New at PenFed - 3% 5yr certificates

[sheehs1]

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Originally Posted by Ready I took all of my emergency savings that was not already in CDs and transferred it to PenFed this morning. I already have a car loan with them, so it was pretty easy to do. Funny thing is my car loan is only at 1.99%. I can't even justify paying it off early with the money I had in local savings with these CD rates available.

Ready...the rep told me car loans were 0.99% now. I just checked and they are advertising this. Wonder if you could redo yours? Just a thought.

[brewer12345]

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Originally Posted by sheehs1 I asked about this and the rep I had said the rate would be there until the end of January. That said...they could pull it at any time.

The customer service reps do not make pricing decisions.

[sheehs1]

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Originally Posted by brewer12345 The customer service reps do not make pricing decisions.

You are correct. That's why I said, they could pull the rate at any time.

[Ready]

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Originally Posted by sheehs1 Ready...the rep told me car loans were 0.99% now. I just checked and they are advertising this. Wonder if you could redo yours? Just a thought.

I think that is only if you buy a car through their car buying service, where they would likely earn a commission for the referral. Otherwise the rate is 1.99% for new, used or refinance loans. Still not a bad rate though!

[Sue J]

How are you transferring large amounts into PenFed? PenFed limits incoming ACHs to $5000 a day and my banks won't let me send more than $10,000 a day to another institution.

I'm just doing this online, are you able to transfer larger amounts over the phone?

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by Sue J How are you transferring large amounts into PenFed? PenFed limits incoming ACHs to $5000 a day and my banks won't let me send more than $10,000 a day to another institution. I'm just doing this online, are you able to transfer larger amounts over the phone?

Hmmm - I was not notified of any such limit online.

I opened a CD online and gave the ACH transfer info directly for that and it didn't complain about the amount >$10K.

I don't expect my bank checking to limit it either as I have had larger transfers in the past, although the transfers have always been initiated from another financial institution.

The Fidelity limit is $100K.

[Ready]

No restrictions for transferring more than $10K either here. Just a simple ACH transfer from a different bank.

I just noticed that Credit Union West in Arizona now has rates of 2.95% for 5 year CD's with $50K or more, and 3.2% for IRA CDs with $50K at 5 years as well. Maybe rates are finally rising?

[sheehs1]

SueJ. I transferred large amounts into 4 CD's over the phone or at least what I consider large. They were all definitely more than the limits you talk about. The rep didn't tell me about any transfer limits. The transactions are "posted" on the PenFed site as if the CD's have been funded with yesterday's date.
However, the money has not ACH transferred from my bank accounts yet. If they have not transferred by tomorrow...I will call "someone". Either PenFed or my bank.

I've not received any notification about transfer limits yet either.

I could have done it online but she told me I would have to set up a "non Penfed" external transfer account and wait 3 days for them to ping back and forth with .50 cent pings (according to the rep). She told if I did it over the phone, I could do it immediately.
So...that's what I did.
Hope the rep knew what she was doing..

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by calmloki Do note that the penalty for breaking one of those 5-7 year certificates is 365 days of interest. So if you break the cert at the one year mark you earn 0% if you break at the two year mark you earn an effective 1.5% if you break at the three year mark you earn an effective 2% if you break at the four year mark you earn an effective 2.25% Go to maturity? 3% Just saying. I'm in for an amount that is normally kept as fast emergency money. Stocks may make more - historically - but this is interest earning mattress money.

This kind of matches (or slightly beats) their shorter term 2-4 year CD rates:

6 Month 0.300% 0.30%**
1-Year 0.750% 0.75%
2-Year 1.400% 1.41%
3-Year 2.000% 2.02%
4-Year 2.200% 2.22%
5-Year 3.000% 3.04%
7-Year 3.000% 3.04%

[RunningBum]

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Originally Posted by audreyh1 Thank kind of matches their shorter term CD rates.

That is good to know. As long as you can hang on at least 2 years you won't do worse than a shorter term CD. If rates go up, you can just break it then and be in the same shape as the shorter term.

Vanguard to PenFed transfer limit must be well over 5K or 10K. Seems like I've done close to 100K before.

[Ready]

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Originally Posted by sheehs1 I could have done it online but she told me I would have to set up a "non Penfed" external transfer account and wait 3 days for them to ping back and forth with .50 cent pings (according to the rep). She told if I did it over the phone, I could do it immediately. So...that's what I did. Hope the rep knew what she was doing..

Hmmm...I just entered the bank's routing number and my account number and initiated the ACH. I've never done a transfer from that bank before. I wonder why we are getting such different information from different people who are calling them.

[FIREd]

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Originally Posted by Sue J How are you transferring large amounts into PenFed? PenFed limits incoming ACHs to $5000 a day and my banks won't let me send more than $10,000 a day to another institution. I'm just doing this online, are you able to transfer larger amounts over the phone?

I was able to transfer higher amounts online via ACH.

[braumeister]

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Originally Posted by Sue J How are you transferring large amounts into PenFed? PenFed limits incoming ACHs to $5000 a day and my banks won't let me send more than $10,000 a day to another institution. I'm just doing this online, are you able to transfer larger amounts over the phone?

I believe the $5K/day restriction is just for a normal transfer of cash from an outside account into one of your regular PenFed accounts.

The ACH routinely handles large transfers for things like this (opening a CD).

[RunningBum]

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Originally Posted by braumeister I believe the $5K/day restriction is just for a normal transfer of cash from an outside account into one of your regular PenFed accounts. The ACH routinely handles large transfers for things like this (opening a CD).

I transferred 50K from VG into my checking account with no indication that it would be for a CD or anything else, so no, that's not a PenFed restriction. From there I transferred from my checking account to a new CD. I realize now I probably could've done it with one step, but I didn't. Perhaps I was able to do more because I pushed it from VG, rather than initiating the transfer from PenFed.

[audreyh1]

Perhaps Sue J was trying to transfer into her checking account before buying the CD.

You can do the transfer directly from another financial institution as part of opening the CD.

[FIREd]

I just opened another one of those CDs via Penfed's website. The ACH limit from my checking account at another bank was $999,999.99.

[Gatordoc50]

I just opened an account online. They stated that they were going to mail me account materials. I wonder if I have to wait for those prior to transferring funds.

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 I just opened an account online. They stated that they were going to mail me account materials. I wonder if I have to wait for those prior to transferring funds.

No you don't. At least not to initial the process.

And I think they mail you materials for each account you open - each CD is considered an account.

Any account is not considered "valid" until the mailed materials are signed and returned, but you can still open a CD or whatever.

[brewer12345]

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Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 I just opened an account online. They stated that they were going to mail me account materials. I wonder if I have to wait for those prior to transferring funds.

Nope. Pen Fed is a bit old fashioned about this. They will elt you transfer funds and set up an account, but they still want your physical signature on the documents. Not a big deal.

[NW-Bound]

I have been too lazy to get an account with PenFed, though I learned about it from this forum for quite a few years.

Well, it's OK, as it might just be that when I get to it, the rate would be even higher.

Mortgage rates are also going up. And today, bond ETFs get another drubbing.

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Originally Posted by Ready I just noticed that Credit Union West in Arizona now has rates of 2.95% for 5 year CD's with $50K or more, and 3.2% for IRA CDs with $50K at 5 years as well. Maybe rates are finally rising?