America First Credit Union was founded in 1939 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is now the 8th largest credit union by asset size and 5th largest by membership in the United States. This federally-chartered credit union controls $16.83 billion in total assets in 2022 and serves over 1.2 million members. What started as an institution for civilian employees of Fort Douglas now has member-owners across the country.

Membership with this credit union is restricted to certain geographical locations in the western United States. But if you are eligible to become a member, should you open a CD?

Here’s everything you need to know about the many CDs offered through this credit union and what it’s like to bank with America First.

Standard Certificates of Deposit

All certificate accounts with America First are federally insured up to $250,000 per account, per depositor by the NCUA.

There are many different types of certificates of deposit available through this credit union. These include Regular, IRA, Bump-Rate, Dedicated Savings, Flexible, and Ladder. In this article, we’ll cover

All standard CDs require a minimum opening deposit and balance to earn interest of $500. This credit union does not use tiered rates for these CDs. You will earn the same rate for your term length regardless of your balance. See these rates below.

Standard CD Rates

To put these offers in perspective, the national average for a 12 month CD and a 60 month CD sit at just 1.49% APY and 1.35% APY, respectively, according to recent FDIC data.

That said, the top yields from online banks and other nationally available credit unions are sitting at 5.00% APY and 4.50% APY for the same respective terms – with America First being among the rate leaders with their 12-17 month offer.

Compounding Interest

Interest for this account is compounded and credited monthly back into the certificate or paid out to a linked account of your choosing. You can request that the dividends be sent automatically to a checking, savings, or money market account with America First instead of rolling back into the CD.

These CDs automatically renew at the same term length when they reach maturity. When this happens, you will have a grace period of 10 calendar days during which you can withdraw funds without getting charged a fee.

📍 Please note: The maximum deposit you can place into any one deposit account is $100,000.

Early Withdrawal Penalties

Early withdrawal penalties will apply if you remove some or all of the money from your account before it matures, outside of the grace period. These are:

• Early withdrawal from a term of less than 12 months incurs a penalty fee equal to 60 days’ interest
• Early withdrawal from a term of greater than 12 months incurs a penalty fee equal to 180 days’ interest.

These are pretty low penalties for standard certificates.

Specialty Certificates of Deposit

In this section, we’ll go over all of the non-standard CDs America First Credit Union has to offer except for the IRA CD. Let’s start with the Bump-Rate CDs.

Bump-Rate CDs

Bump-rate CDs allow you to request a rate bump one time during the term. If the rates available on new CDs is higher than the rate you locked into when you opened your account, you can have your rate adjusted to this higher rate and this will apply until the account reaches maturity. This is the only feature that makes this different from a standard certificate.

With this extra flexibility comes the downside of lower rates. These rates are not as competitive as standard CDs with this credit union, which weren’t all that competitive to begin with. See the table below for current Bump-Rate APYs.

Bump-Rate CD Rates

The minimum opening deposit for these accounts is also $500. It’s up to you to initiate a rate bump. If you choose not to or forget, America First will not do it for you. Dividends can be credited back into your certificate or paid out into a linked savings, checking, or money market account.

This CD is automatically renewable as a regular certificate if you choose to go that route.

Flexible CDs

At the moment, there is only one flexible certificate at America First Credit Union. It is a 12-month CD that earns interest at a rate of 0.40%. What sets this account apart from a standard CD is the added flexibility to access and add money before maturity. 

Instead of paying a fee for any early withdrawal, you are permitted to make up to one free withdrawal per quarter at no added cost. The catch is that you can’t just do this any time you like. It has to be during the first five calendar days of the quarter or you forfeit the option and will pay the same early withdrawal penalties as everyone else. 

As long as your flexible CD has been open for at least one full calendar month prior to the end of the quarter month (with quarter months being January, April, July, and October), you can take any amount of your money out that you want. 

With this account, you are also permitted to make additional deposits at any time after opening. You can deposit up to $10,000 per calendar month as long as you don’t exceed the balance limit for this product. You cannot deposit more than $100,000 into any one flexible certificate or combination of flexible certificates.

The minimum opening deposit is again $500. This account will automatically renew at maturity.

Dedicated Savings

Interest rates are the same for these CDs as they are for standard CD accounts, but there are a few key differences between how these accounts function.

Dedicated Savings Certificate Rates

There is no minimum opening deposit requirement for this account and you don’t need to maintain a certain balance to keep earning interest. You do, however, have to make a deposit of at least $10 each month to keep a dedicated savings certificate. You will link another account to automate this transfer so you don’t have to remember. 

You can make contributions of up to $10,000 per month as long as your balance in one or multiple dedicated savings certificates does not exceed $100,000. 

Dedicated savings CDs are used for large short-term financial goals like vacations and holidays. Rather. As with the other CDs, you have the option to either allow the dividends to automatically roll back into the certificate or have them paid out.

Early withdrawal penalties still apply.

Ladder CDs

This isn’t a type of CD as much as it is an investing or cash management strategy. To ladder your CDs or create a CD ladder means that you’re opening up several certificates of different term lengths so that they have staggered maturity dates.

By having many CDs that mature at different times, you will reach maturity more often than if you were to invest all the money into one certificate. This can be a smart way to use CDs for short-term goals and still take advantage of the higher rates offered on longer terms. It’s up to you how you ladder, but a lot of people open one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year, and five-year accounts so that one account matures every year.

Since it makes the most sense to ladder regular certificates as these offer the best rates, take a look at the section above for rate information. Note that you do not need to take any extra steps to ladder your CDs and the renewal policies, early withdrawal policies, and deposit policies are all the same.

Ladder CDs will automatically renew at the longest term length available for the ladder maturity structure.

How to Become a Member

There are several different ways to become a member of America First Credit Union. The first is to live, work, or attend school or church in select cities and counties of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, and New Mexico. See a list of eligible cities and counties by state below: 

• Utah: All of Salt Lake and Juab counties and eligible areas of Cache, Davis, Iron, Rich, Washington, and Weber counties
• Nevada: All of Clark and Lincoln counties (except for those living within 25 miles of the Alamo U.S. Post Office) and eligible areas of Churchill, Douglas, Esmeralda, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Storey, Washoe, and Carson City counties
• Arizona: All of Maricopa county and eligible areas of Mohave and Pima counties
• Idaho: Eligible areas of Ada, Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Boise, Bonneville, Canyon, Caribou, Clark, Elmore, Franklin, Gem, Jefferson, Madison, Owyhee, and Power counties
• Oregon: Eligible areas of Malheur county
• New Mexico: Eligible areas of Bernalillo, Chaves, De Baca, Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance, and Valencia counties

As you can see, membership is rather exclusive. If you don’t qualify geographically, you may be eligible to join through your employer. America First partners with many Select Employer Groups across the country. More broadly, anyone who works in the food and beverage industry in Utah can become a member.

And like many other credit unions, you can also join through a family member, spouse, or someone you live with who is already a member.

If none of these apply to you, you are not eligible to join. Unlike many other credit unions, America First does not offer a “loophole” or alternative to people who don’t otherwise meet membership requirements.

Consumer Sentiment & Reviews

Are America First Credit Union member-owners happy? Reviews are mixed. Many users complain about poor customer service, but just as many have never had an issue. Most likely, it depends on which branch you’re visiting or if you’re calling customer service.

The America First mobile app is solid all around. It has a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Google Play and 4.8 out of 5 stars in the App Store. While not fancy, this has everything you want in a mobile banking app and is pretty reliable and easy to use.

To contact customer support, you can call 1-800-999-3961 before 8 pm Mountain Time, email support@americafirst.com, or log into your America First account to access the chat function during business hours. You can also schedule a good time for a representative to call you back to avoid waiting.

There are over 130 branch locations in Utah and Nevada. While you don’t ever have to set foot in a branch if you don’t want to, there are convenient locations in many major cities.