Mountain America Credit Union 12-Month Certificate Leads Rates Peloton
The latest institution to raise its short-term CD rates and lower its long-term CD rates is Utah-based Mountain America Credit Union (MACU). Over the weekend, MACU increased its 12-month Certificate rate by 100 bps to a rate-leading 5.25% APY. Unfortunately, it lowered its 24-month Certificate rate by 50 bps to 4.25% APY and its 60-month Certificate rate by 25 bps to 4.00% APY. The 12-month Certificate now has the most competitive rate in the MACU CD product line. The regular Certificate can be opened with a $500 minimum deposit, with no stated balance cap.
The 12-month Youth Certificate earns a higher 5.35% APY, with $5 minimum/$100k maximum deposit limits. The Youth Certificate also has limited add-on capabilities.
After the certificate is opened, additional deposits of up to $10,000 can be made annually up through the age of 27 with a maximum of $100,000 on deposit in any one, or combination of, Youth certificates per primary account holder.
As stated in the Truth-in-Savings disclosure (page 25), the Early Withdrawal Penalty (EWP) reads as follows:
If all or part of the principal balance is withdrawn before the maturity date, the Credit Union may charge you a penalty. Penalties for early withdrawal will be provided to you in the certificate agreement given at the initiation of the certificate and are as follows:
- If your certificate has an original maturity of 12 months or less, the penalty may equal 90 days’ dividends on the amount withdrawn.
The principal is not protected from the EWP: if necessary, the penalty will reduce the principal amount of the certificate.
There is a ten day grace period before any MACU Certificate automatically renews.
Growth Certificate
About six years ago, MACU began offering add-on CDs, which were originally known as Term Deposit Plus accounts. MACU changed the names of several of its products “to better align with industry standards” a few years ago, with the Term Deposit Plus accounts becoming the current Growth CDs. With terms available from six to 60 months, the 12-month Growth CD currently offers the most competitive rate – 5.25% APY.
Like the standard CDs, the longer-term Growth CD rates had the same reductions with the 24-month Growth CD and 60-month Growth CD now earning 4.25% APY and 4.00% APY, respectively. The lower long-term rates are especially disappointing news for those who use add-on CDs for low-rate insurance.
While the Growth Certificates earn the same APYs, the rate and the term-length are the only features the Certificates and the Growth Certificates have in common. The Certificates page outlines how the Growth CDs function.
- Only $5 to open account
- Funds can be added at any time – up to a cumulative cap of $100,000
- Requires automated monthly deposit of at least $10
- No rate bump option
Funds, in any amount, can be added at any time, but an individual member is limited to an aggregate $100k in any one or combination of Growth CDs. The minimum $10 automatic monthly deposit can come from another MACU account or from an outside source, such as a direct deposit or a transfer from another financial institution. The operative phrase is “automatic monthly deposit,” with the source of the deposit not restricted to an external financial institution.
Thanks to DA reader, Robb, for the Forum post about these new rates.
Availability
Headquartered in West Jordan, Utah, Mountain America Credit Union's field of membership (FOM) is open to almost every U.S. citizen/resident alien who has a valid Social Security number.
Easy Membership: The American Consumer Council, one of MACU’s Affiliated Associations, can be joined by anyone with a $5 membership fee, and qualifies for MACU membership.
Residency: Residents of the Utah counties of Duchesne, Salt Lake, Wasatch (census tract 940300), or Unitah (census tract 940100 or 940200) are eligible to join, as are the residents of Maricopa County, Arizona, and the residents of the Idaho counties of Ada, Boise, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Owyhee, or Valley Counties.
Relationship: Family members (parent, child, spouse, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, including step- and adopted) of an existing member are membership eligible. Individuals “living with or under the same roof” with current MACU membership are now also welcome to apply.
Affiliation: Employees or volunteers of an MACU SEG or Affiliated Association also qualify.
Joining Mountain American Credit Union can be done online, or at any of 104 full-service branches located in Arizona (8), Idaho (13), Montana (2), New Mexico (2), Nevada (5) and Utah (74).
The way you can open a Certificate or a Growth Certificate depends on your member status. As stated on the Certificates landing page,
New members – Visit your nearest branch or call 1-800-748-4302 to open an account.
Current members – Simply log in at macu.com or on the mobile app, select Loans/New Account and then click Open Savings Account or Certificate.
A minimum $1 deposit in a Primary Savings account establishes a MACU membership.
MACU no longer participates in the CO-OP Shared Branch network, but is still a member of the CO-OP ATM network.
Funding and Other Details
The following information is from a conversation with CSR.
- Funding – ACH, wire ($10 fee), internal transfer.
- CO-OP Shared Branch Participant – No.
- Dividends – Compounded/credited monthly. Dividends can remain in the Certificate or can be transferred to another MACU account.
- Maturing Funds – Automatic transfer to MACU Share Account, then can be disbursed by ACH, wire ($15 fee), or cashier’s check.
- Beneficiaries – Unlimited, equal shares, Social Security numbers are required.
- Grace Period –10 calendar days before automatic renewal.
- Credit Check – Soft pull.
Credit Union Overview
Mountain America Credit Union has an overall health grade of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 4.23% (excellent) based on September 30, 2022 data. In the past year, MACU has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $921.31 billion, an excellent annual growth rate of 7.77%. Please refer to our financial overview of Mountain America Credit Union (NCUA Charter #24692) for more details.
Founded in 1934, Mountain America Credit Union was originally known as the Salt Lake Telephone Employees Credit Union. Following the 1984 merger with the Postal Workers Credit Union, the name was changed to Mountain America Credit Union. MACU merged with the Utah State Credit Union in 1988, becoming the second largest credit union in Utah. In February 2015, Idaho-based Les Boise Credit Union joined forces with MACU, extending the Credit Union’s footprint into the Boise area. The latest merger occurred in April 2018, when Dugway Federal Credit Union (Utah) became part of the MACU family.
Mountain America Credit Union is currently the twelfth largest credit union in the country, with assets in excess of $15.6 billion and more than 1.12 million members. According to a September 2022 press release,
On Thursday, August 25, 2022, Utah Business Magazine recognized Mountain America Credit Union as the 45th fastest growing company in the state in its annual Fast 50 awards. The Fast 50 recognizes Utah's fastest growing companies based on a combination of their total five-year revenue growth and total revenue.
How the 12-Month Certificate Compares
When compared to similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that are available nationally and have minimum deposit requirements of $10k or less, no banks or credit unions have a higher rate than currently offered on the Mountain America Credit Union 12-month Certificate. The following table compares the 12-month Certificate to the two highest-rate CDs from other credit unions and the two highest-rate CDs from banks.
How the Growth Certificate Compares
When compared to other nationally available short-term add-on CDs with small minimum deposit requirements, the MACU 12-month Growth Certificate APY is currently at the top of the add-on rates peloton. You can find a full list of nationally available add-on CDs in DA’s biweekly CD Rate Summary.
The above information and rates are accurate as of 2/13/2023.
To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD rates table page.
I just recently purchased the 60 month Growth CD (4.25%) and 24 month Growth CD (4.75%) on 1/30. These are now down to 4.00% and 4.25%.
Seems like longer term CDs are going to get cheaper going forward if inflation is behind us. The shorter term CDs are certainly quite attractive. The question is for how long. Will shorter term CDs be this attractive in 2 years or should you start locking in longer term rates before they drop even more. I have been betting on the latter. Started when brokered CD rates dropped to under 4% for long term CDs (4 and 5 year). I think the online banks will follow dropping long term CDs but more slowly. Fall of last year you could get the best rates with brokered CDs. Now it is the online banks finally overtaking them.
Do you discount this possibility, Steve?
You really need to read what I write, and get less defensive. I gave my analysis on what I am seeing, and try to back it up with real numbers and calculations to help those on here who may be interested. You seem to want to give anecdotal commentary to my analysis without any facts that I could challenge if needed. That is why I do not reply to your comments when they are anecdotal.
Good luck,
Steve
Why do you think the Fed is cutting down size of rate increases. Why is the market rebounding. Dead cat bounce? Or are they seeing things similar to what I am seeing.
I don't know if you are conservative, liberal, independent, what channels you watch, where you live. All I know is if you are listening to conservative shows, they want to tout inflation as still a major problem just to bash Biden over the head day in and day out. If you listen to liberal media, you would never know we had inflation over the last 3 years, and if they did admit it that Biden policies and liberal spending was not the source of it. I try to come at it with an independent non political view point.
Little homework. Why do people buy I bonds and what specific metric does the Government use to set the non-fixed rate?
Steve
The problem is that the Fed clearly is not basing its rate decisions on CPI-U.
Instead they are focused on wage increases and concerned about a wage price spiral.
And narrow slices of CPI like CPI-U don't give you much direct information about the job market.
The job market is still tight because people aren't working, they've dropped out of the job market. So competition for employees continues strong as it has been for several years and is at almost two jobs available for every unemployed worker, a very high level.
I think the Fed has made it abundantly clear that is what it is focused on. And it makes a lot of sense.
What doesn't make sense is the policy coming out of Washington that has not given those workers incentives to take those jobs and instead has given disincentives. That has clearly been the biggest contributor to the inflation in the first place.
January consumer prices rose 6.4% per the measure that matters.
MACU gets the yellow jersey...and could be wearing it for awhile
Utility depends entirely on the user. setting maximum and minimum limits will decrease utility for some
As far as the 100k cap... sure, would be great not to have it, but I suppose that's to prevent another "Valor CU" occurance from happening (remember them, before they had to get taken over by PenFed?)
One one hand a literal reading of the $100k for all certificates could mean once you hit in on one, you're done.
On the other hand, once the certificate matures, it's gone and theoretically you could move it back to a new certificate.
Maybe they're crazy like a fox with this 5% one, if the honeypot anyone who fully funds it from doing any longer term offerings they may want to discourage by claiming they can't be funded later?
Another strategy with this 12 month CD would be just to get the regular one not the add-on. All depends on how much cash you are looking to deploy.
One question: what is it witht the "Peloton" in the title?
it's a bicycle racing reference, nothing to do with the business of same name. competitive cyclists tend to ride in a large group (the peloton) for much of the race, while intermittently, individuals or smaller groups of riders try to breakaway from the peloton. MACU has broken away from the pack with this new rate.
What u r saying is that u have a grown certificate with over $100,000 (interest makes up the over $100,000) and u have opened an additional growth certificate with at least some minimum $ amt putting u over the 100k cumulative limit stated in there requirements section, thus negating the 100k limit. Possible your 2nd one some how slipped through and when found out could be voided. Good luck!!
“Growth certificates are limited to $100,000 on deposit in any one, or combination of, growth certificate accounts per primary accountholder. Growth certificates require an automated monthly deposit of at least $10. Upon meeting the $100,000 aggregate deposit limit, automated monthly deposits may be canceled by the credit union and no additional deposits will be allowed in any growth certificate for that member.”
To close to maturity to try myself
D_1 explanation makes perfect sense.
Regarding funding 12 mth Gr add on then moving to other existing Gr add ons, u must be aware of maturity dates. U mention the 24 mth 4.75apy. If u take the 12 mth out today, u would only have 12 mths or less at maturity.
I spoke to MACU and was told it is $100,000 total limit of all combined growth CD’s per account.
I have ACH'd out of Wells Fargo $100,000 at one time on several occasions, a $150,000 and $200,000 with no problem, no fee.
UPDATE: They will NOT honor it. They will let me close the certificate (already funded) without penalty. I actually tried to open this yesterday both online and over the phone but was told I could not, that I needed to move money to savings first myself. So I did that, applied this morning clicking a button for 12 month that still said 5.25%, funded it, and then surprise! it said 4.170 when I checked "certificate details." I called immediately but no, they are not going to honor the rate I applied under.