Top CD Rates

We’ve seen a downturn in the Best Bank CD Rates this month. With the FOMC giving signals that they won’t be raising rates anytime soon and the treasury buying their own debt, it has caused yields to drop.

Here are some of the top players in the market.
PenFed Credit Union – 5-year at 4.00% APY
Alliant Credit Union – 5-year at 4.00% APY, 3-year at 3.75% APY, 1-year at 3.15% APY.
Discover Bank – 30-months at 2.75% APY
GMAC Bank – 1-Year at 2.65% APY.
Corus Bank – 6-month CD at 2.32% APY. 1-Year at 2.81% APY
Key Bank – 5-year at 3.25% APY
Visions FCU – 1-Year at 3.05% APY
Wings Financial Federal CU – 1-year CD at 3.04% APY
Mountain America FCU – 5-year at 4.00% APY
Police & Fire FCU – 3-year at 3.75% APY.

Tips for finding the best Bank CD Rates.
Check your local newspaper. Many banks and credit unions will offer local specials because they want to attract relationship deposits. They want you to become more than just a number, but a valuable asset to them. A credit union in our area has been advertising a 7% savings rate on the first $1000.00 after a couple of conditions are met.

After JP Morgan took over Washington Mutual, the Sacramento branches are now becoming Chase Bank branches. As a result they are doing heavy advertising in the Sacramento and surrounding areas such as Yolo, Solano, and Placer County. You will still often find special rates on the internet that are higher, but I believe there is big value in keeping some funds locally. Biggest advantage is quick access if you need money fast.

Next, pick up the yellow pages. Call some of your local banks and see if any have any special rate offers. Some may be willing to pay a premium for some local funds.

Another tip, look at the rates of distressed banks. Many depositors want safety in FDIC insurance and bank quality. This allows the quality banks to offer somewhat lower rates, but troubled banks often have to offer high yield certificate of deposit rates. Bankrate.com has a Safe&Sound rating system. Look for some 2-star banks and see what kind of deals they have.

Finally, there is the internet search. The fact of the matter, no matter which route you go, it will be time consuming. At some point, you have to decide if the time is worth the higher CD interest rates. On the surface, the internet search is easy. You just go to your favorite search engine and type, “cd rates”, “best cd rates”, “ira certificates of deposit”, etc. But, you’ll need to wade through a tone of sites. Compare the interest rates across the sites carefully. Then compare the banks quality. Remember, often distressed banks may have higher rates, but you have to ask yourself how long will they last. Omni National Bank was recently closed by the FDIC and they have been offering some of the highest CD yields for quite some time.

GMAC Bank of Midvale, UT currently has some of the highest CD interest rates in the country.

They have a fairly easy set-up process that is done on-line. Funds can be transferred electronically via ACH (same system that on-line bill pay systems use), through a wire transfer (typically the sending bank charges $15 to $25), or a check sent through the mail. For smaller amounts the ACH is probably the best because usually there aren’t any fees charged. Every dollar spent on fees reduces your overall interest rate earnings on your CD.

GMAC Bank is FDIC insured. Remember all banks that we highlight in our posts are FDIC insured. At times we highlight credit unions with high CD interest rates, as well. We only feature NCUA insured credit unions.

You can verify a bank is federally insured by visiting the FDIC website at http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/index.asp. GMAC Bank is actually new to the scene, being established in 2004, but GM opened them up with a large amount of assets to begin with and they are already pushing $32 Billion. Banks this size are actually beginning to scare me, because if they do fail, the quickly bring down the reserves the FDIC holds.

GMAC Bank lost about $112 Million dollars last year, compared with a $282 Million dollar profit the year before. They like many other large banks made some bad bets when it comes to loans and investment bets that they made.

Their other CD Interest Rates can be viewed on their site.

In this time of low rates, I thought it would be helpful to provide a Bank CD Rate Comparison.  There are numerous Bank rates out there, but here are some of the best.  I didn’t limit this to just banks, because there are some credit unions that are Federally insured by the NCUA and have better rates than many banks. Your deposits are just as safe and just as insured as if they were in an FDIC insured bank.

Alliant Credit Union, IL — 3.40% APY, 1-year CD — $25 membership fees — $25,000 minimum

4.00% APY, 3-year CD — Click here


Capital One Bank, VA — 4.00% APY, 7-year CD — $5,000 minimum
Note: Capital One has two banks so you can get double the insurance. — Click here


GMAC Bank, PA — 3.00% APY, 1-year and 18-month CD — $500 minimum — Click here

So there are a few rates to help you with your Bank CD Rate comparison. Remember don’t be afraid of credit unions.

And totally un-related to banking, but very much related to those trying to earn an income from blogging. Check out Mark Mason’s free backlinks offer.

Here is an interesting blog, My Recession Survival Guide.

This is be a part two of my four part series on banks in the states of the Vice Presidential/Presidential candidates. This post will focus on Joe Biden’s homestate; the banks of Delware and their CD Rates.

First thing you’ll notice is the banks in Delaware are some of the larger banks in the US and many of them are having financial problems. Joe so kindly helped pass a bail-out plan to help them out. AIG took the bail-out and then had a big party. Nice.

(more…)

Now that the bail-out has failed it will be interesting to see what happens to the CD Rates in the USA. Apparently, the House of Representatives is closed for a few days to honor the Jewish Rosh Hashana holiday.

Two things could happen in the short-term. 1) USA CD Rates will rise. This is because banks are unwilling or unable to loan to each other. This will force the overnight rate well above the FOMC target of 2.00%. Banks will need to raise deposits and with so many competing against each other, CD rates will go up. Tomorrow being the end of the month and quarter, many USA banks will want to have their books looking healthy. If you have extra funds, do some searching and some calling. CD Brokers may be especially attuned to high CD Rate offers since many banks use them as a funding source.

2) CD Rates in the USA may go down. The Fed may be in the mood to lower rates to try to force the short-term rates down and encourage banks to lend to one another and open up their pipelines to people and businesses like you and me. This may work short-term, but unless a real fix comes through, rates will trickle back-up.

Here are some high interest CD Rates.
Corus Bank, IL: 1-year at 4.60% APY – 1-Star

Geauga Savings Bank, OH: 1-year at 4.61% APY – 2-Star

EverBank, FL: 1-year at 4.38% APY. — 4-Star

State Bank of India, NY: 2-year at 4.52% APY – 4-Star

Ratings by Bankrate.com