credit Union is offering competitive rates on its 5-year CD and IRA CD. The yield is 3.03% APY for a minimum of $500 and 3.18% APY for a minimum of $100,000. The rates for the shorter terms are much lower and not nearly as competitive. These yields are listed in the credit union's certificate rates page as of 8/24/2010.

I couldn't find many membership details on the credit union's website so I contacted the credit union yesterday. According to a credit union rep, membership is open to those who live, work, or do business in Tooele or Salt Lake County, or those who have a blood relative that meets one of these requirements.

Branches are located in the Utah cities of Tooele, Stansbury Park, Grantsville and South Jordan.

Division of Chartway Federal Credit Union

The credit union was merged into Chartway Federal Credit union on January 1, 2010 after being liquidated by the NCUA. It now operates as a division of Chartway and will continue to operate under the HeritageWest name. The credit union's name before 2008 was Tooele FCU.

The nice thing about this merger is that it's now part of a strong credit union. Chartway's ratings for safety and soundness are above average: 4 stars (excellent) at BauerFinancial, 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com and an overall health score of 4 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our financial overview of Chartway Federal Credit Union). The DepositAccounts.com rating is based on June 2010 data. The other ratings are based on 3/31/10 data. Chartway FCU is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 13242).

Searching for the Best CD and IRA CD Rates

To search for the best nationwide rates and the best rates in your state, please refer to the following sections of DepositAccounts.com:

• CD rates
• IRA CD rates

Mountain America Credit Union still has a competitive 5-year CD and IRA CD rate of 3.00% APY. Minimum deposit is $500. This yield is listed in the credit union's current rates page as of 8/17/2010.

The credit union used to offer some competitive shorter-term CD rates, but these are no longer noteworthy. It also used to have a very mild early withdrawal penalty. They made changes to their website, and I could no longer find any mention of the early withdrawal penalty. So I emailed the credit union. It appears they have increased the penalty. According to the credit union rep, the "penalty for early withdrawal on a 5 year term deposit is 180 days worth of interest."

Credit union membership is open to members of the American Consumer Council. Council membership costs $12, and is open to anyone. This council is listed in the credit union's SEG Affiliated Associations page. For more ways to qualify for membership, please refer to the credit union's Become a Member page. In my recent email to this credit union, I mentioned that I was interested in becoming a member via this council. Here's the reply I received:

We would be happy to take a membership application for you. If you have a branch near you please visit them with your picture ID. They will need $25.00 to get the account open and going. If you plan on opening a checking account that will require a minimum of $100.00.

If you are not near a branch location you can apply online or call us at 1-800-748-4302.

Branches are located throughout Utah. Also, branches are located in Mesa, Arizona; Las Vegas and Sparks, Nevada; and in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The credit union's ratings for soundness are a little weak: 3 stars (adequate) at BauerFinancial, 2 stars (below peer group) at Bankrate and an overall health score of 3 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our financial overview for Mountain America CU). These ratings are based on March 2010 data. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 24692). It's a large credit union with $2.8 billion in assets.

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.

Update: This Bank of the West promotion has ended. For those who live in parts of New York, another bank is offering an iPod touch bank promotion that's scheduled to last through 9/30/2010.

Bank of the West just came out with another checking account promotion. I just posted on their $100 checking account bonus on Sunday. They're now offering a free Apple iPod touch when you open one of their checking accounts, and complete a few requirements. Here's the promotions page (now inactive). It's also listed on the bank's front page. The offer is scheduled to last until 9/3/2010. They give you three different ways to qualify after you open the checking account:

• Minimum monthly recurring direct deposit of $500. OR
• Make 10 bill payments with Bank of the West Online Banking, OR
• Make 20 debit card transactions

This was similar to the $100 bonus, except they added the 20 debit card purchases. The main issue with a gift reward is that they may report a value of the gift that's too high to the IRS. The bank doesn't seem to specify the iPod model, and they do say in the small print that the "iPod touch shipped may differ from the iPod touch shown." Based on a quick search on Google, it appears the value of the cheapest iPod touch is at lesat $150.

Update 8/16/2010: The small print has changed. In addition to the new end date of 8/20/2010, more people can qualify. The new small print includes the following:

Offer valid for qualifying accounts opened in person at participating branches in CA, CO, UT, WY, and NV or for accounts opened online by residents of AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI and WY.

Below is the offer's small print with my highlights of some of the important details:

Open any new personal checking account and either establish minimum monthly recurring direct deposit of $500, or make 10 bill payments with Bank of the West Online Banking or make 20 debit card transactions. Direct deposit must be payroll, Social Security, pension or other government benefits. Qualifying debit card transactions include signature, or PIN-based purchases only. Qualifying transactions must be completed by 10/31/10. Offer valid for new personal checking accounts opened from 07/19/10 – 09/3/10 with $100 or more from a financial institution other than Bank of the West. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer and is subject to change without prior notice and may be terminated at any time. Offer valid for qualifying accounts opened at participating branches in CA, CO, UT, WY, and NV or opened online. Offer does not apply to second or multiple checking accounts. Limit of one new checking account bonus per household per calendar year. iPod touch will be shipped to your account address of record by December 15, 2010. You must have a U.S. mailing address on 10/31/10 to be eligible. Accounts overdrawn or closed as of 10/31/10 are not eligible for this offer. The iPod touch shipped may differ from the iPod touch shown. To the extent required by law, Bank of the West will report the value of the iPod touch to the IRS on Form 1099. Any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the account holder. All accounts are subject to the Bank’s standard terms and conditions and fee schedule.

Please note the small print: "Offer valid for qualifying accounts opened at participating branches in CA, CO, UT, WY, and NV or opened online." This explains why these states were excluded in the $100 promotion. So if you don't live in these states, you may want to check with Bank of the West. When I checked with Bank of the West in March, I was told that the online account application is limited to states which have Bank of the West branches. See my $100 promotion review for a list of these states.

Regarding a hard credit pull, I was told earlier this year that they don't do a hard credit inquiry in the application (only a soft pull). So you shouldn't have to worry about a ding to your credit score.

Bank of the West is one of the large regional banks. It has $61.18 billion in assets and $41.38 billion in deposits. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 3514).

Thanks to the reader who emailed me news of this promotion.

Other Bank Bonuses

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

Delta Community Credit Union has lowered its CD rates since my April post, but a few of the CDs remain competitive. The best one is currently their 2-year CD which has a 2.15% APY. Also competitive is the 3.00% APY 5-year CD. The same rates are also available as IRA CDs. Minimum deposit is $1,000. These rates are listed at the credit union's rates page as of 7/09/2010. Note, the credit union typically updates rates at the start of each month.

The credit union's money market account also continues to be competitive with a top rate of 1.45% APY on the $100K tier. This is down from 1.60% in April.

One nice feature of the credit union CDs is a mild early withdrawal penalty: 31-day interest penalty for maturities of 12-months or less and 90 days interest-penalty for maturities over 12 months. Please refer to the bottom of the rates page for more details.

Credit union membership is open to members of the GettingAhead Association. This appears open to people from any state who pay a $5 membership fee. You can be immediately eligible for credit union membership if you're a resident of one of several Georgia counties in the Atlanta metro area, work for one of their Select Employer Groups, or via family (not just immediate family). Please see the credit union's eligibility page for the full details. Membership requires a minimum $5 deposit into the savings account.

Joining the credit union and opening accounts are much quicker if you can visit a branch. Readers commented on their experience joining this credit union in my November 2008 post when the credit union was offering a 4.50% 12-month CD. The reader who joined with a branch visit reported a very easy process.

Branches are located throughout the Atlanta Metro area. There are also branches in Florence, Kentucky (Cincinnati Metro); Salt Lake City, Utah; and Southlake, Texas (Dallas Metro). The credit union is also part of the CU Service Center network which allows you to perform many basic banking transactions at a shared branch.

Delta Community Credit Union's rating for safety and soundness has gone down a bit at Bankrate.com. It's now 3 stars (performing) based on 12/31/09 data compared to 4 stars (sound) when it was based on 9/30/09 data. It continues to have the highest rating at BauerFinancial of 5 stars based on 3/31/10 data. It has an overall health score of 4 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our Delta Community Credit Union financial overview financial overview). The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 66357). It's a large credit union with $3.62 billion in assets.

America First Credit Union has an add-on type of CD called Dedicated Savings. Most of the rates are below average except for the 60-month term which has a 3.00% APY as of 5/10/2010. Dedicated Savings require an automatic transfer of at least $10/month. You can make additional contributions up to $10,000 per month. The total deposits in Dedicated Savings are not allowed to exceed $100,000 per account.

The nice thing about add-on CDs is that they can provide a hedge against an extended low-interest rate environment. If rates stay low, you can always fall back on the add-on CD. The credit union lists some members' reviews at the Dedicated Savings page. Here's one that describes how additional deposits can be made:

I can make a simple phone call to member services and they can transfer the payment in less than 5 minutes.

The full details of the Dedicated Savings CD are listed in the rate and fee disclosure (pdf). According to the disclosure, CDs with terms of over 12 months have an early withdrawal penalty of 90 days of dividends. That's below average, and is another nice feature.

Membership eligibility has expanded since my last post on America First. Those in Clark County, Nevada are now eligible to join. This is probably due to America First's acquisition of Community One FCU that was liquidated by the NCUA in August 2009. Most of the other eligible counties are in Utah and include Salt Lake County, Utah County and Juab County. Please refer to the credit union's application for the full details.

America First Credit Union's ratings for safety and soundness are a little weak: 3 stars (adequate) at BauerFinancial, 2 stars (below peer group) at Bankrate.com and an overall health score of 2 out of 5 at DepositAccounts.com (see our rates and reviews page for America First CU). The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 24694). It's a large credit union with over $5 billion in assets.

Thanks to the reader who emailed me info on this Dedicated Savings CD.

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. The tables now have a new & improved format!

Update: This KeyBank promotion has ended. For those who live in parts of New York, another bank is offering a free iPod touch in a promotion that's scheduled to last through 9/30/2010. KeyBank has regularly offered an Apple iPod promo each year, so hopefully, we'll see another one next year.

KeyBank has a new checking account promotion in which you can earn a free iPod touch. This is similar to the Garmin promo they offered last year. Here's a summary of the requirements of this new promo:

• Open a Key Express Free Checking Account by 6/30/10, and
• Make one KeyBank Rewards debit card transaction, and
• A combination of two direct deposits and/or automated payments each of $100 or more by 10/01/10

One important thing to note is that you must have or request a KeyBank Rewards debit card and enroll in the KeyBank Rewards points program. There is a $20 annual fee for the KeyBank Rewards Program that will be waived for the first year. Below are some additional important points from the small print:

Qualifying debit card transactions include signature, PayPass, and PIN-based purchases only. Direct deposit transactions are limited to: payroll, Social Security, pension, and government benefits. Automated payments exclude Key Bill Pay, debit card automated payments, PayPal transactions, and account-to-account balance transfers. Limit one iPod touch per qualifying account. Limit one iPod touch per individual. The value of the iPod touch will be reported on Form 1099-INT. You will receive your iPod touch within 90 days of meeting requirements. Offer available to individuals without an existing checking account at KeyBank as of 4/30/10. Employees of KeyBank, its affiliates, and subsidiaries are not eligible for this offer. If you close your account within 180 days of account opening, you will be charged a $25 account early closure fee.

Credit for this find goes to FW member Neidman who posted it on this FW thread.

One thing not mentioned at the promo page is the version of the iPod Touch. The 8GB version is currently selling at Newegg.com for $189. KeyBank would likely give it a higher value on the 1099-INT.

Like previous KeyBank promos, it appears to be only available in areas where they have branches. Key has branches in the following states: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

Some FW members have reported problems with the online application. It looks like you'll have better luck by applying by phone.

KeyBank has been FDIC member since 1956

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.

Delta Community Credit Union continues to offer some competitive CD rates. These include a 1.65% APY 12-month CD and a 2.25% APY 24-month CD. The same rates are also available as IRA CDs. Minimum deposit is $1,000. The credit union's money market account also continues to be competitive with a top rate of 1.60% APY on the $100K tier. These rates are listed at the credit union's rates page as of 4/29/2010. Note, the credit union typically updates rates at the start of each month, so these rates may not last much longer.

One nice feature of the credit union CDs is a mild early withdrawal penalty: 31-day interest penalty for maturities of 12-months or less and 90 days interest-penalty for maturities over 12 months. Please refer to the bottom of the rates page for more details.

Credit union membership is open to members of the GettingAhead Association. This appears open to people from any state who pay a $5 membership fee. You can be immediately eligible for credit union membership if you're a resident of one of several Georgia counties in the Atlanta metro area, work for one of their Select Employer Groups, or via family (not just immediate family). Please see the credit union's eligibility page for more details. Membership requires a minimum $5 deposit into the savings account.

Joining the credit union and opening accounts are much quicker if you can visit a branch, and if you want to lock in the above rates, it may be necessary. Readers commented on their experience joining this credit union in my November 2008 post when the credit union was offering a 4.50% 12-month CD. The reader who joined with a branch visit reported a very easy process.

Branches are located throughout the Atlanta Metro area. There are also branches in Florence, Kentucky (Cincinnati Metro); Salt Lake City, Utah; and Southlake, Texas (Dallas Metro). The credit union is also part of the CU Service Center network which allows you to perform many basic banking transactions at a shared branch.

Delta Community 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 # 66357). It's a large credit union with over $3 billion in assets.

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

• Open a qualifying checking account and enroll in KeyBank Rewards by November 20, 2009
• Make one debit card transaction and a combination of two direct deposits and/or automated payments each of $100 or more by January 22, 2010

• This offer is not available in all states. Individuals and businesses will only be eligible in areas where KeyBank has branches. Key has branches in the following states: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

• Direct deposit transactions are limited to: payroll, social security, pension and government benefits.
• Automated payments exclude Key Bill Pay, debit card automated payments, PayPal transactions and account to account balance transfers.
• Offer not available to individuals who have opened a KeyBank checking account in the last 12 months.
• The value of the gift card will be reported on Form 1099-INT.
• If you close your account within 180 days of account opening, you will be charged a $25 account early closure fee.

• 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