You must be a member of NFCU to open an account but it is relatively simple to join. You do not necessarily have to be a member or the military. You can be a family member of someone in the military, they also have private companies that are allowed to join. Visit the Navy Federal Credit Union site here for full details.

CD rate is effective December 19th 2011. Promo rate is good up to $18,000 deposit. You may only have one CD per person but you can also make additional deposits into your CD before it matures. After maturity the CD will mature into a 24 month with a regular rate so make sure you withdrawal your money before then.

Visit Navy Federal Credit Union here for full details and to apply.

Credit Union membership:

NWFCU does require you to be a member by meeting the following criteria:

• You work for a government agency (or are a spouse, children, sibling, parent or grandparent of a government employee).
• You work for one of these 500+ companies or are employed by one of their partner organizations.

However, if you struck out on the above options the easiest way to become a member of Northwest Federal Credit Union is to pay $10 to join the Financial Awareness Network! FAN is an organization that is dedicated to promoting and supporting financial education. Simply pay the one time fee and there is nothing else involved. I joined just now!

Additional terms:

Since this is an extremely low promotional rate NWFCU is offering a .25% APR discount when you apply for the loan online and an additional .25% discount for having a monthly direct deposit into one of their checking accounts of at least $500 (and have an automatic loan/lease payment from that account). Otherwise the rate will be 1.99% which is still great.

Visit the Northwest Federal Credit Union site HERE for full rate details and to apply or call 1-866-709-8901. This is a special promo APR that will not last long.

You can choose which IRA CD is best for you. Both Traditional and Roth IRA CD’s come with different tax benefits depending on which one you apply for.

Roth IRA accounts are funded with your after-tax dollars but your earnings and any withdrawals you choose to make are tax-free since the money has already been taxed. This can translate to big tax savings in the future when you decide to cash out.

Traditional IRA are tax-deductible up to certain income limits. You may get a tax break during the years your contribute to the IRA but the deductions are taxed.

Both accounts have the same earned income deposit limits. You can deposit a maximum of $5,000 per year with an extra $1000 once you reach 50 years of age.

Ready to apply? CLICK HERE to visit the Discover site for more information.

In the past I have seen 5.5% and 6% CD rates from Patelco, and this offer has been around for awhile and will probably be around for quite some time, so it is worth checking their current rates if you are catching this post late.

To get this rate, you need to sign up for this Citi Secured MasterCard which will allow you to deposit up to $25,000 at 4.00% for 18 months. This is an amazing CD rate and you should probably call 1-800-677-3999 to open. It has been reported that the rate may no longer be valid according to the call center, but I know of several readers who have gotten the rate within the last week. Also, you can sometimes get a comparable branch rate, so it’s probably best to use this offer as leverage to get the rate at your local branch. Please confirm you will receive the rate before making any deposit.

There is a $29 annual fee which effectively lowers the rate to around 3.86% with a $25,000 deposit.

Offer: Citi Secured Mastercard Offer Page

This offer is only for 12 or 13 month online CD’s with a minimum depost of $1,000 to open. This is one deal you can not afford to pass up! WaMu is going strong and even with the current situations, putting some eggs in WaMu’s basket would be anything but a bad move.

If you have never opened a CD before, now is the time. WaMu want’s your money, they need your money, and they are willing to pay you a premium to use it. I’ve opened one myself, I can’t pass up a deal like this. If your hesitant investing your money in this time of distress, just keep it under $100,000.