Sun East Fed Credit Union Offers 27-Month CD Special, EXPIRED

POSTED ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2018 BY Ken Tumin

UPDATE 12/26/2018: 27-month CD Special is no longer available.

Deal Summary: 27-month CD Special, 3.50% APY, $500 minimum deposit, new money.

Availability: Easy membership requirement

Many thanks to DA reader, QED, for posting in the Forum that Sun East Federal Credit Union (Sun East) has recently become an easy membership requirement credit union. This is great news because now virtually all DA readers are eligible to open Sun East’s 27-month CD Special (3.50% APY). The minimum deposit is $500 of new money, with no stated balance cap.

The 27-month CD Special is also offered as an IRA (Traditional, Roth), earning the same APY with the same funding requirements.

Sun East’s website is light on documentation, so the following information is from CSR.

The Early Withdrawal Penalty is 180 days interest on the amount being withdrawn.
Funding a CD Special can be by check, wire, or ACH.
Maturing CD funds are automatically transferred to a Sun East savings account. From there, a cashier’s check can be issued – no wire or ACH transfer available

Excess Share Insurance

Looking to deposit more than $250k, but concerned about deposit coverage at Sun East?

Deposits insured up to $500,000.

$250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government Agency, and $250,000 by ESI, a licensed property and casualty insurer.

Thanks again to the aptly-named QED for sharing his experience with Sun East.

Availability

Headquartered in Ashton, in southeast Pennsylvania, Sun East Federal Credit Union has recently expanded its field of membership (FOM). As of last month, virtually any U.S. citizen or resident alien (18 years or older) with a valid Social Security number qualifies for membership by joining the Sun East Charitable Foundation.

Sun East’s Membership Page lists five different ways to “pre-qualify for membership.” The fifth option is “Pre-Qualify by Support.”

Support the Sun East Charitable Foundation. For a donation of only $10, you not only help worthy individuals and organizations in the greater Brandywine Valley, but you will also pre-qualify for a Sun East membership.

Joining Sun East Charitable Foundation and the Credit Union can be done simultaneously using the online application.

The other options to pre-qualify include:

By Location: Residents of Nottingham, Oxford, and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) or Newark and Wilmington (Delaware) qualify, with Zip Code being the final determinant.

By Family Member: Immediate family members (parent, child, spouse, sibling, grandparent, grandchild) of a current Sun East member are welcome to apply.

By Employer: Employees of more than 1,000 SEGs (drop-down menu available on membership page) also qualify for membership.

By Community: Individuals who worship, attend school, or volunteer in Nottingham, Oxford, and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) or Newark and Wilmington (Delaware) are membership eligible.

Joining Sun East Federal Credit Union and/or opening a CD Special can be done online, or at any of seven Pennsylvania branches located in Ashton, Avondale, Concordville, Nottingham, Springfield, Upper Chichester, and Upper Darby. There is also a Wilmington, Delaware branch in the Concord Gallery Shopping Center.

Credit Union Overview

Sun East Federal Credit Union has an overall health grade of "B+" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 7.42% (excellent) based on September 30, 2018 data. In the past year, Sun East has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $11.02 million, an above average annual growth rate of 2.36%. Please refer to our financial overview of Sun East Federal Credit Union (NCUA Charter #6160) for more details.

Founded in 1949 as the Sun Oil Marcus Hook Federal Credit Union, Sun East Federal Credit Union is currently Pennsylvania’s 17^th largest credit union, with more than 50,000 members and assets in excess of $583 million. Along with five other southeast Pennsylvania credit unions, Sun East has partial ownership in First Heritage Mortgage Services.

First Heritage Mortgage Services provides versatile, cost effective and integrated turnkey mortgage solutions and services to nearly 90 partner credit unions that have combined assets of over $11 billion and more than 1.1 million members throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware. First Heritage is endorsed as the exclusive mortgage service provider for the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA).

How the CD Special Compares

When compared to 205 similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that require a similar minimum deposit and are available nationwide, Sun East Federal Credit Union's 27-month CD Special APY currently ranks first.

The above rates are accurate as of 12/15/2018.

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

Cal_Gal | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #39

Hello everyone... I had a phone message left that funds must be in the account by 12/26 in order to honor the 3.50% APY 27-month CD special. I had submitted my app. and answered all the ?'s pertaining to my unfrozen credit report with the sup. It was "under review" from mon. until I got an e-mail early fri,. evening. I've been trying to access my account since with no luck...even trying to have them send a temp. new username, nope. They are open 1/2 day Mon, but with the time difference, the shared branch will open when they close. After all this, I am going to pass, I can't get the account # and refuse to worry about it over Christmas...also, if they don't open it by the 26th, how long to get my check back from them. I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU GUYS on not to join this one...dinged credit score and out $25.00 on my 1st online app...oh well.

RJM | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #40

Call and talk to a supervisor. I bet they will make an exception for you given the holidays.

Cal_Gal | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #42

Good idea RJM, but it was a supervisor that took the time on her probably hectic 1/2 day to call and give me a heads up that it was ending and my money had to be in by the 26th.

Sylvia | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #41

Cal_Gal, if you do deposit check but don't open CD, you will likely have to wait out the inevitable hold they'd place on check. Should this happen, you can expedite matters by setting up CU as external account with primary financial institution to pull out $$s by ACH as soon as they're available.

Cal_Gal | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #44

Hey Sylvia, I appreciate your problem solving abilities. I've decided not to send my check. With my account taking from Mon-Fri to get opened, I don't want to be on hold 1/2 day Mon. waiting for a call back just to get my account # and again on the 26th. If the rates were tanking, I might push it, also, I believe I read they don't have a grace period when the certificate matures. Hopefully the 26th or 27th will bring all of us a nice present.

Sylvia | Dec 23, 2018 | Comment #45

Wise decision, Cal_Gal. I decided early on against opening an account because of the # of 1 star reviews for CU on Yelp. They portrayed a culture of poor service. One week later and you’re still left hanging about status of account opening, not to mention access to expiring CD?! That’s inexcusable.

You didn’t say if you don’t have account # because one’s yet to be assigned or due to tech issues on your end that preclude access to online banking. If it’s the latter, I’d like to suggest that you clear browser cache, cookies and history related to Sun East, or try a different browser.

In any event, I join you in looking forward to Santa’s presents.

Cal_Gal | Dec 24, 2018 | Comment #46

Sylvia, they sent me an e-mail with the info. on Fri. eve. saying my account is approved. The prob. is I can't access my account online. Even requesting a new username didn't generate an e-mail & the offices are closed. I guess it could be on my end, as I try to avoid whenever possible. I have stuff to auto clear, but good idea to look into scrubbing more after this mess.

Sylvia | Dec 24, 2018 | Comment #47

Cal_Gal, all you need to make deposit at shared branch is credit union name, account # and ID. If that email has your account #, you're set.

Info is too sketchy on why you can't access account online for me to speculate cause. It also doesn't help that I'm unfamiliar w/Sun East's process and procedures. Since you receive email Friday evening, try again first thing tomorrow morning. Maybe their member-facing systems don't update until the following business day. This happened to me at a local bank.

Cal_Gal | Dec 24, 2018 | Comment #48

Sylvia, I couldn't access my account online so I would never send money without being able to do that. I have jumped thru so many of their hoops, I am now ready to join the circus ha ha.
Interesting you mentioning about them receiving a low yelp rating.

Comments

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39 Comments.

Att | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #1

Hum What to do?

ddbrege | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #2

I think I'll pass on this one and maybe this move by Sun East will pressure some of the other institutions to bump rates a little higher before the end of the year.

Rosedala | Dec 17, 2018 | Comment #32

I was hoping for some 4%s for under 5 years before the end of the year... Well, we still have half a month to go... :)

sadas | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #3

whats the ewp?

Carpline | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #9

As Ken wrote above, "The Early Withdrawal Penalty is 180 days interest on the amount being withdrawn."

RJM | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #4

I might do a 24-27 month deal at 3.5%+ come Jan 16th...if it's somewhere withOUT a fee to join. (This is not for me)

Cannot do anything until then. Not liquid.

Ann | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #6

When I called the CSR said this special was ending early next week and that they would not honor the rate if you opened the account but funding hadn’t arrived by the deadline.

QED | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #7

The way I did it might work for some persons. Sun East allows a maximum deposit of $550, into your savings at time of opening, using a credit card (CC). For me they were willing a couple of days later to open the CD using $500 of that CC money. Thereafter, once the CD was open, they allowed me to add on to that opening $500 CD deposit as the money arrived at Sun East via ACH. It took me a couple of days to get all of my money to them, in increments. But it was not a problem, and the individual parcels of money went into the CD upon arrival. I did have to telephone them each time and request they move the incoming parcel of money for that day from savings to the CD. That transfer was not done automatically. Also I should point out that my subsequent add-on deposits were FAR larger than that initial $500 opening deposit. However, there was no impact on the maturity date of my CD. My maturity date was set in stone when the CD was first opened with only the $500. The subsequent much larger deposits did not change my maturity date.

What I do not know is how quickly they will make CC deposits available to open the CD. It would be best to check with them on that one. I actually never tried to open the CD itself online. All I did was open my savings that way. My CD was opened by telephone once funding was available in savings. I certainly agree the CD must be opened by the deadline, whatever that turns out to be. However, it is possible the CD does not have to be fully funded by the deadline. CD opening and CD full funding are not the same thing at Sun East. At least that was my experience.

Newbie1 | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #14

Are you okay with the idea of a cashiers check for the maturing funds?

Rosedala | Dec 17, 2018 | Comment #33

QED, I can't believe how money institutions have become like divas where they impose their arrogant methods for us to open accounts. Why all that merry-go-round??? Shame on them!!!

underdog | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #10

Pass. Too many problems with this CU it seems (in funding, in hoping you get a decent CSR, the low ACH amounts, etc). Too bad because I wouldn't mind this term -- looking for a good rate on a 30-month (or thereabouts) CD (not 36mo). But not worth the hoops I fear, for the amount I have left that I'd like to put into a 30-mo CD (about $10k).

edinperk | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #21

Agreed. $10 to join and $5 to close, per the fee schedule: http://docs.suneast.org/disclosures/sun_east_fee_schedule.pdf This CU is about a 40 minute drive for me and I'm passing due to all of the strings attached. Sharon Bank is offering a 39 month 3.5% APY CD without those fees (also a 40 minute drive) -- hesitating but pondering that. Rather odd that a CU has more 'fees' than a competing local bank.

DCGuy | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #15

This account is open to residents of Nottingham. That would make the Robin Hood account also a perfect fit.

Sylvia | Dec 15, 2018 | Comment #16

They're in the shared branch network, https://www.suneast.org/about/branches-atms/. I assume this would be the quickest (and cheapest) way to fund CD.

slimjimmy51 | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #17

I went to a branch to open the CD. What I didn’t like was Sun East doing a hard pull on my credit report. There is no reason to do a hard pull, I’m not opening a credit card or taking out a loan. They will use my money to lend out to make money for the bank. Don’t make my credit score go down for making your credit union money.

larry | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #18

Wow, that's like a punch below the belt! Why on earth do they have to do a hard pull? I also don't quite understand what Ken posted, "Deposits insured up to $500,000. $250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government Agency, and $250,000 by ESI, a licensed property and casualty insurer." Wonder why they don't have the traditional deposit insurance?

FresnoMan | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #20

Isn't coverage provided by NCUA considered "traditional" deposit insurance to you? It IS a Credit Union and that's who insures Credit Unions. The additional coverage seems to be a bonus; that is if it is trustworthy. Fortunately, or unfortunately for me, I don't have the additional $250K to worry about.

larry | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #23

For some strange reason we do not trust NCUA nor the additional insurance. Call us old school, but we do not trust them to repay when s h i o t hits the fan. FDIC on the other hand is good as gold to us. We still do deals with CU's, but only if they are big and well established. From our prospective, we have to be sure because we invest in Max limits. We never invest in some two bit outfit regardless of their rates.

QED | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #25

I am responding here to Newbie1's comment #14, above.

Ken wrote:

"Maturing CD funds are automatically transferred to a Sun East savings account. From there, a cashier’s check can be issued – no wire or ACH transfer available."

I cannot be certain. But I think what Ken is saying there is that the Sun East platform has no capability at all to initiate ACH transfers. All Sun East can do on their own is to snail mail you a check.

However, and I'm still guessing and uncertain, I do not believe Ken is foreclosing the possibility of initiating an ACH transfer external to Sun East and pulling your money out of savings at maturity that way. That is how most of us with a hub account would do the transfer anyway.

I do agree with Newbie1 that Ken's words convey a situation possibly a bit draconian. But his use of the word "available", instead of the word "allowed", I think offers us a large measure of hope it all will be OK.

QED | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #27

Responding to my own post here to add a word about hub accounts. Hub accounts would be off topic generally on any CD deal thread. Except it appears anyone doing the Sun East deal had better have one. I have been reading Ken's work for many years. I'm pretty certain he once did a feature on hub accounts, though perhaps not recently.

OK, I just used Ken's search feature. Sure enough he did do a special write up regarding hub accounts over eight years ago. Here is the link:

https://www.depositaccounts.com/blog/best-internet-banks-to-use-as-your-hub-account.html

That write up is still worth a read by anyone who does not already have a hub account.

Anon | Dec 16, 2018 | Comment #30

I originally joined when Ken posted a couple of weeks ago since it said I lived in the area that qualified, only to find out it was not correct but the the CSR said you can join by making a contribution to the charity. The only thing that was different from all the other Credit Unions I joined over the years that were posted here is that this one would not open the CD until my check cleared after making a deposit at the share branch even though it posted in my savings. This set me back about 6-7 days and made me nervous, but the CSR said the rate was going to be around for two weeks. If that person was correct it will probably end sometime in the middle of the week. I know from experience you also get a different story when you speak to a different CSR.

PabloSavin | Dec 17, 2018 | Comment #31

Go long folks . 5 to 10 years. You may loss a little up front but when the feds lower the rates you’ll be happy

Slimjimmy51 | Dec 18, 2018 | Comment #35

Reply to comment 21. Before going to Sharon Bank, check out the early withdrawal penalty. 730 days isn’t a penalty it’s a ripoff.

Anon | Dec 21, 2018 | Comment #36

Totally impossible to contact the Sun East call center. It says press # to leave a message and it doesn't work! You can't open the 27 month CD online. I put a large deposit of new money in my savings account and I can't get it into a CD so it's going to sit there earning virtually nothing all weekend.

Anon | Dec 21, 2018 | Comment #38

I finally did get a call back from Rob around 5:30 PM and got my money moved from the savings account into a CD. The CU is doing its best to handle a big spike in demand. I applied to join on 12/18. My savings account was opened on 12/20. My ACH pushed from an external account arrived on 12/21 and the CD opened that same day. Really quite good performance.

Really the only issue was that on 12/21 the call center hold time was awful and pressing # to leave a callback message did not work. I've advised the CU.

Cal_Gal | Dec 21, 2018 | Comment #37

So I was not happy at Pen Fed for the lousy coal in the stocking rate in Dec. I saw this wonderful rate at Sun East so I jumped thru the hoops of 1st time doing online app., unfreezing, hard pull, answered the questions asked by the sup. who said I did fine she said 1-2 days I would get my account #. I planned to go to a shared branch and just whoop that puppy over to them. I called yesterday and my account is still being "reviewed". Now with short hours on Sat. and Mon. I am feeling they are just stalling. So my check and I are just sitting on the couch together... trying to stay "Zen" about it. Sorry I ever heard of them. With the propped up stock market reacting because interest rates are FINALLY inching up, (why are these CNBC newscasters so shocked???) the govt. maybe shutting down, holidays next week, I wonder if my check will ever get a home....Merry Christmas everyone!