QUESTION 1: Does anyone really know how Relationship Rewards work at Department of Commerce FCU? In other words, how to achieve Gold Member status so that we can get extra 0.25% on their CDs rate as well as ability to select additional months within the term indicated when we open CD. The 72- and 84-month term will fall under the 60-84 month range. As a new member or non-Gold member, I am not too sure if we can apply CD with 61-84 months.
https://www.docfcu.org/cds-savings/
https://www.docfcu.org/relationship-rewards/
On CDs webpage, "Only Gold Members are permitted to select additional months within the terms indicated". Under FAQ, it says
• If you are a Bronze Member, you will receive an additional .05 basis points in addition to any of our current rates.
• If you are a Silver Member, you will receive an additional .10 basis points in addition to any of our current rates.
• If you are a Gold Member, you will receive an additional .25 basis points in addition to any of our current rates.
• In addition to the Relationship Rewards levels above, if the initial deposit is $25,000 or more, you will receive an additional .10 basis points.
On Relationship Reward webpage at the very bottom: “Member points will automatically be evaluated monthly for upgrades to higher levels. Once a member has established a reward level, they qualify for that level until the end of the year. New reward levels will be classified November 30th of each year and effective the beginning of the year. All transactions are per month unless otherwise stated.”
However, the webpage does not provide details about how many points are awarded for each activity etc.
I have been interested in their long term CDs, however the rep I talked to on the phone did not know much about how to achieve Gold status. He mentioned something like you get 5 points for opening a CD. I sent two emails to them at end of November and did not get any response from them.
How do members find out what tier they have achieved? Does their online banking or statement show the member tier status?
For a Gold Member, 60-84 month CD with min 25k will give you just about 4.67% APY.
4.32% + 0.25% (Gold member) + 0.10% (min 25k) = 4.67%
For anything beyond 60 months, currently that is a decent rate, especially with the 180d EWP.
Let’s say this month, we open 6 CDs with min $500 each. If the phone rep is right (earn 5 points for each CD open), that mean we will receive 5 x 6 = 30 points. The following month hopefully, member tier will be upgraded to Gold status. As Gold Member, we then open additional long term CDs with min 25k to earn the 4.67%.
QUESTION 2: Do you think this will work?
QUESTION 3: Can anyone share their joining and account opening experience? It requires to upload 2 forms of ID. Driver license counts as 1. If one cannot locate SSN card and passport already expired, what other IDs will count?
The bad thing about this CU is a HARD pull when joining. Not sure if there will be more hard pull as you open more CDs. So there is an risk here.