Frontwave Credit Union 18-Month CD Special Has Near Rate-Leading APY

Early Withdrawal Penalty

As stated in the Account Disclosures and Agreement document (page 10), the Early Withdrawal Penalty (EWP) reads as follows:

The penalty that may be imposed can be the greater of:

Seven (7) days dividends, on the amount withdrawn subject to penalty, if the withdrawal is made within the first six (6) days after the account is opened or renewed, or

A dividend penalty based on the date of early withdrawal, the term of the certificate and the type of certificate. Specific penalty information is available on your Certificate Receipt.

According to CSR, a Certificate Special can only be closed early; partial withdrawals are not allowed. The EWP for the 18-month Certificate Special is the lesser of all earned dividends or 180 days of dividends. CSR stated that no matter when an early closure occurs (after the first seven days of account opening), the penalty will not reduce the principal.

Availability

Headquartered in Oceanside, California, Frontwave Credit Union’s field of membership (FOM) is community-based, with individuals who live, work, or worship in the Southern California counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, or San Diego eligible for membership.

Immediate family members of a current Frontwave member also qualify for membership, regardless of where they live.

Account Opening

Joining Frontwave and/or opening a 18-month Certificate Special can be done online or at any of 13 California branches located in Barstow, Camp Pendleton (3), Escondido, Oceanside (2), San Diego, San Marcos, Temecula, Twentynine Palms, Wildomar, and Yucca Valley.

With a completed eligible application and a deposit
of at least $5, you'll become a share-holding member.

Existing Frontwave members can also open a Certificate Special over the phone (800.736.4500 or 760.631.8700) or by using Frontwave’s Online Banking platform.

As a member of the CO-OP Shared Branch network, Frontwave members has access to more than 5,000 CU Service Center locations and 30,000 fee-free CO-OP ATMs.

Where are you going? Don't answer. It doesn't matter.
No matter where in the U.S. the wind takes you, banking services are close at hand.

Funding and Other Details

The following information is from a conversation with CSR.

Funding – ACH, Wire, check, or Shared Branch transaction.
CO-OP Shared Branch Participant – Yes.
Dividends – Compounded/credited monthly and can transferred monthly to a Frontwave Share Savings account.
Maturing Funds – Cashier’s check to address on file or internal transfer to Frontwave Share Savings account.
Beneficiaries – Unlimited, equal shares, Social Security numbers are required.
Grace Period – 7 calendar days before automatic renewal.
Credit Check – ChexSystems.

DA reader, moneysaver, documented his experience opening a Certificate Special in a comment (#21) in response to the February 2023 Frontwave blog post.

1. As an existing CU member, I opened a new 6%, 18-month CD with Frontwave yesterday from within their online banking setup... Although, really the online part is more of an application, since once you complete their online process, you get a message saying a CU rep will call you within a day to finalize the details of the CD opening process.

2. And indeed, the very next afternoon, I got a call from a Frontwave CSR who verified my personal details, wanted to check the external FI I was pulling the funds from, confirm the amount. And then I told the rep I wanted the monthly interest payments credited to my Frontwave checking account, I wanted my wife listed as a POD beneficiary, and I wanted the maturity instruction for my funds to be transferred back into my checking account when the CD matures.

3. All of the above were fine, except the rep originally claimed that the monthly interest payments had to be credited back to the CD, and not my checking account, because it is a "promotional" CD. When I mentioned to the rep that ALL of my prior Frontwave CDs had had the interest credited to my checking account, she agreed to doublecheck, and came back on the line a few minutes later to apologize, say she was wrong, and that yes the monthly interest could and would be transferred to my Frontwave checking account.

Credit Union Overview

Frontwave Credit Union has an overall health grade of "B+" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 4.32% (excellent), based on June 30, 2023 data. In the past year, Frontwave has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $117.14 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 10.84%. Please refer to our financial overview of Frontwave Credit Union (NCUA Charter # 68494) for more details.

Established in 1952 as Camp Pendleton Federal Credit Union, the original FOM consisted of Marines and their families who lived on-base in Southern California. The Credit Union soon changed its name to the Pacific Marine Credit Union, to better describe its membership. In 2002, the FOM expanded to include the residents of the 2nd, 4th, and 5th most populous counties in California. The Frontwave rebrand occurred about four years ago.

“Although being open to the community has helped our growth over the past 16 years, our name was polarizing and created confusion. We were too often mistaken as a credit union that served only Marines,” said Bill Birnie, President and CEO of Pacific Marine Credit Union. “We believe our new name is more approachable and conveys that we are open to the broader community,” said Birnie.

Frontwave Credit Union is currently California’s 50^th largest credit union, with nearly 123,000 members and assets in excess of $1.3 billion.

How the 18-Month Certificate Special Compares

When compared to similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com which are available within the FOM and have minimum deposit requirements of $10k or less, only one credit union has a higher rate than currently offered on the Frontwave Credit Union 18-month Certificate Special. The following table compares the 18-month Certificate Special to the two highest-rate CDs from other credit unions and to the two highest-rate CDs from banks.

The above information and rates are accurate as of 9/12/2023.

To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.