New at PenFed - 3% 5yr certificates

[Katsmeow]

My funds that Vanguard sent last week showed up today in an IRA Share account. From what others have said, I believe it starts there and then gets transferred to the certificate. I'll keep checking back on it.

 

[Sarpy]

Somewhere in this long thread I believe someone mentioned PenFed has in the past offered these special CD rates once or twice a year. Does anyone recall if they've ever bumped the rate even higher right after a special offer expires?

 

[OAG]

FYI: C/R Told Me Penfed Will Be Lowering Their Certificate Rates For New Money - Pentagon Federal Credit Union

 

[brewer12345]

FYI: C/R Told Me Penfed Will Be Lowering Their Certificate Rates For New Money - Pentagon Federal Credit Union

Yee-haa, 3% will be available for renewals! I was just talking to Mom about a CD they have maturing in February at PF.

 

[Sarpy]

FYI: C/R Told Me Penfed Will Be Lowering Their Certificate Rates For New Money - Pentagon Federal Credit Union

Thanks for posting that! Didn't want to have buyer's remorse, you know.

 

[Katsmeow]

Today my money that was in the share account (IRA) yesterday was put into the CD.

 

[Ready]

My deposit was also transferred from the share account to the 5 year Money Market. I did ask them to split the funds into two certificates, but it does not appear from the web site that they did that. My only reason for doing so was just in case I want to put half the money back into bond funds a few years from now, I don't have to pay the early withdrawal penalty on the entire amount.

However, I've asked them to do this three times now, so I think I'm just going to leave it alone and be happy that I got the 3% rate before they lower it.

 

[sheehs1]

My deposit was also transferred from the share account to the 5 year Money Market. I did ask them to split the funds into two certificates, but it does not appear from the web site that they did that. My only reason for doing so was just in case I want to put half the money back into bond funds a few years from now, I don't have to pay the early withdrawal penalty on the entire amount.

However, I've asked them to do this three times now, so I think I'm just going to leave it alone and be happy that I got the 3% rate before they lower it.

Ready...I split it into 4 PenFed CD accounts for the same reason you stated.

I don't know...you may want to stay on them about this. Calling and staying on the phone while they set it up and initiate the internal transfer isn't out of the question. All of mine were set up and funded over the phone:4 accounts, 4 transfers from external source.

 

[34rlsa]

I completed my transfers today for 6, 5 year CDs @ 3%.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. It made the process much easier to complete.

Thanks!!!

 

[tulak]

Since I'm not sure my funds are going to make it to PenFed in time, I decided to give them a call. I was told that they will honor all requests based on the date of the IRA transfer authorization. This was sent to all customer reps recently, mainly because of the large number of requests they have pending. My funds aren't there yet, so if true, it's good news.

I also asked if he knows what February rates are going to be. I wasn't expecting an answer, so I was surprised when he said yes and then proceeded to tell me that 5 year will be 2% and the 7 year 2.25%. This matches what was in the link above for the 7 year, but not the 5 year. He also said the other rates will be about .5% lower, except for the 1 year, that will see a slight increase. I'm curious to see what the numbers are after the 1st.

 

[Katsmeow]

My deposit was also transferred from the share account to the 5 year Money Market. I did ask them to split the funds into two certificates, but it does not appear from the web site that they did that. My only reason for doing so was just in case I want to put half the money back into bond funds a few years from now, I don't have to pay the early withdrawal penalty on the entire amount.

However, I've asked them to do this three times now, so I think I'm just going to leave it alone and be happy that I got the 3% rate before they lower it.

Same issue. They were supposed to do 3 certificates and they only did 1. Will have to call them. Also I thought that $5 had to go into the IRA share account so I had an extra $5 sent for that. This was all clear on the paperwork and DH called and confirmed with them in advance. But it looks on the web page like there is one certificate for the whole thing. Will have to call tomorrow.

 

[kaneohe]

My deposit was also transferred from the share account to the 5 year Money Market. I did ask them to split the funds into two certificates, but it does not appear from the web site that they did that. My only reason for doing so was just in case I want to put half the money back into bond funds a few years from now, I don't have to pay the early withdrawal penalty on the entire amount.

However, I've asked them to do this three times now, so I think I'm just going to leave it alone and be happy that I got the 3% rate before they lower it.

If you want to pursue this, I suggest escalating to a supervisor. My recent experience w/ PF would be comical if it weren't so sad. They have done and redone my certificates so many times due to errors. Today I tried to get a supe and the rep started playing defense. Eventually I had to hang up to get a more receptive rep. You just have be persistent. You may want to get their name so they know you're taking notes.

 

[Ready]

I sent a "secure email" from within my account on their web site this morning requesting that they split the certificates in half. Hopefully they will see the email and just fix it. I just don't have the patience to call them again and go through the whole authentication process.

Their secure email system has a few quirks. I requested the certificate be split into (2) certificates, only to find out that my emails are not allowed to contain parenthesis. So I had to retype it to spell out the word "two" without the parenthesis before I was allowed to submit the message. Who comes up with this stuff?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Yee-haa, 3% will be available for renewals! I was just talking to Mom about a CD they have maturing in February at PF.

I can confirm this. Although they will not split up the maturing CDs. For Example, If you have a $250k CD maturing in Feb 2014 you can renew it at $250k for any of the periods using January rates. This will be published. You cannot however have a $100k and a $150k CD form the same maturing CD money.

 

[Katsmeow]

I sent a "secure email" from within my account on their web site this morning requesting that they split the certificates in half. Hopefully they will see the email and just fix it. I just don't have the patience to call them again and go through the whole authentication process.

DH just got off the phone with them and they split the CD's into 3. Apparently he was told there was a 10 day grace period during which you can make changes. I wanted it done today, of course, because of the 3% rate. Putting it into 1 certificate was their error, but I thought it would be easier to get it resolved today.

 

[powerplay]

Decided to open one more 3% CD while the rate is available. Don't know if this will seem as good in 5 years, but right now it looks good.

 

[dvalley]

It's strange that they would lower the rates now because the general feeling is the rates will start to go up

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

It's strange that they would lower the rates now because the general feeling is the rates will start to go up

They probably lowered the rate because they got a s___t load of new money in.

I did my first decent sized CD investments since the way back days of 6% Penfed CD's. Did a couple in December, and decided today to go for a couple more (did more than one CD so I could break them easier if needed).

 

[jazz4cash]

Penfed posted lower rates for Feb 1-28

Term Dividend Rate APY
6 Month 0.300% 0.30%**
1-Year 1.150% 1.16%
2-Year 1.250% 1.26%
3-Year 1.500% 1.51%
4-Year 1.750% 1.76%
5-Year 2.000% 2.02%
7-Year 2.250% 2.27%

I don't see any reference to higher rates for renewals.

 

[OAG]

FWIW read the caution at the top of the accounts page regarding your instructions on February 2014 maturing CD's.

 

[jetpack]

Looks like the party is over for now.

 

[Ready]

Ouch, a 50% drop on the 5 year rate. Well, I hope we see these rates again some time in the next year.

 

[Spanky]

Ouch, a 50% drop on the 5 year rate. Well, I hope we see these rates again some time in the next year.

Not quite 50% - more like 34%. Nonetheless, it's significant.

 

[aja8888]

Not quite 50% - more like 34%. Nonetheless, it's significant.

It's still not bad...we were spoiled by the huge 3% rate. Does anybody remember Columbia Saving CD rates in the early 1980's

 

[OAG]

Maybe not completly over. If you have an account at PFCU what do you think the significance of the caution regarding Feb 2014 maturing CD's is? Why just caution one about Feb 2014? Isn't it important for any CD regardless of the month of maturity? Guess we will have to wait until someone rolls a Feb 2014 maturing PFCU CD for a new term of 5 or 7 years (and posts the result).