Best CD, MM Rates & Bank Special Deals Thread 2022 - Please post updates here

[RetireAge50]

Our Navy FCU CDs are at 3% as well, but have a 12 month penalty that means we don't break them.

Here is a trick to change the penalty to 6 months instead of 12:
Per a phone call I made you can transfer this CD into another CD without penalty as long as the new CD matures later than the original CD. If the new CD is less than 5 years the penalty is 6 months.

 

[Northforker]

Just noticed that TD Bank is offering the following:

CD's:
6 months: 1.5%
12 months: 2%.

Better opportunities out there

First Republic Bank
Certificate of Deposit

CUSIP
DSM9T3030

Buy
Time period
6 Month
Yield(APY)
3.700%
Maturity date
04/06/2023
Minimum investment
$100
Pay frequency
At maturity

 

[Retire2023]

I'm just starting to educate myself of brokered CD's and have a couple of questions:
1. When looking at the offerings on Vanguard, I see the below verbage on most of the entries. What does this mean? I was only looking at new issue offerings.

JP Morgan Chase Bank NA Callable 04/23@100 - Conditional Puts - Death Of Holder, FDIC#628


2. Are there any tip and tricks anyone could recommend in helping improve my selection/screening process?

I appreciate the vast knowledge being shared through this site!
2. What does "Yield to worst bid" actually mean?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

SWVXX 2.83%
SNAXX 2.98% today.

 

[Freedom56]

Thanks Freedom!

"I believe there will be a major exit out of passive bond funds over the next three months and much more than the billions of redemptions every week."

Do you consider PIMIX to be a passive bond fund? They just raised their distribution yield from .046 to .055 per share. Their current dist. yield is 5.05%. I'm thinking they must be taking some high risk positions..
https://www.pimco.com/en-us/investments/mutual-funds/income-fund/inst

PIMIX invests in high yield and investment grade bonds as well as securitized loans. It's down over 10% YTD. I wouldn't buy it. If you want a fund with better yields go for closed end funds like PDT. At least you earn a decent yield with the risk and volatility.

https://www.cefconnect.com/fund/PDT

When PDT trades down to a steep discount to asset value, it would be a much better buy than PIMIX.

 

[NomDeER]

Vanguard currently has a non-callable 3 year 4.4% CD from Discover. Cusip 254673V29

 

[John Galt III]

Penfed just went from 3.25% to 3.6% on 5 and 7 year CD's. They must have seen my posts, lol. Now I have to pause and rethink stuff. A good problem to have, lol. Well, actually, the Vanguard CD's are way better, and Penfed already has a lot of my cash anyway. Hmmm.

 

[John Galt III]

I am logged into the Vanguard website, trying to ACH $10K from a checking account to the VMFXX. I have spent 10 minutes of futility trying to either open VMFXX and/or tell them my checking account details. Don't help me, I'll figure it out. SO far, they suck, lol.

Penfed was WAY easier than this (but their rates are too low)

edit to add: still sucking at Vanguard. What do they think an account is? I have ONE account with various products in it, right? The website is acting as though I need to add a new account for every single product I want to buy.
The sreen says I need to enter an amount. There is NOWHERE to enter an amount. Awful.

A popup appeared and asked my why I was exiting out of the process. I was polite and told them the instructions were unclear. I almost expected a response from them like "Thankyou. We strive to be unclear!" Just awful.

Edit to add one hour later. Giving up for today. The 'live chat' is down. Treasury Direct and Penfed are both way more intuitive than this garbage. Thanks for hearing my rant. I was going to keep it down to one beer today, but maybe not, lol.

BTW, I converted my account from the old legacy platform to this new brokerage stuff a few months ago. Maybe that's why nothing makes sense.

 

[lawman]

PIMIX invests in high yield and investment grade bonds as well as securitized loans. It's down over 10% YTD. I wouldn't buy it. If you want a fund with better yields go for closed end funds like PDT. At least you earn a decent yield with the risk and volatility.

https://www.cefconnect.com/fund/PDT

When PDT trades down to a steep discount to asset value, it would be a much better buy than PIMIX.

"When PDT trades down to a steep discount to asset value" Does that ever happen? It looks close now.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Here is a trick to change the penalty to 6 months instead of 12:
Per a phone call I made you can transfer this CD into another CD without penalty as long as the new CD matures later than the original CD. If the new CD is less than 5 years the penalty is 6 months.

It actually happened to me a couple of months back and I was not charged a penalty and when I asked she claimed she had no idea why but it happens sometimes.
I checked the dates and the new CD was NOT longer than the original, it was actually about 6 months shorter. Maybe because they felt sorry for me, I was only earning 1.19% and by cancelling it early I made a few thousand dollars and the no penalty just sweetened the deal.

 

[MichaelB]

"When PDT trades down to a steep discount to asset value" Does that ever happen? It looks close now.

Follow the link to CEF connect, click on the tab for “pricing information”, then “since inception”. It will show you the history of market price to NAV, or premium / discount. This CEF has many years of history with the market price below the net asset value. From the graph, it would appear trading at discount is the norm.

 

[TheCaptain67]

I am logged into the Vanguard website, trying to ACH $10K from a checking account to the VMFXX. I have spent 10 minutes of futility trying to either open VMFXX and/or tell them my checking account details. Don't help me, I'll figure it out. SO far, they suck, lol.

This is the link I have for adding a bank account at Vanguard
https://personal1.vanguard.com/mnb-maintain-bank-webapp/welcome

BTW, you don’t need to “purchase” anything at Vanguard if you want VMFXX.
Their default settlement account is the VMFXX fund. So I just tranfer my money in and by default it just sits in the settlement fund == VMFXX

 

[NomDeER]

I am logged into the Vanguard website, trying to ACH $10K from a checking account to the VMFXX. I have spent 10 minutes of futility trying to either open VMFXX and/or tell them my checking account details. Don't help me, I'll figure it out. SO far, they suck, lol.

Penfed was WAY easier than this (but their rates are too low)

edit to add: still sucking at Vanguard. What do they think an account is? I have ONE account with various products in it, right? The website is acting as though I need to add a new account for every single product I want to buy.
The sreen says I need to enter an amount. There is NOWHERE to enter an amount. Awful.

A popup appeared and asked my why I was exiting out of the process. I was polite and told them the instructions were unclear. I almost expected a response from them like "Thankyou. We strive to be unclear!" Just awful.

Edit to add one hour later. Giving up for today. The 'live chat' is down. Treasury Direct and Penfed are both way more intuitive than this garbage. Thanks for hearing my rant. I was going to keep it down to one beer today, but maybe not, lol.

BTW, I converted my account from the old legacy platform to this new brokerage stuff a few months ago. Maybe that's why nothing makes sense.

I was on hold with Vanguard fixed income forever today. When I got through, the woman was apologetic and said that they have been slammed and are hiring a bunch of new people to help. She was very helpful. I find that the Vanguard folks almost always are. So, try calling them on Monday when you've got something to do while on hold.

BTW, if you've got a brokerage account, you should have a settlement fund set up for you already, even if it shows zero dollars. That settlement fund is VMFXX. On the right hand side of where that account is, there should be an option of "transfer money" with three dots. If you click on the dots, you should be able to transfer from your checking account to your settlement account. That's how I do it on a monthly basis.

If you don't already have your checking account set up for transfers, click on the three dots by the "More account information" on the left hand side of your settlement account and you'll see an option to add a new bank account.

I agree that their site is not very intuitive.

 

[lawman]

PIMIX invests in high yield and investment grade bonds as well as securitized loans. It's down over 10% YTD. I wouldn't buy it. If you want a fund with better yields go for closed end funds like PDT. At least you earn a decent yield with the risk and volatility.

https://www.cefconnect.com/fund/PDT

When PDT trades down to a steep discount to asset value, it would be a much better buy than PIMIX.

When I chart PDT with SPY (S & P 500 index tracking ETF) they run very close..Does the chart reflect reinvestment of PDT dividends? If so, it seems to perform about like the stock market

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

SWVXX 2.83%
SNAXX 2.98% today.

Thanks for including SWVXX for us poor folk.

 

[Graybeard]

Could someone please help me understand what a steeper inverted yield curve is and what it's significance is? Why would we lock in rates now as opposed to next month or in November, December, or early next year?

The yield curve is the direction of rates from the lowest instrument to the highest. For Treasuries, 1 month T bill, then the 2 month, then the 3 month , 6 month, 1 year, 2 year note, 5 year note, 10 year note and the 30 year bond. Each of those would typically have a higher yield as you go out in duration so a 2 month should have a higher yield than a 1 month, a 2 year should have a lower yield than a 5 year. But what we have today is the opposite, shorter duration instruments have higher yields than longer, that is not good, that is an inverted yield curve. You should expect to get a higher rate for a longer dated instrument as you are investing longer and need to be compensated for that longer time where rates could rise. Today the the yield curve is not steepening and it is inverted.

As to locking in rates now vs months from now, that would be something someone would say when they think the shorter rates will drop so they want to "lock in" the higher rate of the longer dated instrument. Bottom line is, no one knows what will happen. I think the rates will rise for the shorter maturity bills over the next few months so I am not buying anything longer than 3 month T bills but I could be wrong. Maybe next week the shorter term rates will drop making those longer rates of today look better.

 

[Graybeard]

Thanks, Graybeard. I am getting up the nerve to transfer $10K into VMFXX. Currently have money in similar savings fund at Penfed at only 1.7%. Have been poking around the Vanguard website.

While 2.75% is good, today it is 2.76%, you can get better rates in T bills and probably CDs. I'm buying 3 month T bills but have a fair amount of cash in the Settlement fund in both my taxable and RO IRA accounts to fund those purchases.

 

[camfused]

viobank MM @ 2.8% now

 

[Bruno]

What does "Call Protection" Yes mean? can it be called or it CAN NOT be called? Thanks

 

[aja8888]

What does "Call Protection" Yes mean? can it be called or it CAN NOT be called? Thanks

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/callprotection.asp

 

[lordjust]

Thanks for including SWVXX for us poor folk.

+1

 

[Bruno]

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/callprotection.asp

I was thinking I posted my question in the CD thread .. this link talks about bonds. Maybe its the same thing. VG makes it very simple its either callable or not. On fido it just says Call Protection and its either yes or no.

When i asked Google about "Call Protection on CD" I didnt see that term used and thought I would let the experts help me out.

 

[Freedom56]

When I chart PDT with SPY (S & P 500 index tracking ETF) they run very close..Does the chart reflect reinvestment of PDT dividends? If so, it seems to perform about like the stock market

CEF (Closed End Funds) like PDT, HPS, FFC, FPF were designed for income investors and pay monthly distributions and yes PDT has outperformed most equity funds with fixed income products (preferred stocks). These funds use leverage (i.e. borrow at lower rates) and buy higher yielding securities. That works well when rates are falling or stable but becomes problematic when rates rise. They are also actively managed and because they are closed end funds, there is no forced sales of securities due to redemption by investors like passive funds. They trade and premiums or discount to asset value depending on supply and demand. They are trading at a premium now and historically when they trade at discounts in excess of 10% and yields approaching 10%, they are a buy. They are actively managed and their fees are higher. They are much more volatile than funds that trade at asset value. Your capital is not guaranteed and the distributions change over time.
Of all of these funds, PDT is the best followed by FFC.

 

[John Galt III]

I was on hold with Vanguard fixed income forever today. When I got through, the woman was apologetic and said that they have been slammed and are hiring a bunch of new people to help. She was very helpful. I find that the Vanguard folks almost always are. So, try calling them on Monday when you've got something to do while on hold.

BTW, if you've got a brokerage account, you should have a settlement fund set up for you already, even if it shows zero dollars. That settlement fund is VMFXX. On the right hand side of where that account is, there should be an option of "transfer money" with three dots. If you click on the dots, you should be able to transfer from your checking account to your settlement account. That's how I do it on a monthly basis.

If you don't already have your checking account set up for transfers, click on the three dots by the "More account information" on the left hand side of your settlement account and you'll see an option to add a new bank account.

I agree that their site is not very intuitive.

Thanks, NomDeER. I don't remember seeing 3 dots together. Why would one click on three dots, anyway, ha ha? I was on a desktop computer using Google Chrome. Maybe the 3 dots didn't show up since I wasn't using an ipad. Who knows, ha ha. I already have a brokerage 'account' which has only one product in it, which is an IRA. I did see the VMFXX fund listed somewhere with $0.00 balance, so I guess I have 2 products now, not one. Do I need to open another account to invest in VMFXX and the CD's ? Every screen was asking me to do something I didn't want to do, like transferring money to my IRA. No, I want to transfer money to VMFXX! Or when trying to connect my checking account, it says I have to open a new account! Why? I already have an account! Arrrggggh, lol. Will go back to the website and look for the 3 dots. Thanks again.

 

[Gotadimple]

Amex High Yield Savings goes to 2% effective 9/29. A note on their website that they are experiencing heavy call volumes. Rates on CDs are slightly better: 2.85% for 12 months, 3% - 24 months, 3.1% - 60 months. 18 month, 36 month, and 48 month CDs are all at lower rates. So at least you know which terms they want to emphasize.

This says to me that 1-year money is what they want, the rest are not competitive (yes Treasuries are competitive). Still a reasonably good place to park high yield money that can move through the ACH system if you don't want to leave money in a Broker's system.