FDIC Certificates of Deposit
Written by Administrator on July 3rd, 2008Before sending any money to a bank or credit union make sure they are federally insured. To ensure the safety of your deposits, bank should carry FDIC insurance and credit unions should carry NCUA insurance. Certificates of Deposit are a popular investment because your funds are insured by the governement up to $100,000 for an individual. Certain account types may be able to be insured above that. For instance, IRA CDs are insured up to $250,000.
First, check the financial institution’s website. A bank should display the FDIC logo and a credit union should display the NCUA logo. Second, visit the FDIC Institution Directory or the NCUA Credit Union Query respectively. You can also call the FDIC at 877-ASKFDIC (877-275-3342) and the NCUA at 800-755-5999.
Both sites allow you to search by city, state, and/or name. After verifying they are federally insured you can also look up their financial standing. This data is usually about 3-months behind. If you want to read a report about the bank or credit union BankRate.com offers a pretty good one at Safe&Sound Rating.
Tags: credit union, fdic insured, NCUA
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
[...] Demoblog - Top CD Rates wrote an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt Before sending any money to a bank or credit union make sure they are federally insured. To ensure the safety of your deposits, bank should carry FDIC insurance and credit unions should carry NCUA insurance. Certificates of Deposit are a popular investment because your funds are insured by the governement up to $100,000 for an individual. Certain account types may be able to be insured above that. For instance, IRA CDs are insured up to $250,000. First, check the financial institution’s websit [...]
August 16th, 2008 at 4:06 am
One can also get up to $50 million of FDIC insurance on CD accounts, you have to open the account through the Certificate of Deposit Registry Service or CDARS, banks register with the service and it’s overseen by the FDIC, only well capitalized banks can join. You open a CD account with one bank, they spread your money around so you stay under the $100,000 limit, you get one statement and the same CD rate from all the banks your money is deposit in.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I’ve heard of CDARS. Although only well-capitalized banks are allowed, that doesn’t necessarily mean the banks are healthy. IndyMac was well-capitalized and taking in brokered-deposits up until 7/1/2008. Countrywide is currently well-capitalized, but has quite a big operating loss at the moment and most rating systems have been rated below average when compared to other banks.
Also, as I understand it, you don’t get to pick the banks CDARS invests you into. You don’t know which banks you’ve purchased CDs with until you get your statements, which could lead to having funds above the $100,000 FDIC limits.