As I’ve said many times in the past, I’m a HUGE believer in credit unions. Today I was considering tying up some of my cash in a short term CD. I logged on to my credit union and checked their rates, only to be very disappointed. Here’s what I found for a CD less than $50,000 (min $1000):
6-11 month CD: .65%
12-17 month CD: .95%
36-47 month CD: 1.76%
60 month CD: 2.27%
If rates were this low at my beloved credit union, I started wondering what the rates were like at a popular “for profit†bank. I checked out Chase’s rates for a CD less than $10,000 and here’s what I found:
9 month CD: .25%
12 month CD: .25%
36 month CD: 1.01%
If you have more than $10,000 to lock up in a CD, you can actually get a pretty competitive rate for a 60 month CD (see below). Chase’s rate is only .02% less than my credit union. Anything less than $10K and you’d be much better off at the credit union or simply stashing your cash in an online savings account like ING which is currently paying 1.1%.
60 month CD: 2.25%
Bottom line is that it’s just not a very good time to try to earn much from your savings. The big question is where should you put your emergency funds to maximize your yield……..
Vards Uzvards says
Did you consider [try before] the ING Direct savings account? Currently they offer APY of 1.10%, don’t remember what is the minimum to open an account, but it should be no more that a thousand dollars, and they will give you a $25 bonus just for opening – http://ingdirect.com/save/ It will be FDIC-insured. And it’s not a CD, so there is no term commitment.
I opened my account there about two years ago. Originally I was stashing in there money for my estimated tax payments, but a few months ago transferred in some money from a money-market fund. Very convenient!