Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

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Kevin M
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Kevin M »

drzzzzz wrote: Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:25 am Kevin,
You have been doing a lot of work on this, have you decided on the best way to transfer funds from the retiring CD to vanguard, through a wire, setting up an external account from vanguard at fwcu or some other suggestion?
thanks
We will be doing it two or three different ways for the four of us who bought these CDs.

My wife and I have a bank savings account paying 2.50%, so we will wire the funds directly from NWFCU to the bank savings account. Setting up the wire instructions at NWFCU was easy, and hopefully the actual wire process will go smoothly.

For my mom and my friend, we set up NWFCU as an external account at Vanguard (micro deposits were there in one business day).

For my friend, we probably will buy $50,000 of Treasury money market fund, since that's the minimum, and this gives him the highest taxable-equivalent yield (TEY) for a Vanguard MM fund. The rest might go directly into Short-Term Treasury bond fund, unless he decides to upgrade his old-platform mutual fund account to a brokerage account, in which case we might buy individual Treasuries instead. Once the Treasury MM fund is open, he will move whatever he doesn't anticipate spending in the next year or so into the short-term Treasury fund or individual Treasuries.

For my mom, we probably will transfer most of it to Vanguard Prime MM in her brokerage account, but might also transfer some to her Ally savings account, where the link to NWFCU was established when she funded the CD. Much of it will then be deployed into a ladder of Treasuries and/or CDs out to 2-3 year maturity.

Kevin
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drzzzzz
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by drzzzzz »

Kevin,
The other question that I would have is that if you are initiating the pull at Vanguard from your NWFCU account and it is for greater $30,000 do you know if it will still go through - I seem to recall reading NWFCU limits ACH transfers to $30,000 per month and I am wondering if the pull starts at Vanguard, is that limit still in effect?
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Kevin M
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Kevin M »

drzzzzz wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 3:45 pm Kevin,
The other question that I would have is that if you are initiating the pull at Vanguard from your NWFCU account and it is for greater $30,000 do you know if it will still go through - I seem to recall reading NWFCU limits ACH transfers to $30,000 per month and I am wondering if the pull starts at Vanguard, is that limit still in effect?
Should not be a problem. The lower ACH limits at a credit union or bank only apply to ACH transfers initiated at that CU or bank. I've never had a problem with an ACH transfer that is larger than the bank's or CU's limits as long as it's initiated at another institution.

Kevin
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tfb
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by tfb »

I just logged in with Chrome and both my savings account and the CD disappeared. If it happens to you try a different Browser. Firefox worked for me.
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Iorek
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Iorek »

I'm going to miss this account. What I liked best was the "add-on" feature. I didn't have as much as some in my CD but every random check I got was deposited by app to this account to earn 3% interest.
panhead
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by panhead »

I got a snail mail letter from NWFCU that my CD was maturing. It had a form on it to choose what happens to the CD after maturity, and the default was that it would be rolled into a new 5 year CD at the prevailing rate. It asked me to fill out the form and mail it back to NWFCU. The form wasn't very clear. It didn't include the address they wanted you to return the form to and did not have a return envelope. It also asked for your savings account number (at NWFCU) where you wanted the proceeds of the maturing cd placed and something called the ID. The ID is the number at the end of your account name for your savings account when you log in. No where did I see that it said this. Mine was 0000.

Anyway, if you get this and you want to mail it in, you can find the address on their web page by going to 'contacts' link at the top of the page, scroll down and look for 'mailing address.' They want it sent to general correspondence. You should see the following address:

Northwest Federal Credit Union
P.O. Box 1229
Herndon, VA 20172-1229

Sending a secure message should be just as good, and likely better as there will be proof you sent it. Not that I expect a problem with this.
MariaT
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by MariaT »

I did get this letter last week and instead of mailing the form back I called the bank and asked if I could request the change over the phone in lieu of mailing. They, of course, accommodated the request.

One other data point that I learned for specially for those trying to establish a link third party account. If you have a savings account already set up with NWFCU you have to use the "electronic" account number and not the "account number" of your savings account when setting up with another institution. I did this and added the bank to my Vanguard account. I was told the "account number" was only for internal use only.
Iorek
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Iorek »

Not sure it warranted a new thread, but I noticed NWFCU has a 7 month CD at 2.5% if you deposit $100k.

Will also be interesting to see what 6 month treasuries go for after the Fed announcement.
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Ever Ready
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Ever Ready »

Also got the letter from NWFCU and made the change via phone.

The letter also says they update their CD rates weekly, announcing them every Tuesday.

I haven't decided where I'll move the money, but I'm considering Vanguard's Ultra Short Term Bond Admiral,
since I may need to access the cash, thus don't want to lock it into a 5 year CD with EWP.
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Kevin M
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Kevin M »

Kevin M wrote: Thu Sep 13, 2018 2:06 pm My wife and I have a bank savings account paying 2.50%, so we will wire the funds directly from NWFCU to the bank savings account. Setting up the wire instructions at NWFCU was easy, and hopefully the actual wire process will go smoothly.
Just wanted to report that the wire process went smoothly. Our CDs matured today, so we each logged onto our NWFCU account this morning at about 9am pacific time, verified that the cash was in our primary savings account, and initiated the wire online. We each got a call from a NWFCU rep at about noon to verify our identities and details about the wires. The cash is in our savings accounts already.

As we are both over age 62, there was no wire fee at NWFCU. With a quick call to our local bank, they reversed the $10 incoming wire fee for both of us.

Kevin
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JDDS
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by JDDS »

Since the current rates are not too good, I sent a secure message asking to deposit into my share account. Fingers crossed they announce something good tomorrow on Tuesday, but if not I'll figure out how to ACH it out. I think adding NWFCU to my Vanguard account to make a pull from Vanguard will be best to get it in one go. I had originally thought I could do $10k chunk pushes back to my bank (up to six per statement I know), but then I saw the post about the $30k ACH cap per month outgoing at NWFCU.

I will keep my share account active in hopes of another great deal!
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Kevin M
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Kevin M »

JDDS wrote: Mon Oct 01, 2018 11:48 pm I think adding NWFCU to my Vanguard account to make a pull from Vanguard will be best to get it in one go.
If you want the money to end up at Vanguard, at least for awhile, this is an easy way to go.

Kevin
If I make a calculation error, #Cruncher probably will let me know.
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RustyShackleford
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by RustyShackleford »

I checked the math on my matured CD, and something seems wrong.

I deposited $35,000; so after 3 years at 3.04% APY, seems like the final amount should've been:

35000 * 1.0304^3 = 38290.02

But my matured CD was $38263.58

Or taking more digits of the APY equivalent of 3% APR, the APY is 3.04545, and the final should be $38296.10.

Or doing the way the interest was actually paid, monthly, the final should be 35000 * (1+.03/12)^36 = $38,291.80.

This last is probably what I should expect, but it's still off by a significant amount. Am I calculating wrong ?
FlamingoTime
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by FlamingoTime »

Could it be the actual rate was a few basis points less than 3.04% and 3.04% is the APY, which includes the compounding interest?
adrift
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by adrift »

I suspect that it took a few days from when you opened the account and when the money you used to fund the CD arrived in the CD. If so, you were not accumulating interest on those days.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by RustyShackleford »

FlamingoTime wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:24 pm Could it be the actual rate was a few basis points less than 3.04% and 3.04% is the APY, which includes the compounding interest?
The actual rate (APR) is exactly 3% and the APY is slightly over 3.04%. Mathematically e^APR = 1+APY (which 'e' is the base of the natural logarithm); this would be for infinitely-frequent compounding, but it's slightly less for monthly compounding.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by RustyShackleford »

adrift wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:37 am I suspect that it took a few days from when you opened the account and when the money you used to fund the CD arrived in the CD. If so, you were not accumulating interest on those days.
Yeah, definitely some days elapsed; see the earlier posts in this thread about the agonies people went through to get their funds to NWFCU. I guess it depends on if the CD was opened when the account was, or only after the money arrived. I'm not gonna lose sleep over $30 anyhow, just curious.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by adrift »

RustyShackleford wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:15 am Yeah, definitely some days elapsed; see the earlier posts in this thread about the agonies people went through to get their funds to NWFCU. I guess it depends on if the CD was opened when the account was, or only after the money arrived. I'm not gonna lose sleep over $30 anyhow, just curious.
I went through it. At first glance, it looks like it took 9 or 10 calendar days for me to get money into the CD.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by RustyShackleford »

adrift wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:34 am
RustyShackleford wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:15 am Yeah, definitely some days elapsed; see the earlier posts in this thread about the agonies people went through to get their funds to NWFCU. I guess it depends on if the CD was opened when the account was, or only after the money arrived. I'm not gonna lose sleep over $30 anyhow, just curious.
I went through it. At first glance, it looks like it took 9 or 10 calendar days for me to get money into the CD.
So to be clear, you're saying the CD was opened, and thus the 3 year clock started, when you opened your account. But since the money arrived a bit later, there wasn't a full 3 years' worth of interest earned. Right ?

[FYI - I removed your two duplicate posts, just after this post. --admin LadyGeek]
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by adrift »

RustyShackleford wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:30 pm So to be clear, you're saying the CD was opened, and thus the 3 year clock started, when you opened your account. But since the money arrived a bit later, there wasn't a full 3 years' worth of interest earned. Right ?
That's what I was saying. But, I think it's more complicated. I tried to confirm this. But the oldest NWFCU statement I saved was December 2015 and the online ones at NWFCU don't go back that far. I do have statements from the 2 banks I funded it with. Given that, I'm pretty sure I know what happened.

First, these CDs were quirky. You could only initially fund them with $15K and then add more later up to $100K. My timeline was 10/2 opened for $15K from Bank 1; went through the agonies you alluded to including establishing a link to Bank 2; 10/14 $15K grabbed from Bank 1; 10/14 $85K grabbed from Bank 2.

Based on amount of interest I had accumulated by the start of my December statement, this is what I think happened. On 10/2, I started accumulating interest on $15K (even though NWFCU didn't have my money). On 10/14, I started accumulating interest on $100K. On 10/2/2018, my CD matured.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by RustyShackleford »

adrift wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:26 pm First, these CDs were quirky. You could only initially fund them with $15K and then add more later up to $100K ...
Yep, looking over my bank records, I think something similar happened with mine.
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Re: Northwest FCU 3-year 3.04% Add-On CD

Post by Kevin M »

RustyShackleford wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:51 pm
adrift wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:26 pm First, these CDs were quirky. You could only initially fund them with $15K and then add more later up to $100K ...
Yep, looking over my bank records, I think something similar happened with mine.
Indeed. In my CD tracking spreadsheet, I entered it as three CDs, with deposit dates of 10/5/2015, 11/9/2015. and 11/25/2015, so each had a slightly different term (during which interest was earned).

Kevin
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