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)

Best answer: 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