I was looking for a bank or credit union locally this week for just a paltry 2% interest rate and seemed to be hitting the wall! Finally yesterday I started recalling the same institutions and they had gotten their new rates in and they had gone UP! Not by much but at least they were 2% for a 5 year CD! However, when I spoke to a banker on the phone I found out their notices allowed them to tweak up the rate but also change the EWP to a much higher penalty to make sure we couldn't afford to cash out if need be. The going EWP is now 3% of whatever one needs and on a $25,000 or more CD that can be hefty. I asked what happened to their regular 6 month penalty and they all said headquarters had informed them that if rates went up (no matter how small), penalties also had to go higher. Many already had penalties of 365 days and longer! I just said a quick goodbye to those!
The few local 6 month EWPs I did find now are attaching a certain dollar amount (ex. "$50.00 plus 6 months interest penalty),
Seems savers can't win these days. Their internet spots still show the 6 months but they claim anyone opening a CD has to take their latest EWP if a withdrawal is necessary. They are protected by their claim they can change interest rates at any time. That seems to go for EWPs too. I know I can do better with certain checking accounts but I am not up to fooling with them and the way they work. I just held my nose and opened up two stinky 5 year CDs at a rate which is worse than any so far. My problem is that I know I can do better if I go out of my town or state (I do scrutinize Ken's listings ) but if something happens to me, my family has begged me to keep everything in town so they won't have to go through fits contacting all the places I can still find best rates at.
That means bringing in less interest on CDs. So just take this as a warning that I think savers will be facing even higher EWPs if rates do go up even a bit. I would appreciate it so much if Ken could make it a practice of including the latest EWPS with bank info. It changes so quickly we would still have to recheck tho.