PenFed - How to move money efficiently to Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab?

[Debinnov a]

So if I want to move my matured Cds cash from Pen Fed Savings Acct to say BofAmerica or Ally, do I have to initiate a wire pulling money from the receiving bank? I need to figure this out soon. If I'm ultimately wanting to move it into 3 different banks, would it be easier to move it all into one bank (Ally, for example) and then separate and move from it from there?

 

[jazz4cash]

So if I want to move my matured Cds cash from Pen Fed Savings Acct to say BofAmerica or Ally, do I have to initiate a wire pulling money from the receiving bank? I need to figure this out soon. If I'm ultimately wanting to move it into 3 different banks, would it be easier to move it all into one bank (Ally, for example) and then separate and move from it from there?

I have these accounts linked for online (ACH) transfers. Very easy. BOA is my central bank and all my other accounts are linked to this one. I have a few links between the other banks (eg Penfed and NFCU) so it might be easier to use BOA as an intermediary if final destination is not already linked to PenFed. I use Billpay to move funds out of BOA.

 

[jazz4cash]

I am not overly worried about EWPs. I never put money into a CD that I will need prior to maturity. Even if it was 6 months EWP on a 3%+ CD, I still would not take it out.



Perhaps they are anticipating rates soaring in the foreseeable future and want folks to stay at a lower rate? Either way one should review one's circumstances before buying a long term CD.

+1. Ability to make partial withdrawals is more important to me than the EWP. If they don’t allow partials (like Ally), I just split them up. I’m getting a lot of emails without much to get excited about. I think it’s too early to write them off for not having a good rate to replace the 3% CDs. Plus I’m still holding some 5% CDs with 26 months to run.

 

[audreyh1]

So if I want to move my matured Cds cash from Pen Fed Savings Acct to say BofAmerica or Ally, do I have to initiate a wire pulling money from the receiving bank? I need to figure this out soon. If I'm ultimately wanting to move it into 3 different banks, would it be easier to move it all into one bank (Ally, for example) and then separate and move from it from there?

I use ACH transfers initiated outside of PenFed.

I tend to use my brokerage accounts as my “clearinghouse” and have links to all my banks and credit unions there. Fidelity is generally fast with ACH transfers and there are no associated fees nor limits on number of withdrawals per statement cycle month.

I use ACH to pull funds from PenFed, initiated from Fidelity. Then once the funds are available I would push them to whichever other accounts I wanted.

BofA charges for outgoing transfers, I think. Ally charges nothing.

But you do have to have external account links established for transfers at whichever institution you want want to control these ACH transfers.

 

[jetpack]

The CD transfer limit is $999,999
I think the $5k limit is just for transfers that you initiate through the website.
you need to have it automatically transferred, or you'll run into the 5k limits.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

The CD transfer limit is $999,999
I think the $5k limit is just for transfers that you initiate through the website.
you need to have it automatically transferred, or you'll run into the 5k limits.

I have it all set up now, in order to not hit the limits of how much can be transferred out to Vanguard (with Vanguard pulling via ACH) we will need to do 3 separate transactions. This is not a problem as they are maturing at 3 separate times.

 

[freedomatlast]

I think I'm just going to keep it simple and have them send me a check. The small amount of interest lost over 5 to 7 days for the check to reach me isn't a big deal.

 

[Katsmeow]

My tentative plan is to have the proceeds from my PenFed IRA CDs go into my Penfed IRA savings account when they mature and then initiate a transfer with Fido or Vanguard to have them draw the total from PenFed and deposit it in my Fido or Vanguard IRA. Make sense?

Has anyone done this with Penfed to Vanguard? What is the process? Do we contact Vanguard or PenFed first on this?

DH just had a small IRA CD at Penfed that matured and the proceeds went into his Penfed IRA savings account. He would like to move that money back to his existing IRA at Vanguard. What does he need to do accomplish this the easiest way?

 

[tulak]

The CDs in my PenFed IRA mature at the end of this week, at which point I’m going to initiate the transfer from Vanguard to get the funds back to my Vanguard IRA.

When I tentatively looked at this a month ago at Vanguard, it looks like it will be straightforward. But not having done it, who knows?

Like Katsmeow, I’d also be curious to know if anybody has already done this and if so, how well it went?

If not, I’ll update the thread as my transfer goes through.

 

[pb4uski]

I just completed the process a while ago. I initiated a transfer request with Fidelity... signed it... they send it to PenFed... PenFed sends a check to Fidelity and Fidelity deposited it to my account. In my case the amount was large enough that I paid $20 for PenFed to wire it... I had to call them and give them the wiring instructions and also transfer $20 to my regular PenFed savings account to cover the wiring fee.

 

[tulak]

I just completed the process a while ago. I initiated a transfer request with Fidelity... signed it... they send it to PenFed... PenFed sends a check to Fidelity and Fidelity deposited it to my account. In my case the amount was large enough that I paid $20 for PenFed to wire it... I had to call them and give them the wiring instructions and also transfer $20 to my regular PenFed savings account to cover the wiring fee.

This looks to be the same process with Vanguard. I initiated the roll-over on Vanguard's website Friday, which ended up with me having to print out the form and mail to to Vanguard. I mailed it the same day, so Vanguard should have it early next week, at which point they'll mail it to PenFed. I'm thinking it'll take a 2-3 weeks before the funds appear at Vanguard.

 

[harley]

I didn't want to start a new thread about this, so I've resurrected this one.

I need to move ~$100K from PenFed to my personal checking account, and since I'm a cheapskate and there's not a pressing time limitation I decided to do the $5K/day ACH over the next month. So I did a couple, then tried to do one today (Sat.). I went through the process, hit submit, and PenFed dropped me back to my main accounts screen. I assumed the transfer went through, but when I checked the Pending Transfers tab it wasn't there. Long story short, I called to check on it and was told about various limitations shown earlier in this thread. When I questioned the lack of a failure message, the rep said "I'll mention it to the IT dept". But she couldn't tell me where I could read up on the limitations of the ACH.

I've never asked much of PenFed, but this was annoying as hell. Obviously I can do a Wire Transfer and pay the relatively minor costs, but I don't see why I have to pay them (and my bank) just to access my money quickly and easily. So I got on here and did a search and found loads more information than is easily available at PenFed. I'm in the process of setting up the ability to pull from my Vanguard account, which I can then push to my personal bank account. Soooo much easier than dealing with PenFed.

So I just wanted to say thanks. It's a rare situation when I can't find good information on this site.

 

[kaneohe]

I think I'm just going to keep it simple and have them send me a check. The small amount of interest lost over 5 to 7 days for the check to reach me isn't a big deal.

Doesn't help you now.............but if you had a MMSA (money market savings acct) you could move the funds there and then write a MMSA check to deposit where you wish .

 

[harley]

Doesn't help you now.............but if you had a MMSA (money market savings acct) you could move the funds there and then write a MMSA check to deposit where you wish .

True, but that would require me to be within a reasonable distance of one of my financial institutions. When I get back down to FL I'm in walking distance, but not now. I assume you can do a mail deposit, but I've only ever deposited checks in person. This is easier for me.

 

[gwraigty]

True, but that would require me to be within a reasonable distance of one of my financial institutions. When I get back down to FL I'm in walking distance, but not now. I assume you can do a mail deposit, but I've only ever deposited checks in person. This is easier for me.

Learn to do mobile deposit. That's what those of us without local banks do.

 

[jim584672]

I didn't want to start a new thread about this, so I've resurrected this one.

I need to move ~$100K from PenFed to my personal checking account, and since I'm a cheapskate and there's not a pressing time limitation I decided to do the $5K/day ACH over the next month. So I did a couple, then tried to do one today (Sat.). I went through the process, hit submit, and PenFed dropped me back to my main accounts screen. I assumed the transfer went through, but when I checked the Pending Transfers tab it wasn't there. Long story short, I called to check on it and was told about various limitations shown earlier in this thread. When I questioned the lack of a failure message, the rep said "I'll mention it to the IT dept". But she couldn't tell me where I could read up on the limitations of the ACH.

I've never asked much of PenFed, but this was annoying as hell. Obviously I can do a Wire Transfer and pay the relatively minor costs, but I don't see why I have to pay them (and my bank) just to access my money quickly and easily. So I got on here and did a search and found loads more information than is easily available at PenFed. I'm in the process of setting up the ability to pull from my Vanguard account, which I can then push to my personal bank account. Soooo much easier than dealing with PenFed.

So I just wanted to say thanks. It's a rare situation when I can't find good information on this site.

Just be careful you are not doing more than 6 withdrawals from a savings account. I did an Ally ACH transfer initiated from the outside to push and pull funds from PenFed.

 

[Fleur58]

For those of you with 100K plus in CDs what denominations to do put your CDs in? I have at least that amount in a MM account and am wondering what CD amounts to put them in. I will not need the money for several years, but don't want to tie it up in just one CD.

 

[jazz4cash]

For those of you with 100K plus in CDs what denominations to do put your CDs in? I have at least that amount in a MM account and am wondering what CD amounts to put them in. I will not need the money for several years, but don't want to tie it up in just one CD.

Not sure what you have in mind here. I have split up CDs into chunks to reduce early withdrawal penalties if I decide I want to break the CD. First I assess the early withdrawal penalty and if they permit partial withdrawals. If they do, there is no point to splitting up the CD. If they don’t permit partial withdrawals I split it up into 4-5 chunks. I try to have each chuck approximate a year of expenses so that also facilitates CD laddering.

 

[RetireBy90]

I did a deposit of $60K with phone earlier this year to fidelity. I was surprised that I didn’t hit a limit.

 

[harley]

I did a deposit of $60K with phone earlier this year to fidelity. I was surprised that I didn’t hit a limit.

Me too, but I guess the brokerage houses are used to working with larger dollar amounts.

Mobil deposits to my bank (Synovus) have some fairly low limits. I think the best I could do would be $15K, which wouldn't be enough for what I'm trying to do. I think the pull from PenFed by VG will work best.

 

[RetireBy90]

Agree with Harley, I have Fidelity setup to push to or pull from credit union and bank. Takes 2 or 3 days each way but works for me.

 

[audreyh1]

I didn't want to start a new thread about this, so I've resurrected this one.

I need to move ~$100K from PenFed to my personal checking account, and since I'm a cheapskate and there's not a pressing time limitation I decided to do the $5K/day ACH over the next month. So I did a couple, then tried to do one today (Sat.). I went through the process, hit submit, and PenFed dropped me back to my main accounts screen. I assumed the transfer went through, but when I checked the Pending Transfers tab it wasn't there. Long story short, I called to check on it and was told about various limitations shown earlier in this thread. When I questioned the lack of a failure message, the rep said "I'll mention it to the IT dept". But she couldn't tell me where I could read up on the limitations of the ACH.

I've never asked much of PenFed, but this was annoying as hell. Obviously I can do a Wire Transfer and pay the relatively minor costs, but I don't see why I have to pay them (and my bank) just to access my money quickly and easily. So I got on here and did a search and found loads more information than is easily available at PenFed. I'm in the process of setting up the ability to pull from my Vanguard account, which I can then push to my personal bank account. Soooo much easier than dealing with PenFed.

So I just wanted to say thanks. It's a rare situation when I can't find good information on this site.

If you have a link to the institution you are trying to ACH transfer to, you can initiate the transfer from that institution. That bypasses all the silly PenFed limitations.

Now it the receiving institution also has silly limits, you are out of luck unless you use an intermediary with high limits such as a brokerage.

 

[audreyh1]

Learn to do mobile deposit. That's what those of us without local banks do.

Many mobile deposits have limits on check $ amount that can be deposited. I think $100K is unlikely to be accepted.

 

[audreyh1]

I did a deposit of $60K with phone earlier this year to fidelity. I was surprised that I didn’t hit a limit.

That is surprising!

 

[audreyh1]

Agree with Harley, I have Fidelity setup to push to or pull from credit union and bank. Takes 2 or 3 days each way but works for me.

That's exactly what I do. $100K transfers - no sweat! From a brokerage can be really fast - like next day if I initiate during market hours.