Advancial Long-Term Jumbo CD Rates Increased Significantly
DA reader, alan1, pointed out in a Forum post at the beginning of the week, Advancial has recently raised the rates on its long-term Jumbo Certificates, with the 3-year, 4-year, and 5-year adding 14, 30, and 28 bps, respectively. Although the short-term Jumbo Certificates rates have lost a few bps since the beginning of the year, the APYs are still very competitive.
All of Advancial’s Certificates have tiered APYs, based on minimum opening deposits: Certificates ($1k min), Junior Jumbo Certificates ($25k min), and Jumbo Certificates ($50k min). The corresponding APYs are tiered in increments of 10 bps.
Advancial’s Certificates are also offered as IRA CDs (Traditional, Roth, CESA), earning the same tiered APYs with the same deposit requirements.
According to CSR, the Early Withdrawal Penalties are as follows:
- 90 days dividends for terms less than one year.
- 180 days dividends for terms between one year and three years.
- 365 days dividends for terms four years and greater.
Advancial offers penalty-free early withdrawals,
if you have been impacted by a federal disaster event. The standard Early Withdrawal fee is waived on requests made within 60 days from the date of declaration of a federal disaster area. IRA Savings Certificates are not eligible for this offer.
Funding and Accessing Maturing Funds
Certificates must be funded at the time of opening. CSR suggested the easiest (and fastest) way to fund a Certificate is through a transfer from an existing Advancial checking or savings account. Advancial participates in the CO-OP Shared Branch network, making the transfer of funds relatively easy. The other option would be to initiate a wire from an external financial institution.
Maturing funds can be distributed by check, wire ($15 fee), or transferred into an existing Advancial checking or savings account.
Beneficiaries
Unlimited beneficiaries can be named, with a Social Security number required for each beneficiary. According to CSR, beneficiaries can be listed on the online application, with no need for a separate form to be submitted. Percentages cannot be assigned; only equal shares are available.
Availability
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Advancial has a field of membership (FOM) that has changed a few times since my first Advancial blog post in 2017. The FOM has alternated between an “easy membership requirement” (EMR) and a limited membership determined by residency and SEG relationship. While the recent CD rate increases are the good news of this blog post, the not-so-good news is that Advancial is currently in a non-EMR phase.
The current ways to join Advancial include,
Residency: Individuals who live, work, worship, or attend school in the Louisiana parishes of Acadia, Avoyelles, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, or Vermillion are eligible to join.
Personal Relationship: Immediate family members and household members of individuals who qualify for membership through an SEG also qualify for membership. Immediate family is defined as spouse, significant other, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, grandchild, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, and adoptive relationships.
Employment: Employees/members of hundreds SEGs also qualify for membership. Unfortunately, Advancial does not list any of the SEGs on their website, although the Online Membership Application does include a search field “to find your employer or association.” According to the Membership Eligibility page,
To learn if your company or association is an Advancial Select Employer Group,
please contact your local branch or our Member Service Center at 800.322.2709.
Advancial’s website doesn't have much specific information about the SEGs, but its branch locations “are in energy producing areas, as Advancial started as ARCO’s credit union catering to the oil and gas industry.” According to CSR, many of the SEGs are oil and gas industry companies. (If you type “oil” or “gas” in the search field of the online membership application, several companies do pop up.)
Joining Advancial and/or opening a Jumbo Certificate can be done online. The Membership Application is also available as a download and can be returned by mail. All of Advancial’s eleven full-service branch lobbies are temporarily closed for walk-in transactions, but all branch locations are available by phone, email, or drive thru service.
As stated on Advancial’s COVID-19 Updates page,
We tentatively have set a target of April 19, 2021 as a date to re-open branch lobbies for face-to-face business but will do so using safety protocols.
Opening a savings account with a minimum deposit of just $5 establishes an Advancial membership.
Advancial participates in both the CO-OP Shared Branch and ATM networks, giving members access to more than 5,000 branches and nearly 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide.
Credit Union Overview
Advancial has an overall health grade of "B+" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 6.74% (excellent) based on December 31, 2020 data. In the past year, Advancial has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $176.89 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 12.26%. Please refer to our financial overview of Advancial (NCUA Charter # 2285) for more details.
Chartered in 1937 as the Atlantic Federal Credit Union, Advancial is currently the 14th largest credit union based in Texas, with more than 98,000 members and assets in excess of $1.8 billion. The original charter was issued by the Farm Credit Administration, an independent agency of the Executive Branch that was created in 1933. (If you’re wondering why a Texas-based credit union had “Atlantic” in its name, the original FOM included employees of the Atlantic Richland Company, better known as ARCO.) In 2001, the Credit Union rebranded as Advancial to better reflect its diverse membership.
How the Jumbo Certificates Compare
Given Advancial’s unique FOM, a comparison to nationally available CDs is appropriate. When compared to the similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that are available nationwide, Advancial's Jumbo Certificate APYs currently rank first, regardless of minimum deposit requirements.
The above information and rates are accurate as of 4/8/2021.
To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.
Certainly better than our current Savings account options (a number of which continue to sink).
Am I missing anything?
My roommate's Advancial membership was easily established; then began back-and-forth deliberations about options for getting the CD opened. The CSR promoted a fee-laden wire transfer as the most expedient way to establish the new account (bearing in mind that the CD offer would be good through the end of the month -- something we took as both a threat, and a guarantee).
Sparing you many details (which included the possibility of paying a visit to a credit union that participates in the CO-OP Shared Branch network), the upshot was that we settled on enrolling in Mobile Banking, and -- much more conveniently -- uploaded a check from home. Funds were posted to the new Savings account the very next day; it then took a little prodding (and a few email delays) before the CSR was able to open the new CD . . . albeit with an excessive "14-day hold."
Better the hold was placed on funds in the CD -- which ain't goin' nowhere for five years, anyhow! -- than if the hold were on the Savings account (something which might have tripped up the entire mission, should Advancial's offer be pulled in May, or otherwise prematurely reneged on). But not sure the CSR was aware of this scenario -- placing holds on a newly funded CD, rather than on its associated Savings account -- which, as I hinted, took some prodding to accomplish.
Lessons to share were learned all around (especially for the CSR). But I'm happy to report "All's well that ends well" -- with just shy of 10 days to go, until this offer might expire. So, if you're interested to follow in our footsteps: Hop to it!