IndyMac Bank was sold in March. The new owners have named the bank OneWest Bank. Liquid Certificates of Deposit offered through OneWest Bank are available nationally. They happen to call the product “Online Keep Your Options Open CD“, which isn’t exactly catchy, but gives you a good idea of the liquidity of the product just the same.

Liquid Certificate of Deposits

To open this certificate of deposit, you need to have a minimum of $5,000 and agree to keep your money in the “keep your options open CD” for at least a year – although there are some nice features that make this a liquid CD, including the ability to make up to two penalty free withdrawals during the course of the selected term. You receive a 2.00% fixed-rate APY, which is not among the highest available rates for CD products of 1 year terms, but it’s still a reasonable offer which is probably counter-acted by the ability to make two withdrawals without penalty if you need to – and the ability to make additional deposits. While you hold the liquid certificate of deposit with OneWest Bank, you have the option to make additional deposits at any time, as long as they are at least $1,000 and keep your principal balance at $100,000 or less.

OneWest Bank also offers an Online 2 Year Flexible CD and an Online Raise Your Rate CD which are considered liquid, but are not quite as flexible as the Keep Your Options Open CD. You cannot make additional deposits or penalty-free withdrawals with either of the other liquid online certificate of deposit products at OneWest Bank. The interest rates on both are slightly higher than the Keep Your Options Open CD, in exchange for having less flexibility. The Online 2 Year Flexible CD currently has a rate of 2.45% APY, while the Raise Your Rate CD has a rate of 2.10% APY.

Regular Certificates of Deposit

If liquidity is not what you’re looking for, OneWest Bank also offers competitive online CD rates for regular certificate of deposit products. Their most competitive interest rates are the 60 month CD for 3.65% APY with a minimum deposit of $5,000 and the 12 month CD with 2.25% APY and a minimum $5,000 deposit.

Like all regular CD’s, all OneWest Bank regular certificate of deposits impose early withdrawal penalties if you take your money out before the term ends. You have a 7 day grace period at maturity from which you can withdraw the money or start a new CD.

If you happen to live near a California OneWest Bank Branch, you can get better certificate of deposit rates than they provide for their online CDs – 2.00% APY on a 6 month CD, 2.5% APY on a 2-year CD and 3.75% APY on a 5-year CD.