Best CD & MM Rates Thread 2018 Archive

[braumeister]

I need to do the same. How did you initiate the link? I don't see any way to set that up at Penfed unless the other institution has a transit routing number, which I don't believe applies to Vanguard. What am I missing?

Penfed is too restrictive in their transfer amounts.
Always set it up at the other institution to pull from Penfed instead of letting Penfed push.

 

[REWahoo]

I set up a link from Penfed to my credit union, then transferred from the CU to VG. It does take an extra day or two for everything to clear and go through.

I'm a bit leery of doing something like this with traditional IRA money. I see the possibility the IRS could treat the CU "stopover" as a withdrawal, not a trustee-to-trustee transaction.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd much prefer a direct transfer. The money was a direct transfer from Vanguard to Penfed 5 years ago, so there should be a reasonably uncomplicated way to go the other direction.

 

[REWahoo]

Penfed is too restrictive in their transfer amounts.
Always set it up at the other institution to pull from Penfed instead of letting Penfed push.

That's what I was planning on doing until I saw pb4's post. Thought he might have found an easy way to get Penfed to initiate the transfer.

 

[REWahoo]

I got the routing and account numbers from the PenFed website and set the banks up on the Vanguard website. I just needed to make sure that my IRA share account was linked to my Vanguard IRA brokerage account and not my taxable account to avoid a nasty surprise.

Ah, you set it up with Vanguard, not at Penfed. Got it.

 

[Amethyst]

This makes sense; will try it next time.

Penfed is too restrictive in their transfer amounts.
Always set it up at the other institution to pull from Penfed instead of letting Penfed push.

 

[calmloki]

Yesterday I set Penfed to link with Discover and Ally - they had to make trial deposits so I could verify the amounts with Penfed. Later in the day, after reading it might be better to pull from Penfed rather than push I set Discover and Ally to make trial deposits at Penfed.
This morning neither Ally nor Discover show any trial deposits. Penfed, however, showed trial deposits from Ally, so I verified the trial amounts and can now pull from Penfed from Ally.
Once again, Ally bests the competition in speed and convenience.

 

[Amethyst]

Yes, that makes sense. Mr. A.'s small retirement acct is in VG already, and I'm not RMD-age yet; so I didn't even think of your concern.

I'm a bit leery of doing something like this with traditional IRA money. I see the possibility the IRS could treat the CU "stopover" as a withdrawal, not a trustee-to-trustee transaction.

.

 

[Huston55]

Ah, you set it up with Vanguard, not at Penfed. Got it.

My PFCU CDs are set up to ‘push’ to Fidelity so, you can also do it that way.

1. Go to Main Menu
2. Select “More Account Info & Actions” in the relevant CD box
3. Select “Certificate Actions”
4. Select “Close certificate and transfer to one of my accounts”
5. Select the account
6. Click “Update”

Prior to these steps, you must connect your non-PFCU account(s), which you do from the “Transfers” tab.

1. Select “Transfers”
2. Select “Add a Non-PenFed Account”
3. Add the account # and routing info.
4. Complete the account connection.

Hope this helps.

 

[REWahoo]

Prior to these steps, you must connect your non-PFCU account(s), which you do from the “Transfers” tab.

1. Select “Transfers”
2. Select “Add a Non-PenFed Account”
3. Add the account # and routing info.
4. Complete the account connection.

Hope this helps.

Does Vanguard have a transit routing number?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Does Vanguard have a transit routing number?

No, you have to pull from PenFed to Vanguard.

 

[CaptainO]

Now that I’m retired, I’d like to have the interest from some of my CDs as periodic income. I’m curious, do any of you receive your interest rather than leave it in the CD? (Yes I know about compounding.)

What process do you use to receive it? I’m a bit of a fossil and have managed to avoid online banking for now. Do you just have the bank or CU send you a check quarterly, for example? Maybe you have another method? If you have CDs at multiple institutions, do you find it cumbersome keeping track?

 

[jazz4cash]

I’m surprised that forum members rate Ally so highly. To me they are not easy to deal with. I logged on to check maturity instructions for a CD but you have to call them to find out. I used chat feature to request the proceeds go to savings but the rep closed the CD instead and had to redo the transaction. I hate how they post interest at year end. I’m on the fence with these guys.

 

[Spock]

Now that I’m retired, I’d like to have the interest from some of my CDs as periodic income. I’m curious, do any of you receive your interest rather than leave it in the CD? (Yes I know about compounding.)

What process do you use to receive it? I’m a bit of a fossil and have managed to avoid online banking for now. Do you just have the bank or CU send you a check quarterly, for example? Maybe you have another method? If you have CDs at multiple institutions, do you find it cumbersome keeping track?

I cherry pick CDs that pay monthly and move that money to a cash holding tank.
As far as multiple institutions and keeping track, I use Fidelity brokered CDs, so they're all listed on 1 screen with maturity date and interest rate. The CDs pay interest into that account and then I set up an end-of-month robo-transfer to send the interest to the cash tank.

 

[Dtail]

I cherry pick CDs that pay monthly and move that money to a cash holding tank.
As far as multiple institutions and keeping track, I use Fidelity brokered CDs, so they're all listed on 1 screen with maturity date and interest rate. The CDs pay interest into that account and then I set up an end-of-month robo-transfer to send the interest to the cash tank.

Same here with Fidelity and move the interest to their highest paying cash account FZDXX.
Is there a large APR difference between monthly and semi annual interest payments? I haven't looked too closely at this aspect.

 

[Spock]

Same here with Fidelity and move the interest to their highest paying cash account FZDXX.
Is there a large APR difference between monthly and semi annual interest payments? I haven't looked too closely at this aspect.

I haven't been doing it very long. But 0.05% isn't unusual.
I do see a pattern that Wells Fargo is one that typically has the monthly payout... when building my first ladder a couple of months ago I ended up having to watch max $ at a single institution because of it.

Maybe I'll out grow my addiction to monthly income, but being newly fired I'm still hung over from seeing monthly increases in balances... with monthly payouts I can at least keep my curve flat(ish) in my tracker.

 

[audreyh1]

I’m surprised that forum members rate Ally so highly. To me they are not easy to deal with. I logged on to check maturity instructions for a CD but you have to call them to find out. I used chat feature to request the proceeds go to savings but the rep closed the CD instead and had to redo the transaction. I hate how they post interest at year end. I’m on the fence with these guys.

I’ve had no trouble managing my maturity instructions online at Ally - seeing what they are, changing them, etc. You have to select something like “manage CD”. I’ve done this numerous times.

 

[nwsteve]

I’ve had no trouble managing my maturity instructions online at Ally - seeing what they are, changing them, etc. You have to select something like “manage CD”. I’ve done this numerous times.

+1 In fact, just changed a couple CDs today to push interest payments(maturity) into 2019 for tax purposes. Options were maturity, quarterly, or monthly but choices do vary by type and duration of CD .

 

[pb4uski]

I'm a bit leery of doing something like this with traditional IRA money. I see the possibility the IRS could treat the CU "stopover" as a withdrawal, not a trustee-to-trustee transaction.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd much prefer a direct transfer. The money was a direct transfer from Vanguard to Penfed 5 years ago, so there should be a reasonably uncomplicated way to go the other direction.

I'm linking my Vanguard IRA brokerage account to my PenFed IRA share account (in process... still waiting for micro-deposits)... same as a trustee-to-trustee transfer except I can control it I think... right?

 

[Spock]

I'm linking my Vanguard IRA brokerage account to my PenFed IRA share account (in process... still waiting for micro-deposits)... same as a trustee-to-trustee transfer except I can control it I think... right?

So long as you have roll-over paper work when the IRS audits... computers can be pretty blind, along with auditors who only look at their computer.

 

[pb4uski]

Good point.... it might be worth the little extra hassle to fill out the IRA transfer form and send it to Vanguard to make sure that the two institutions get the tax reporting right.

 

[tulak]

Good point.... it might be worth the little extra hassle to fill out the IRA transfer form and send it to Vanguard to make sure that the two institutions get the tax reporting right.

Can't you submit this online from here?

https://investor.vanguard.com/account-transfer/transfer-ira

I went through the first couple pages of the form and PenFed shows up as an option. It seems like the easiest way to transfer the funds back to Vanguard.

 

[REWahoo]

Can't you submit this online from here?

https://investor.vanguard.com/account-transfer/transfer-ira

I went through the first couple pages of the form and PenFed shows up as an option. It seems like the easiest way to transfer the funds back to Vanguard.

+1

I saw that yesterday and that's the route I plan to take.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Can't you submit this online from here?

https://investor.vanguard.com/account-transfer/transfer-ira

I went through the first couple pages of the form and PenFed shows up as an option. It seems like the easiest way to transfer the funds back to Vanguard.

I had to print the form, fill it in with a hard signature, then scan it and send it to PenFED in an email. They acknowledged receipt and checked it for errors, then sent the funds to Vanguard. Took about a week total.

 

[jazz4cash]

I’ve had no trouble managing my maturity instructions online at Ally - seeing what they are, changing them, etc. You have to select something like “manage CD”. I’ve done this numerous times.

Yes I think you can self-manage taxable, but not IRA.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I’m surprised that forum members rate Ally so highly. To me they are not easy to deal with. I logged on to check maturity instructions for a CD but you have to call them to find out. I used chat feature to request the proceeds go to savings but the rep closed the CD instead and had to redo the transaction. I hate how they post interest at year end. I’m on the fence with these guys.

I also have had zero issues w/ Ally...as a matter of fact, I am a pretty big fan. Just today, I set up a wire to fund the purchase of our new home and the process (online) took about 2 minutes. They called to verify the wire (about a minute and a half) and the receiving bank got the wire within an hour of me getting off the phone. In contrast, I did wire with USAA a couple of months ago and it was a huge pain in the arse that took over an hour to get taken care of on the phone...and USAA is about the best there is when it comes to customer service.

Every time I have talked (or chatted online) with them, I have gotten outstanding service.