Certificate of Deposits

July 5, 2007 11:32 PM

What is the best place to get a CD (Certificate of Deposit)?

I am looking at getting a CD for about 10,000 for around a year. Anyone have any experience with this? How legit is eloan.com (who seems to have the best rates)?

posted by benji to Work & Money (8 answers total)

eloan.com is FDIC insured, so they're at least as "legit" as any other bank.

Fortunately, bankrate.com kicks ass at this sort of thing.
posted by disillusioned at 11:36 PM on July 5, 2007

E*Trade has a very good reputation and an established history, and their rates are not much lower than eloan and offer a wider selection of term lengths on CDs.
posted by comwiz at 1:11 AM on July 6, 2007

I'd also check the rates for 3-month and 6-month CDs. At least on E*Trade, 3-month CD interest rates were higher than 1 year rates, last time I checked. On E*Trade, CDs renew automatically at the interest rate at the time of renewal, and you have 10 business days to close the account or move the money to a different account without penalty.
posted by needled at 3:34 AM on July 6, 2007

Second bankrate. You may find that an online high-yield savings account (also FDIC insured) may pay a better rate than a CD. But I just checked and that's not true at the moment.
posted by grouse at 5:10 AM on July 6, 2007

You might want to consider laddering your CDs too.
posted by Amizu at 5:25 AM on July 6, 2007

You may want to consider not using a CD at all, depending on the rates you can find. A year ago when I was looking, CD rates were invariably lower (except on 5 year CDs) than a regular savings account at a bank with a particularly high rate.

There's no sense in losing access to the money if you can find as good or better rates from something more liquid.
posted by wierdo at 7:23 AM on July 6, 2007

Check out emigrantdirect.com as a place to park the money if you're not solid on the 1 year time frame. You get 5.05% (right now at least), which is very competitive with CDs.
posted by cschneid at 8:12 AM on July 6, 2007

My college roommate loves his Orange Savings Account, and their CDs look even better. (Upwards of 5%.) I haven't tried them personally, though, so I can't vouch for them first-hand.

My CD (at a local bank) matured recently, but I considered it very liquid: the only penalty they assessed was that I'd have lost the most recent month's interest, which wasn't an awful lot. YMMV, of course.
posted by fogster at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2007