Update 5/3/23: new rates: 5.50% for a 9 month CD, 5.30% for a 15 month CD, 4.60% for a 49 month CD. These are some nice rates.
The Offer
- NASA federal credit union is offering some nice CD rates:
- 9-month CD with 3.55% APY
- 15-month CD with 3.75% APY
- 49-month CD with 3.85% APY
Anyone can join NASA credit union for no fee by joining the National Space Society.
The Fine Print
- $10,000 Minimum Deposit Required
Our Verdict
We’ve seen the credit union offer various CD specials in the past. In terms of short deposit length CDs, this is better than other options. Be aware that there will be a hard pull if you are now joining the credit union now as a new member. We’ll add this to our List of Best High Yield accounts.
Hat tip to reader Henry
Apparently if you don’t fund the CD within 10 days they will close the CD account. You can give them a call to re-open a new CD account fairly easy though.
What I found diggin’ on the net, if this is still the case, absurd-$500 ACH/day limit 1st 90…looks like applies to PUSH AND PULL-thus would take you 20 BIZ Days to accumulate 10k for the CD and of course that lag to populate into the account & then open the CD, smh.
Limitations on Dollar Amounts for Transfers.
• One-time transfers, scheduled, and recurring transfers between accounts within NASA
Federal Credit Union can be for any amount but not more than the available balance in the
account.
• For Security reasons, limitations are placed on the number of and dollar amount of ACH
DEPOSITS or payments you make. This includes ACH transfers made TO your NASA FCU account
or TO your account at ANOTHER financial institution. If your membership has been open 90
days or more, the maximum you are allowed to transfer to your NASA FCU account is
$10,000 per day. If your membership has been open less than 90 days, the maximum you
are allowed to transfer to your NASA FCU account is **$500 per day** In addition, regardless of
the age of your account, the amount of the deposit or payment will not be available to you for
up to five (5*** business* days following the date of the transfer. Limitations may change from
time to time.
• All transfer limits are subject to temporary reductions and/or suspensions to protect the
security of member accounts and/or the transfer system.
You can push from external banks without $$ limit. Linking the banks took a while though..
I’ve been dealing with this credit union for around a year now. First, I had a credit card through them, and now, I bought some certificates. Overall, they’re really not that bad. Getting set up with them initially is a bit of a pain, and their computer systems seem a bit dated, but I’ve been able to speak to a representative within one minute every time I’ve called and they have always been helpful. The phone apps aren’t great (and the Android app doesn’t even exist anymore) but just saving a link to their website on your home screen is just as easy and works well.
I opened the CD account and link external banks to the account. Now it only lets me pull in up to $500 or less to the share account…should I push from the external bank instead?
Pushing to any institution, not just NASA, is almost always better and safer for you unless you have a compelling reason not to. No penalties if an ACH fails, no overdraft if a decimal point gets dropped, etc.
Depositing to a checking account insures your funds clear ASAP because the rules on availability are stricter. NASA FCU offers a free checking account.
I pushed $10k to NASA checking from Etrade and it was available to buy a CD the next morning. I was already a member though, so YMMV.
Question: when I deposit the fund to CD, do I have to deposit all funds at one time when I open the CD account or I can transfer multiple times after opening the CD? TIA.
ACH/Wire credits intended to fund a certificate must first credit the primary share savings (or checking) then be moved to the certificate.
A minimum of $10k in ‘new money’ is required for the high rate special certificates.
Any deposits made within the last 30 days will be considered new money and can be used to fund the certificate.
So you can make multiple transfers to your share/checking account then add a second certificate once you accumulate another $10k (just be sure you accumulate & buy within 30 days!).
Laddering your CDs like this is usually a good plan!
FYI, you can renew the 9-month CD for 6 months at maturity if you like the rate offered at that time.
@theSam, I think Karl’s answer was correct and I have also emailed their CS to confirm that. The fund has to be deposited when CD is opened but not any more after that. But you can open a 2nd CD and fund it again, although I did not try that as I just transferred all fund to the saving account and deposited it at once.
If I could, $10,000 for the 9months for 5.5% is the best deal per value between them all.
Not necessarily.. depends on how rates change in future. But it is a good one. If rates start dropping before or after 9 months then the 15mo may be the better “deal”.. personally I did both of them
Credit card funding? 🙂
$500 limit for CC
I requested $500 in funding, but only $5 was charged to my CC.
awesome, lol—ugh hope you got that resolved
Anyone know if this is a soft or hard pull?
Not sure how to check this.. I didn’t get any alerts from opening but I’ll look at my credit monitoring
I checked and not seeing any inquiries appear on my monitors from this nor the other credit union account I opened earlier
It was a hard pull a few years ago when I opened my account. Then I let it go dormant, so now I must reapply to open a CD again. Not worth it for me.
My credit is frozen and they can’t open the account without hard pull. I’ll pass. No need for them to pull my credit when I’m NOT applying for credit.
thanks will join for a cd
Why hasn’t the old info been deleted or updated in this article?
the update is at the top
Will and Chuck always keeps the history in each post so you can see how things change on each offer. This is how the site has always been. The title is a bit misleading though
Chuck , the 5.5 is for a 9 month and the title is “NASA FCU 5.50% APY 15-Month CD” The 15 is at 5.3 according to their site.
I was going to point that out as well.
Updated title thank you