The Offer
- Join Navy Federal Credit Union and get $25 when you use the promotional code ONLINE17
The Fine Print
- Offer valid between 1/3/2017 and 2/28/2017 and can expire anytime without prior notice.
- Must be eligible to join.
- Must be 18 or older to join online to receive bonus.
- Recipient is solely responsible for any personal tax liability arising out of the acceptance of this incentive.
- Account must be in good standing for credit to be processed.
- $5 minimum balance is required to open and maintain savings account and to obtain bonus.
- If you have not funded your new membership savings account at the time the bonus is credited, we will hold the minimum $5 share required for your membership.
- Annual Percentage Yield (APY) 0.25%, effective 12/26/2016.
- Bonus deposited within seven to fourteen business days of account opening.
- Fees may reduce earnings, and rates may change.
- Use promo code ONLINE17. Members are entitled to one promo code for the year.
Our Verdict
The savings account that is required doesn’t have any monthly fees to worry about. There is a hard pull to become a member and open a share savings account, this is normally a TransUnion credit pull. Â No idea if you can fund with a credit card or not. I don’t think the work around will work with this promotion either.
The main reason you’d want NFCU membership is the fact that they often offer credit card sign up bonuses (or CD rates), but I haven’t seen one of those for some time so it’s possible they are moving away from that. You can read more about the eligibility requirements to join NFCU here.
Hat tip to Maximizing Money
Anyone funded Navy Federal Account with a credit card and had it code as a purchase?
They also have a $200 bonus offer if you refinance your car loan with them. Need to keep the loan open for at least 60 days or they’ll take the bonus back.
Rates are as low as 1.79%, so $200 on top of that is decent.
Fine print details from web site:
Existing Navy Federal loans not eligible for this offer. Loan must remain open 60 days with first scheduled payment made in order to receive the offer. $200 will be credited to the primary applicant’s savings account between 61 and 65 days of the loan origination date. If the auto refinance loan is canceled or paid off in the first 60 days, the $200 offer will become invalid. Offer may expire at any time. Recipient is solely responsible for any personal tax liability arising out of this incentive
Just to clarify, there is no HP for a NFCU checking account, but there is a HP for membership which requires the share/savings account (like most CUs require). Also, as it’s been mentioned they do HP for each and every product, even if you apply on the same day (I can personally confirm this as well).
The membership HP is consistently TU, but (very) occasionally you’ll find an outlier. Credit cards can vary but recently have also been TU (although my own was EQ in 2015). The CLOC is said to be EQ exclusively (i.e. if EQ is frozen you are required to thaw).
Hope this helps.
By ‘each and every product’ I’m referring to *credit* products. Sorry for the confusion.
Thanks for the info, appreciated!
Uh…the main reason you would want to join NavyFed is for the CD rates.
– 1x CD up to $3000 @ 3% for 12 months (requires $300/mth direct deposit)
– 1x CD up to $50k @ 2% for 17 months (that beats to nat’l avg 60 month rate!)
The first one is currently the best short term rate anywhere.
You can also game the IRA bonus system on the 2% CD as they offer a $150 bonus on a $50 initial + $50 for each of the next 17 months. That doesn’t sound like much but it works out to (napkin numbers) about $160 return on $900 investment = ~18% return on a federally backed investment! Pretty unbeatable for a zero risk investment.
Can you give more details on the IRA bonus system? I did one $150 IRA bonus the year before last, so I am guessing it isn’t available for my, but may try it for my family.
I doubt it would work more than once for the same SSN.
https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/checking-savings/certificates.php
“Earn Up to $150 in New IRA Bonuses
Whether you’re a beginner looking to start your first IRA or you’re an experienced saver ready to consolidate
your plans, we’ve got the best IRA certificates for you. Turn your retirement into a victory lap when you open your IRA and set up automatic contributions:
Receive a Bonus for Opening Your First IRA Plan
Get $50 when you open your first IRA with Navy Federal2
Get Rewarded for Saving Automatically
Earn $100 when you setup a recurring automatic transfer of at least $50 per month to your new IRA3”
Rewards checking rates are higher than that
They are but they require more “work”. Plus, you eventually run out of awards checking accounts.
‘The workaround’ can reportedly be used online (example: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/qualify-navy-federal-credit-union-without-normal-requirements/#comment-340407 ), doesn’t have to be done by mail, which I’m guessing was the reason you said you thought it wouldn’t work for this offer.
Yes, that was done via e-mail and what not. I doubt the promo code can be applied that way.
unless something has changed the public cannot just join up to NFCU you must be current former or family of a service member. may want to add that to the fine print (current nfcu member)
forgive me i missed the very last link “The main reason you’d want NFCU membership is the fact that they often offer credit card sign up bonuses, but I haven’t seen one of those for some time so it’s possible they are moving away from that. ***You can read more about the eligibility requirements to join NFCU here.”
While it is indeed there in that link, its a pretty stiff requirement, similar to a 1 state only deal. For those deals, the state is clearly identified in the title so you don’t have to waste time on the post. For this deal, its a bit wasteful to let you read through the entire post, only to give you the requirements at the end buried in a link. I think a quick note near the top would be appropriate to save time. I even knew the requirements ahead of time and I still skimmed through everything thinking, with the way its presented, someone mustve come up with a workaround.
There is a hard pull to join the cu regardless of checking or savings
NFCU is known to be HP happy. But I think it is a good CU to have a relationship with.
Why’s that? If you don’t mind me asking, what is the appeal behind credit unions? Thanks
Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives, there are no outside stockholders. If you are a member, you are an owner. You get to vote for the Board of Directors (heck, you could even be a Board member). This structure generally allows credit unions to offer higher deposit rates, lower loan rates and lower fees than banks. Most of the readers here are cherry pickers who can likely find better deals by using a wide array of financial institutions, taking the best offers for each financial product they need. The average Joe will most likely get a better deal by using one credit union for everything they need.
That being said, credit unions vary wildly in their value proposition, due mostly to the small size of most credit unions. As of 9/30/2016 there were 5,967 credit unions in the US, but 61% of them had total assets of less than $50 million each. In fact, 9% of them had less than $2 million in total assets. The 38 largest credit unions (each with over $4 billion in total assets) had over 28% of all credit union assets. On that same date, Navy FCU had total assets of $78.5 billion. This was 1/3 more than the combined total of the 61% of credit unions with under $50 million in assets. Navy FCU is bigger than the smallest 4,000 or so credit unions combined. Nonetheless, total credit union assets, including Navy FCU, are less than 10% of all bank assets. Just a flea on the back of the banking giants.
Great info! Thanks