Deal is back to 3.2% APY, previous best was 3.25% but still a great rate if you want to tie up funds for 15 months. Hat tip to reader Charles Mann
The Offer
Direct Link to offer (one of the rotating banner offers)
- NASA federal credit union is offering 3.20% APY on an 15-month CD
- They also have 3.35% APY on a 49 month CD
The Fine Print
- $10,000 Minimum Deposit Required
- Early withdrawal penalty is 182 days of interest
Our Verdict
Anyone can join NASA credit union for no fee by joining the National Space Society. Back in March they offered an 11 month CD with a 2.25% rate, this new 15 month offer is significantly better. In terms of short deposit length CDs, this is better than other options (next best is at 2.6%). Just be aware that most credit unions do a hard credit check when you join, so there’s likely to be one here as well.
Hat tip to reader Charles Mann
I can confirm that the 15 month CD special is now only 2.80%
This offer is by now rescinded.
3.20% CD promotion ended 2/28/19; new rate is 2.80%.
The worst customer service, I have ever experienced. I am closing my account.
It is a Hard pull. Customer service is bad.
Did anyone open IRA Certificates. Can you please share the info ?
Don’t understand why more folks don’t use the shared branching option to fund accounts. I simply transferred funds from my Ally Savings account into my Ally Checking Account, wrote out a check in my name, drove to the nearest shared branched, deposited the funds in my NASA Savings Account, called NASA and opened the certificate…..all in less than 1/2 hr. Piece of cake.No waiting, no wire fee,…..simply vanilla. .
NASA FCU has a 15 month CD @ 3.20% available again, but beware of very long hold times if you need to speak with cust serv.
Rates are back up to 3.2% APY for the 15-month certificate.
William Charles
https://www.nasafcu.com/img/certificate/new/index_member.html
Looks like the minimum amount is bumped to $10,000
15-month Certificate at 3.20% APY
Amount: $ Minimum $10,000.00
Thanks, let me add.
Long story. Good news is that NASA matched the 3.25% 15 month rate.
Now the bad news:
1. Ally charged me a $20 wire fee to send the wire over. Since I was transferring over far more than their $150k ACH limit, wire or check were my only two options
2. NASA said they would not credit a $250k check same day and it could take a week for them to post
the full amount. They offered to match the 3.25% 15 month rate if I had the money by this week, so I decided to wire as a reduced rate would amount to a few thousand dollars in lost interest over a 15 month period
3. Ally delayed my wire by 3 business days! That’s right! They took out the $20 fee on the 1st but the funds reached NASA just a few minutes ago. I have had ACH go through the SAME DAY. WTH!
4. Ally required 5 calls from me, including the initial followup request for the wire and they called me two times to make the transfer happen.
5. Ally CSR were professional and courteous throughout the process but their wire department seriously dropped the ball. They did not get to my transfer until I complained this morning that it’s been 2 days. I asked them whether it was because I submitted the request online vs. faxing them in but they said online is better and faster and that their “queues” were busy and they were able to get to my request only until today
6. I finally spoke to an Ally manager asking them to either expedite a cashier’s check to NASA or make the wire happen soon, at which point my request magically jumped ahead in the “queue” and I was assured the wire would go out within the next hour.
Ally wire transfers leave much to be desired.
In the future, I will not use their wire transfers. I will only use their free 1-day ACH transfers which means that I won’t keep more than $100k at Ally. Why pay more for significantly less? Makes no sense.
Ally seems to be going the same downhill direction as Alliant. Alliant used to have awesome ACH limits and speeds until they clamped it down to a minuscule amount that was essentially useless for transfers for any volume to be worth it at the margin.
I have had no issues with NASA CSRs or their backend offices. They have not only been professional and courteous throughout the process but they matched the 3.25% 15 month rate which they did not have to as I would have deposited the funds with them regardless and I HAD TOLD THEM that to see how they would respond and test whether NASA was an institution that would be a good fit for me.
@TD: You can call NASA and request them to match the rate. I am zealous of your fee free $500 CC MS. I don’t know why they refused to process mine without a $10 fee.
Ally is TERRIBLE when it comes to wire transfers; I had one delayed by 5 days because they wanted to “investigate” it. Then I notice an account I had linked to them had been compromised. The security breach came from within their zip code too; very suspicious. All of this occured after I requested a wire transfer over the phone.