Northern trust Company — FDIC 913 — Est. 1889 — 4-Stars — $68.8 BB — 10,000 employees.
A piece from their website: “More than a financial provider, we identify and understand your life goals and then create a dynamic wealth management solution to help you achieve them.” CD Rates not posted. Northern Trust company offers all sorts of investment and wealth management services.
Located: 50 South Lasalle Street, Chicago,IL

Harris National Association — FDIC 16571 — Est. 1947 — 3 1/2-Stars — $43.9BB — 5,200 employees
CD Rates:
1-year — 0.594%
30-months — 0.79%
5-year — 1.29%
Harris NA also has a $10,000 relationship MMA at 0.095% and $100,000 at 0.643%. Wow! Pretty soon we may be paying backs just to hold our money and have it FDIC insured.
Located: 111 West Monroe Street, Chicago,IL 60603

MB Financial, National Association — FDIC 3628 — Est. 1933 — 3 1/2-Stars — $10.8BB
1,600 employees. Something from their website, “MB, Means Business”
MB Financial has CDs, IRAs, HSAs (not many instituions handle Health Savings Accounts)
Certificate of Deposit Rates:
1-year — 0.75%
2-year — 1.30%
5-year — 2.60%
MB also has Money Market accounts at an interest rate 0.25%.
IRA CD rates are the same as the regular CDs. Maybe it was mean business. Those interest rates aren’t very nice.
Located: 800 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL.

First American Bank — FDIC 3657 — Est. 1901 — 3-Stars — $2.86B
560 Employees. Sadly, they aren’t really the First American Bank, but a nice name. Although I think they could have spent a little more money for a better name.
CD Rates:
6-month — 0.50%
9-month CD Rates — 0.65%
1-year — 0.75%
5-year 2.50%.
First American Bank also has HSAs and IRAs.
Located: 700 Busse Road, Elk Grove Village,IL

American Chartered Bank — FDIC 27006 — Est. 1987 — 2-Stars — $2.74 Billion
374 Employees.
CD Rates:
1-year — 1.05%
4-year — 2.50%
5-year — 2.96%

Old Second National Bank — FDIC 3603 — Est. 1887 — 2-Stars — $2.5BB
Hey, the name is better than a FNB (First National Bank). And they weren’t kidding about the old part. Plus the Bank has a nice domain, oldsecond.com
CD Rates:
12 month — of 1.00%

The Below interest rates require a checking account. Subtract 0.25% without it.
18 month — of 1.26%
24 month — of 1.26%
30 month — of 1.26%
36 month — of 1.51%
48 month — of 1.76%
60 month — of 3.03%

Online Special (Requires funds to be new money coming into Old Second). Ahh, the new joining the old. Seems very poetic.
18 month — of 1.51%

Morton Community Bank — FDIC 18429 — Est. 1961 — 4-Stars — $2.3BB
The bank has a couple of good CD specials:
7-month — 1.31%
17-month — 1.81%
5-year — 3.26%
10-Year — 4.07% (Requires $100,000)
Morton Commmunity has a great Hometown Rewards checking account with a yield of 2.01%

Amcore Bank, NA — FDIC 3735 — Est. 1931 — Zero Stars (ouch!!) — $3.8BB — 938 Employees.
Some other not so happy statistics: ($213MM Loss) — 2.58% E/A (good would be above 7%) — 7.07% Total Risk Based Capital Ratio (good would be above 10%)
Certificate of Deposit Rates:
2-year — 1.95%
18-months — 1.75%
12-months — 1.50%
One idea: Go for the 2-year and hope for closure and take a no penalty withdrawal.
Location: 501 Seventh Street, Rockford, IL 61104

ShoreBank — FDIC 15640 — Est, 1939 — Zero Stars (Ouch times 2!!) — $2.3BB
Must be something in the water. 66 Employees.
More unhappy financials: ($55.6MM) Loss — E/A 4.2% — RR 8.30%. If I was going to pick banks close to failing, these two would be near the top.
ShoreBank’s has an online savings at 1.07% APY
Another interesting offer: Community Leadership Certificate of Deposit — 2.01%. Interesting name given their lack of financial health.
Other CD Rates:
6-month — 1.27%
1-year — 1.30%
60-months 2.63%

Jumbo Certificate:
2-year CD — 2.01%
5-year CD — 2.68%

18-month IRA CD at 1.78%
Location: 7054 South Jeffery Avenue, Chicago,IL 60649

First Midwest Bank — FDIC 3709 — 1933 — $7.76BB — 3-Stars — 1700 Employees
Located: One Pierce Place, Suite 1500
Itasca, IL 60143 — Took about 5-clicks to get rates. That’s a bummer. They also offer HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) and IRAs. CD Rates: 6-months at 0.65%; 1-year at 1.00%; 36-months at 2.10%; 5-year at 2.80%. HSA rate for $2500 and above is 1.25%, that’s pretty good.

West Suburban Bank — 1962 — 502 Employees — $1.93BB — 3 Stars.
12 months thru 17 months 1.00
18 months thru 23 months 1.15
24 months thru 29 months 1.40
30 months thru 35 months 1.50
36 months thru 47 months 1.90
48 months thru 59 months 2.25
5 years
701-711 South Westmore Avenue
Lombard,IL 60148
FDIC Certificate #: 18509 Health savings accounts, rates range form 0.75% to 1.00%.

Lake Forest Bank and Trust Company — Founded in 1986 as Crabtree Trust Company. In 1991 changed name and became FDIC insured. — $1.81BB — 353 Employees
6 months 0.25%
12 months -0.60%
18 months – 0.75%
24 months 0.95%
30 months – 0.95%
36 months – 1.45%
48 months – 1.70%
60 months – 2.10%
They have some bonuses, but it only adds 10 to 20 Basis points to the rates and the rates are really quite lowsey.
727 North Bank Lane
Lake Forest,IL 60045
FDIC Certificate #: 27589 — 4-Stars

Marquette Bank — 4 Stars — Est. 1945 — FDIC# 467 — $1.8BB
6316 South Western Avenue
Chicago,IL 60636
FDIC Certificate #: 16250
5 year – 2.35%
4 year – 1.60%
3 year – 1.40%
30-Month – 1.20%
2 year – 1.00%
18-month – 0.80%
1 year – 0.65%
6 months – 0.45%
Advertising a 7-month special for 0.80%. I suppose it isn’t bad, but there is better.

Bridgeview Bank Group — FDIC Certificate #: 21122 Date Established: 6/21/1973
Located: 7940 South Harlem Avenue
Bridgeview,IL 60455
222 Empl. $1.5BB — 3-Stars —
They have a 19-month CD special at 1.90%. Minimum deposit is $10,000. That is a pretty good rate.

Heartland Bank and Trust Company
Located : 401 North Hershey Road
Bloomington,IL 61702
FDIC Certificate #: 20369 Date Established: 2/22/1971
4-Stars
6 month – 1.12%
9 month -1.23%
12 month 1.28%
14 month [Special] -1.70% — NEW MONEY ONLY – For personal accounts only: $100,000 limit.
15 month -1.35%
18 month -1.46%
21 month -1.46%
24 month -1.73%
27 month -1.73%
30 month -1.77%
36 month -2.14%
48 month [Special] -2.49%
60 month [Special] -2.80%

THE National Bank – yes “THE” is in all caps. A little arrogant, I think. Especially given that they were just established in 2005 — 3-Stars — 41 banks in the us that start with National. I really think they should have tried to be more unique with their name.
Located: 2040 1st Street A
Moline,IL 61265
FDIC Certificate #: 57918 — Date Established: 4/11/2005
1-year CD: 1.65%
18-month CD: 1.65%
30-month CD: 2.00%

Something to note: They have made quite a few acquisitions, but their growth seems extreme. The NB Started with $26MM and are now $1.26BB. They went from 26 Employees to 317.

AllState Bank — 3-Stars — 57 Empl. $1.2BB
Located : 3100 Sanders Road, Suite N4a
Northbrook,IL 60062
FDIC Certificate #: 34782 — Date Established: 11/18/1998
CD 1 year 1.10%
CD 2 year 1.30%
CD 3 year 1.70%
CD 5 year 2.40%
High Yield Savings — 1.05%

Castle Bank, NA — 3-Stars — 1.06BB — 290 Empl
Located: 141 West Lincoln Highway
Dekalb,IL 60115
FDIC Certificate #: 13908 — Date Established: 6/15/1859
Two Clicks for rates, nice.
6-month at 0.50%
1y at 0.75%
2Y at 1.10%
57-month special at 3.00%

There you go. A pretty good round up of IL CD Rates. Don’t be shy to let us know what you found. And remember, please verify insurance, rates, and ratings of any bank or credit union you wish to make a deposit with.

Best 1-Year CD Rates

The FDIC has closed 38 banks so far in 2010. They are on pace to close more this year than last year. Hundreds of banks are in the under-capitalized category and most of those will not be able to recover. Still looming residential losses plus impending commercial losses will just be too much.

When considering 1-year CD rates you want your bank to be around. So check for the health of the bank.

Nevertheless here are some top CD rates I found.

It seems that credit unions are leading the pack.

Alliant Credit Union has a 2.10% APY for a 1-year CD. The rate is good from 1-year to 23-months. Interest is paid at maturity only. 5-star Rating.

Melrose Credit Union out of New York has a 2.07% APY.

Amazingly, I found a bank with a 2.00%. Most banks are in the 1.50% range because of the FDIC National rate cap. Check out First City Bank. 2.00% APY. They can be reached at 888-244-5151. Of course there are a couple of caveats. It is a 15-month CD which is what gets them around the FDIC cap. They have a 0-Star rating. And to make it worse, they are located in Florida. But they are FDIC insured.

Franklin Synergy Bank has a 1.95%, also for 15-mos. They are out of Franklin, TN. They have a 2-star rating.

Use the FDIC or NCUA website to do your own safety check. Take a look at the various ratios. Look for a capital ratio above 7%, a total risk based capital above 10% (only applicable to banks), and if the institution has a loss, make sure it is only about 25% of the capital when you adjust for yearly earnings. This is just a guide. The web also offers some free rating tools. One is found at bankrate[dot]com.

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.

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.

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.

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.

— From Freakingnews.com

I hope you enjoy the series.

*WC stands for Well-Capitalized. This means that the Total risk-based capital ratio is above 10% (the higher the number the better). The definition from the FDIC Reads, “Total risk-based capital ratio:
Total risk based capital as a percent of risk-weighted assets as defined by the appropriate federal regulator for prompt corrective action during that time period.”

choosing a bank account can be very difficult. Many things come into play such as the rate of course if we are talking about CDs, the fees for checking accounts, access to the institution, etc.

FDIC Increases Insurance Limit

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

This will be a four-part series and after I’m all done, I’ll try to draw some conclusions for the upcoming election. For now, here is a run-down of banks in Alaska and their CD Rates.

Wouldn’t you know it. I started this a few days ago, and now there are rumors that Obama is going to replace Biden with Hillary. Which state would I chose for her, AR, DC, or NY?!?

I hope you enjoy the series.

*WC stands for Well-Capitalized. This means that the Total risk-based capital ratio is above 10% (the higher the number the better). The definition from the FDIC Reads, “Total risk-based capital ratio:
Total risk based capital as a percent of risk-weighted assets as defined by the appropriate federal regulator for prompt corrective action during that time period.”

**The full title of this bank is Wells Fargo Bank South Central, National Association. It is separately insured from the main Wells Fargo Bank, but the website on the FDIC website takes you to the main WF site.

Their Certificate of Deposit Rates are as follows:

Here is a link to their site. I believe you can apply and fund on-line.

Their Certificate of Deposit Rates are as follows:

Like some credit unions out there they do allow for nationwide membership by joining an association. In Alliant’s case it is the National PTA. Another thing to note is that the interest is only paid out at maturity. You can not receive the interest on a monthly basis, so this CD is not good for those seeking monthly income.

Alliant’s NCUA# is 67955. They are federally insured just like an FDIC insured bank. They currently have about $5.3BB in assets and are fairly large as far as credit unions go. Unlike many banks, they do currently have a healthy profit and have a nice Equity/Asset ratio of 11.79%.

The website address for their rates is www.alliantcreditunion.org/services/rates/.
The main site is www.alliantcreditunion.org

They also currently have a nice savings rate of 3.75% APY.