I just reserved a 5% CD at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, aka Penfed.
Ironically, last week, I also refinanced our mortgage (again) to 3.625% at Penfed. It’s a little funny that they’re loaning money cheaper than they are borrowing it, but they’ve been known to do so, so it’s a double win for us.
They’re currently letting people reserve $240,000,000 worth of CDs at this rate; as of this morning, there was $207,000,000 left… and it usually goes fast!
How to Get a 5% CD
To reserve your CD, you need to login to your account. Select account actions, then select certificate options. On the right, you’ll see a certificate reservations box to reserve a CD.
The 5% APY CD rate is for the 10 year CD. They also have a 7 year for 4.25%, and a 5 year at 3.5%. However, going with the 10 year rate is probably going to be your best bet, no matter when you withdraw the money. The Bank Deals Guy put together a chart showing what percent you’ll get each year with the early withdrawal rates factored in.
How to Get the Promotion Box
The promotion is only supposed to work for select current CD holders. However, I discovered a glitch, and accidentally determined a way to become one of the selected few to qualify for the promotion.
Here’s what I did: If you don’t currently have a CD (which I didn’t), I set up a new CD, but stopped short of funding it. When I got to the funding part, I just hit cancel. Then I was able to login again to the certificate options and I saw the reservations promo on the right hand side! I got a confirmation email a little while later, so we’ll hope it works. Let me know if it works for you too!
The certificates will be funded in January, and you can change your mind anytime before that. Here’s what it looked like when I reserved my certificate yesterday:
Investing
Debt
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What a great rate! I’d love to take advantage of that!
GobankingratesIt looks like you must be qualified being it military or other various qualifications. I do not qualify. I also didn’t see the 5% interest rate, but it doesn’t matter to me anyway. Good inquiry anyway.
JulieThanks for the reminder Julie! Anyone can actually join Penfed.
You just need to donate $20 to the National Military Family Association (a tax deductible donation) one time.
Sweet – thanks for the tip! I was able to receive the promotion after going through the steps of setting up a CD, and then cancelling before funding.
Now off to tell some friends about this excellent deal.
RaksoGreat! Thanks for the confirmation that it still works Rakso, and it wasn’t a one time fluke when I did it.
Hey
Great find! I am also planning to reserve one CD. Is there any specified date before which I need to fund it ?
GuhaYou get to pick any day in January 2011 to fund it.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....deral.html
I don’t know if this is a reputable site, or if there are similar sites for other institutions, but apparently a lot of people have had some bad experiences with PenFed. I thought it might be of interest to you.
CraigI just caught this article. Am I too late to get the 5% rate? I just saw their regular rates and the best rate was only 2.75%
KellyHi Kelly,
Yes, it’s too late. This deal ended a few months ago.