floridacentral Credit Union Adds 15-month CD
floridacentral Credit Union (floridacentral) is currently offering a 15-month Promotion CD with tiered APYs: 3.56% APY ($25,000 minimum deposit) and 4.07% APY ($50,000.01 minimum deposit). These rates are so high that I called floridacentral to confirm, and I’m happy to report these promotional rates are valid.
New money is required to open a 15-month Promotion CD.
The Promotion CD is also available as an IRA (Traditional), earning the same tiered APYs with the same funding requirements.
According to CSR, the Early Withdrawal Penalty is 180 days of interest on the amount being withdrawn.
Availability
Headquartered in Tampa, floridacentral Credit Union’s field of membership (FOM) is primarily residency-based, with individuals who live, work, or worship in the Florida counties or Charlotte, DeSoto, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, or Sarasota eligible to join.
According to floridacentral’s website, “Membership is open to the employees of the many businesses we serve.” Unfortunately, there is no list of the SEGs on the website. CSR stated there are more than 1,000 SEGs and suggested contacting the HR department of your company to see if they participate.
Residents of Florida who have an immediate family member who is a current floridacentral member are also welcome to apply.
Joining floridacentral Credit Union can be done online, or at any of the twelve Florida branches located in Bradenton, Brandon, Clearwater, Lakeland, Port Charlotte, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Seminole, Tampa (3), and Trinity.
While you can open a checking account or apply for a loan online, opening a Promotion CD must be done in-branch.
Credit Union Overview
floridacentral Credit Union, has an overall health grade of "B" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 4.34% (excellent) based on June 30, 2018 data. In the past year, the Credit Union has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $8.18 million, an above average annual growth rate of 1.96%. Please refer to our financial overview of floridacentral Credit Union (NCUA Charter # 67668) for more details.
The original Tampa Central Credit Union was established in 1958, serving as the credit union for other credit unions. At the time, federal regulations prohibited board members and employees from belonging to the credit union they served. The name was changed to Florida Central Credit Union following the repeal of the regulation and an expansion of the FOM that included SEGs. By the mid-1990s, the Credit Union had adopted a community charter, adding Hillsborough and other central Florida counties in the FOM. The “floridacentral” rebrand occurred in 2006, as the Credit Union “revamped its look.” floridacentral Credit Union is currently the 34th largest credit union in Florida, with more than 54,200 members and assets in excess of $467 million.
How the Promotion CD Compares
When compared to similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that are available within the FOM, floridacentral Credit Union’s 15-month Promotion CD APYs currently and clearly rank first.
The above rates are accurate as of 9/21/2018.
To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.
Re. your question re. "loopholes " - 3 possibilities come to mind. Sorry to say, none are slam-dunks.
1) If one had very fungible standards, I suppose one could take the statement that "... with individuals who live, work, OR WORSHIP in the Florida counties of ..." to its extreme limit, and consider web-based worship services for churches located in those counties. (Although my own standards are not lofty they're not quite that low, but I'm just throwing that out as an FYI...) I have no clue what the outcome of that would be, either here on Earth or elsewhere.
2) Ken's write-up says, reading between the lines, that the CSR he spoke with was apparently too laz. ... well, strike that. Apparently, this CSR did not choose to release the list of SEGs. "CSR stated there are more than 1,000 SEGs and suggested contacting the HR department of your company to see if they participate." As a follower of Ken's website and a member of several CUs, I have to say - that is an odd and somewhat churlish statement by a CSR. One work-around, although a tough one, would be to somehow locate an actual member of that CU in those FL counties, ask him to somehow acquire this list (which when it really comes right down to it, should not be "classified data"), post it, and then we could see whether there are any charitable organizations on that list via which out-of-the-area folks might qualify. OK, this is probably the hardest possibility.
3) Or, one could simply wait and see if this CU, like both Keesler and to some degree Sharonview earlier this year, decides to open up it's membership to out-of-the area folks because it finds it needs more funds. That's probably the least labor-intensive option for us readers.
Florida readers, go for it!
"You must be eligible to join by:
- Living, working or worshipping in one of the counties we serve
- Being an employee of one of the businesses we serve
- Living in Florida and having an immediate relative that is currently a member of floridacentral Credit Union"
When a credit union fails, does an NCUA employee retrieve the charter and start calling members to confirm eligibility? Did you ask your attorney friend how this works?
Alas, the subject is deposit insurance. In this case, the bank or credit union is bankrupt. By definition, a written guarantee from a bankrupt company is not of benefit. They already guaranteed to pay the customer back.
Thank you!
If the credit union is bankrupt, it wouldn't help to sue them, right?
Can't quite grasp your point.
You should just be aware your deposit may be unsecured. Unsecured depositors are paid before other unsecured creditors in a failure.
That being said, there may be no way the average person, acting truthfully, can confirm whether membership in Keesler, for example, is really open to all members of ACSAN.
It would be terribly unfair to treat these peoples' deposits as uninsured, just as failing to include the name of the beneficiary in the title of a bank account fails to increase insurance coverage even if other documents exist in the banks records indicating a clear intent that one or more individuals is a POD beneficiary (this may have changed since I got a definitive answer 8 years ago, and doesn't apply to CU's, only banks).
However, as a friend of mine who is a federal judge likes to say, " I don't do justice, I do law."
So forget about that statue of lady justice with the blindfold and scales on the court house.
It's BS. She's peeking under the blindfold.
You should note the only remedy I have ever seen was when deposit insurance was increased to 250,000. It was retroactively applied to IndyMac and other institutions at a cost of $9 billion.
Would the NCUA employee say: "We are closing down this credit union today. We need to confirm you are eligible to be a member so that you do not lose your account. Are you eligible to be a member?"
And expect people to say no?
Thanks in advance!
Good luck getting a copy except from the CU
Each comment will stand on its own with relationships.
Now frustrated having comments posted be deleted because of someone else stupid violation?? of terms
Yesterday I called FloridaCentral - very frustrating although the CS gal was trying to be helpful. I asked for a list of the SEGs to see if I could qualify. She finally found a list (5 min wait) and then told me it was too extensive to read to me over the phone. I had her read the first 25 or so (alpha order) and quickly determined that most were small local businesses — Ace Hardware was the only large company I heard (but then we only got to “AD”). When inquiring about fee structures and minimum balances on savings and checking I got mixed answers. I also had concerns about transferring money into the account. I have used Ally, Navy Federal and Northwest Fed Credit Union in the past with excellent results but ended the FloridaCentral phone call with mixed feelings that I can’t shake.
I’m hoping for good news from the FED this week and then maybe other CU’s will offer competitive rates. Or perhaps I’ll come to terms with FloridaCentral. Meanwhile I can park money at Ally for 2.1% with no penalty for early withdrawal.
Keesler for example, first the money had to be there by a certain day, then it could come a few days later. Id imagine if you ask, someone will help you. May have to ask for a manager.
In my mind this indicates a problem with this CU - perhaps just a Customer Service problem, or maybe a much more fundamental problem.
I'll remember these folks, and not pleasantly. I was never really in the running, and of course they didn't necessarily have to make their accounts or CDs "available" to out-of-state or even out-of-county depositors. BUT, how hard can it be these days to simply post a list of SEGs on a website?