AgFed Credit Union Adds 16-Month CD Special, 3.16% APY
AgFed Credit Union (AgFed) has added a 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special – 16-months, 3.16% APY, and $1.6k minimum deposit of new money. This is a limited-time offering, and “AgFed reserves the right to change of withdrawn this offer at any time without advance notice.”
When AgFed states this is a “limited-time offer,” they are serious: previous limited-time offers have been available for only about a week or so.
Unlike recent AgFed Certificate Specials, this one is NOT a no-penalty CD. It's a standard CD with an Early Withdrawal Penalty. As stated on the Share Certificates page, the Early Withdrawal Penalty reads as follows:
If the qualifying period is greater than 11 months but less than 60 months, the member shall forfeit an amount equal to the lesser of:
(A) All dividends for 180 days on the amount withdrawn, or
(B) All dividends on the amount withdrawn since the date of issuance or renewal.
There is a 10 day grace period before the Share Certificate automatically renews.
Availability
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AgFed Credit Union’s field of membership (FOM) is wide, allowing almost anyone in the U.S. with a valid Social Security number to join:
Easy Membership: Members of The Friends of the National Zoo or The Friends of the National Arboretum (one-time $20 donation) are eligible for membership. Joining either association and applying for AgFed membership can be done simultaneously, using the Credit Union’s online application.
Residency: Individuals who live, work, worship, or attend school in the District of Columbia also qualify for membership.
Employment/Affiliation: Any current or retired employee or member of more than 60 Select Employee Groups and organizations are eligible to join.
Family Relationship: Any person related by blood, adoption, or marriage to a current member (except relatives of members who have been expelled from the Credit Union) are welcome to apply.
Joining AgFed can be done online, by phone (800.368.3552), or at any of seven full-service branches located in Washington, D.C. (3), Alexandria (VA), Beltsville (2) and Riverdale (MD).
Opening the 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special
According to CSR, there is no option in the online application for the 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special. CSR suggested that you first deposit funds into your share savings account. Once the funds are in the saving account, call and request to open the Certificate Special. The account can be opened over the phone during business hours (8:00am to 4:00pm ET, M-F). Note, since the Certificate Special requires new money, the funds must come from an external account. Funds can’t come from another AgFed account such as the No-Penalty CD.
Credit Union Overview
AgFed Credit Union has an overall health grade of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 2.80% (excellent) based on June 30, 2018 data. In the past year, AgFed has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $40.75 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 16.24%. Please refer to our financial overview of AgFed Credit Union (NCUA Charter # 16400) for more details.
Originally established in 1934 as the Agriculture Federal Credit Union by United States Department of Agriculture, the Credit Union had a membership of 20 people and assets of $59.75 within a month of opening its doors. Eighty-four years later, AgFed Credit Union has more than 25,200 members and assets in excess of $326 million.
How the 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special Compares
When compared to the 163 similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that require a similar minimum deposit and are available nationwide, AgFed Credit Union's 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special APY currently ranks second.
| Interest Rate | CD Length of Term | Credit Union/Bank |
|---|---|---|
| 3.25% APY | 15-Months Share Certificate Special | NASA Federal Credit Union |
| 3.16% APY | 16/16/16 Share Certificate Special | AgFed Credit Union |
| 2.83% APY | 18-Month Step-Up CD | Luther Burbank Savings |
The above rates are accurate as of 9/14/2018.
To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.
3.25 for 15 is better than 3.16 for 16.
I just thought that I'd be pro-active about this.
Now AgFed's in effect offering me another 76 basis points (3.16% APY), BUT with a big change - no longer a No-Penalty CD, but a 16-month CD with a 6-month EWP, with all the attendant hassle therein.
This is a big difference. I'm probably going to say "no, let's keep the powder dry".
Thanks again to Ken for this site. I've made a cr*pload of extra money, safely (with Federal insurance), because of it.
But transferring IN, from one shared branch to another, is close to instantaneous, at least from one savings account to another. And even if there is some hold on the money transferred in, you can usually have that hold transferred, in turn, to a newly opened CD -- from where it's presumably not going to go anywhere, anyway!
Best you contact your SCUs directly, to find out their individual policies . . .
However, I don't live in New York so I don't know whether there are any particular state-specific restrictions there. There are none where I live.
At this point, I could possibly HAVE completed the rest via Shared Branching (except for the final step), IF the "new money" FI were another CU accessible via Shared Branching. But in my case it was a bank. Also, I was considering time constraints - AgFed offers often expire soon. So I called AgFed again that afternoon to have the now-liquid funds wired to that bank (this cost me $20). When these funds arrived the next day, I went to the Shared Branch location and deposited a check on that bank account into my liquid AgFed account (the Shared Branching system typically DOES have visibility on all or most liquid accounts). When I got home I saw these funds in my AgFed liquid account.
The final step was then to call AgFed to have the funds allocated to several No-Penalty CDs at the new, higher rate. AgFed agreed to have any "hold on the check" applied to the new CDs; therefore the funds did not have to sit in the liquid account for days, earning little interest.