Ascencia, a division of PBI bank, offers a good return of 1.63 percent APY on its 6-month CD, based on a 1.62 percent return compounded monthly.

For an initial deposit the minimum is $500 and the maximum $250,000. All accounts are protected for up to $250,000. An extension of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which increase deposit protection from $100,000 to $250,000 per depositor has now been extended to December 31, 2013 by Congress, and all CD accounts a Ascencia fall under those guidelines.

Here are some of the other CD rate offered at different maturities by Ascencia. All of these have a $500 minimum on the initial deposit and a maximum of $250,000.

1 Year CD (12 Months) 1.98% with a 2.00% APY
2 Year CD (24 Months) 1.98% with a 2.00% APY
2.5 Year CD (30 Months) 1.98% with a 2.00% APY  
3 Year CD (36 Months) 1.98% with a 2.00% APY 
5 Year CD (60 Months)  2.25% with a 2.27% APY

Notice that all of the CDs from 1 year to 3 years offer the same interest rate of 2.00% APY. Unless you believe rates will rise above that, the 1-year CD would be a better way to go. If you believe interest rates will decrease below that, a longer term CD would be better to invest in, as it would lock in a better rates.

Be sure you are committed to any of these CDs, as you aren’t allowed to withdraw any funds from the accounts for a 90-day period, and of course there will be the usual early withdrawal fees applied of you decided to withdraw funds after that.

A CD continues to be a good place to safely park your money, and the early withdrawal penalities are actually good for you, as it forces discipline on you unless you absolutely need the money in a major emergency situation.

Tags: cds, certificate of deposit, certificate of deposits, saving strategies

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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