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……..
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!