PenFed Certificate yield up to 3.04%

[Austen Heller]

Thanks for the heads up.  At 3%, the CD is definitely worth considering.

PenFed seems to have good financial strength, I wonder why they are offering this rate.  The competition's 5-yr CDs are around 2%, so if PenFed had come out with 2.2% or even 2.5%, they would have gotten lots of new deposits; why go all the way to 3%?  Perhaps they are just trying to get way out in front of all the other banks, if they suspect that rates will be rising across the board.  Or maybe they had a lot of 5-yr CDs from the 2008-2009 crisis period coming due, and they want to retain all those deposits.

In any event, I hope that the 3% rate sticks around a while.  PenFed usually adjusts their rates on the 1st of the month, so this could be a special deal for December only.

[Tortoise]

When a bank offers an unusually high interest rate, it usually makes me a little suspicious. One reason they are able to offer the higher rate--and still turn a profit--may be because they are starting to make loans at higher rates than their competitors. And one reason they might be able to charge those higher rates is because they are lending to higher-risk borrowers than their competitors are.

Just a possibility to keep in mind. There's no free lunch.