Bank Deals Blog

There were no surprises yesterday when the Fed made its post-meeting statement. The federal funds rate remained the same, and the same patience language was used to describe the Fed’s future plans:

One thing that did change in the statement from January was the description of the current economic condition. There were clear downgrades in its view of the economy:

In January, the Fed’s statement included these positive views:

Yesterday’s statement changed the above lines to the following:

This policy action was an unanimous decision with no policymaker dissenting.

In addition to the statement,...

Now through March 31, 2019, USF Federal Credit Union (USF FCU) is offering a 19-month CD Special, which earns 3.10% APY. The minimum deposit is $1k of new money, with no stated balance cap.

According to CSR, the Early Withdrawal Penalty (EWP) for the 2-year CD applies to the 19-month CD Special, with partial withdrawals allowed. As stated in the Truth-in-Savings disclosure (part of the online application),...

The original intent for this EFCU Financial (EFCU) blog post was to highlight the 48-month CD, which earns 3.40% APY ($500 min) or 3.50% APY ($100k min). All of EFCU’s CDs offer tiered APYs, with Jumbo CDs ($100k min) earning an extra 10 bps.

When I took a closer look at EFCU’s rate sheet, I...

Colorado Federal Savings Bank (CFSB) added 35 bps to its 12-month CD (2.86% APY) yesterday. This latest rate increase puts the 12-month just shy of being the top-rated nationally available 1-year CD (minimum deposits of $10k or less). The 12-month CD can be opened with a $5k minimum deposit, with no stated balance cap.

A total of 116 bps have been added to the 12-month CD in the past year in five rate...

With the Fed anticipated to hold steady on rates for the next several months, internet banks have started to slow down their rate hikes of their savings and money market accounts. In the last two weeks, there were a couple of new promotional accounts with higher rates and a few rate increases, but there were no new ones with yields exceeding 2.50%. Below are the noteworthy savings, money market and checking account rate changes that have occurred in the last two weeks:

• Customers Bank High-Yield Savings (new, 2.50% APY, $25k min)
• MemoryBank...

Discover Bank has been offering bonuses on new Online Savings accounts for several years. The latest one offers a bonus of up to $200 when opening a new Online Savings account by April 1, 2019. Here are the bonus details:

Bonus Requirements

• Open an Online Savings account by April 1, 2019.
• Use offer code NPBE319 when applying.
• $150 bonus – fund with at least $15k by April 15, 2019.
• $200 bonus – fund with at least...

The Fed’s two-day meeting started today. The meeting announcement is scheduled for 2:00 PM ET Wednesday. In addition to the meeting announcement, the FOMC forecasts will be released. These include the “dot plot” which shows the projections of future federal funds rates. Lastly, at 2:30 PM, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be holding a press briefing.

No rate change is expected at this Fed meeting. If that happens, it will be the first break of the Fed’s quarterly rate hike pattern. The Fed has been consistently hiking rates after every other...

Capital One offers the chance to earn up to $500 in bonus money with its new money market account promotion. You must deposit at least $10k in new money within 10 days of enrollment, the Initial Funding Period. To earn the $500 bonus, you must then maintain a...

Now through April 30, 2019, Wisconsin-based Royal Credit Union (Royal) is offering 3.04% APY on its 18-month CD. There is no minimum deposit requirement, but the CD is capped at $250k.

The limited-time 3.04% APY is also offered on the 18-month IRA (Traditional and Roth), but the minimum deposit is $1k.

The 18-month CD currently has the highest APY of...

In 2016 we did a study on CD early withdrawal penalties (EWP). By examining EWP data from more than 1,000 institutions, we extracted average EWPs for CD terms from 6 months to 5 years. This year we looked at the data again to see how EWPs have changed. The review included EWP data from 7,562 CDs that were offered by 1,019 banks and credit unions.

As described in our 2016 overview of CD EWPs, the early withdrawal penalty is simply a penalty that is applied when a CD holder elects to...

In February, Utah-based America First Credit Union (America First CU) doubled the rate on its 6-11 month Certificates (Regular, Dedicated Savings, Ladder, and IRA) to 3.00% APY and also raised the rates on its 48-59 and 60-month Certificates. Those rates are still in effect today.