Contents
The Offer
- Priority One Credit Union is offering two high yield CDs:
- Super 7 – 12 Months: 7% CD, $50,000 minimum balance
- Super 6 – 24 Months: 6% CD, $25,000 minimum balance
Just note the strict membership eligibility:
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Los Angeles County postal employees
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Riverside and San Bernardino Counties postal employees
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Everyone who lives, works, attends school or worships in the Santa Clarita Valley, San Fernando Valley and the City of South Pasadena
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General Services Administration (GSA) (a Federal Government Agency) employees
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Employees of the Providence Medical Group (St. Joseph Medical Center, Holy Cross Medical Center, Tarzana Medical Center & St. Elizabeth Care Center)
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Employees of our many Select Employer Groups that offer membership as an employee benefit
Our Verdict
High minimum balance might be a deal breaker for some people but these are high rates.
Hat tip to reader A D
dead
being told now: no 7% CD offer anymore
If they require you to fund the CD while at the branch to open the account, I assume there is an option to wire the money. Has anyone tried? Not horribly worried about them going under as long as staying under the limit.
I just called and was told in addition to the one time $5 membership fee and the minimum $5 needed to open the savings account (associated and needed with opening the CD) you also need to open up a checking account as well. I don’t see that last requirement shown anywhere but that is what I was told. Can anybody verify that last piece of information?
Why can’t I downvote all these high-anxiety boys below?
I can’t wait for them to write comments about not publicly available sign up pages or key omitted terms and conditions (like no lifetime langauage) for credit cards as too risky and you will be blacklisted.
Better yet — when we learn of the mattress that has a hidden safe in it deal on Amazon, I am going to bring the popcorn.
You bright-eyed wild goose chasers eventually learn that not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes you learn it the hard way.
I’m not sure why it has to be “all or none.” Isn’t that what diversification is all about? Somebody who wants to take the risk of losing government backing and/or having to slog through conservatorship to get 7% on their money across a single digit % of their net worth doesn’t seem objectively stupid in my opinion. Putting your only million when only 250k is backed is much different than investing a few percent of your net worth in this.
I just got 5.5% at Credit Human for a 35 month CD. Their customer support seems excellent. I don’t know them to be in imminent danger but wouldn’t be shocked if they encounter issues. I sized my NCUA-backed investment accordingly. In fact, they reduced their 24 to 35 month rate to 5.35% overnight. I feel pretty good about that investment with the 3yr treasury around 3.5%. If rates keep going higher, I have enough in VMFXX to balance rate risk and get some of the upswing.
A credit union is not a bank. The credit union insurance fund (the NCUSIF) has more reserves per dollar of insured deposits than the bank insurance fund. This credit union is on the smaller side with just under $200 million in total assets (all financial info to follow is as of Dec 31, 2022). Their total loans as a percentage of total deposits was just under 52%, well below their peer group average of 70% so there’s no liquidity risk there. Uninsured deposits ($5.7 million) represent just 3.16% of total deposits (SVB was at 94%) while total cash is $39.5 million — no liquidity issue here. They also have available borrowing lines totaling $62.2 million and none of the lines had a balance outstanding at year end — no liquidity issue here either. Details about their investment holdings are less transparent in the public information available but nearly all investments are in federal agency securities. Just under $16 million of their investments (8% of assets) have maturities of 5 years or more but they are classified as available-for-sale not held-to-maturity (like SVB) so any declines in bond values are already recognized in their financial statements. They have 10.25% capital – right in line with their peer group average. All in all, I do not see any red flags in their year end financials. However, I do agree that they shouldn’t be paying such high rates on these CD specials – they could raise funds at a much lower cost. I would put my money (up to $250k) with this credit union if I were eligible for membership.
Full disclosure — I do not know anything about this credit union directly. Everything I have written here is publicly available information from ncua.gov. I do have over 30 years experience in the credit union movement including a 5 year stint as a credit union examiner. I hope DOC readers find this helpful.
Thanks, that interesting and educational. One question, why does it matter what percentage of deposits is above the FDIC limit ? Once that comes into play it should mean that this credit union is busted and taken over by the FDIC or NCUA.
The theory is that a run on the bank should be less likely relative to insured deposits. That theory hasn’t really been tested, and it probably actually happens across a probabilistic spectrum. Certain situations could create panic within an institution which causes a run on the bank which wouldn’t occur with an insured deposit base. Other situations lead to panic where human nature renders that distinction irrelevant.
Thanks that makes sense. I missed this one, but no regrets. I’ll sleep better. There are actually several local 5-5.5% CD offers right now, but I am not sure I’ll bite, not when treasury funds are paying about as much.
Visited the branch to open an account today, for the 7% CD you must open in branch and fund same day. They are only allowing $10M in total deposits for this CD Promotion, they have $4M in total deposits thus far. This promotion is probably going to end Friday or Monday (they are not open on weekends). They are doing this because approximately 3 years ago they ran a similar CD promotion on a 3 year CD and those deposits are maturing now. There is a $10 minimum deposit to join as a member, $5 fee, $5 refundable deposit and they do allow POD on their Savings and CDs. You are allow to open multiple CDs, so I’d recommend opening in $50K or $25K incremental, just in case you need some funds in the future.
I live in Santa Clarita valley and applied for membership. Website seemed okay but its been 4 hours and still no email about my application
Wow, wish I was eligible. No way a savings account will get up to 7%, and really doubtful CDs will get too much higher than that either.
CNEXT already has a 7% savings account. No CD.
On balances up to 30k, doesn’t count.
for those who recently joined: was it a hard pull?
Does anyone know the list of who the “Select Employer Groups” are?
You can start the application with dummy info and then get a list of the SEGs. Mostly LA stuff