[Update June 2022: PenFed Credit Union has raised the rates on their CDs across the board again this month after doing it in May as well. In June they gave all of their certificates of deposit a rate hike of between 0.15% and 1.00% APY following the FED’s historic rate hike on June 15. See all of their CD rates below.]

Pentagon Federal Credit Union, commonly referred to as “PenFed,” is the third largest credit union in the nation—and the second largest federal credit union—with 1.75 million members across the world and $25 billion in assets.

PenFed, originally called the War Department Federal Credit Union by the group of ten civilian War Department employees that founded it in 1935, is headquartered in Virginia today but started out in the Munitions Building on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Though technically a military credit union, you don’t actually have to be a military member or dependent to join. There are a number of ways to qualify for membership with PenFed outside of this, including becoming a member of the nonprofit National Military Family Association for $17 or Voices for America’s Troops if you don’t meet any of the other requirements. Once a member, you’ll have access to modest rates on multiple savings products from this NCUA-insured credit union.

PenFed CD Rates + Account Details

PenFed offers a slightly wider range of certificate products than most credit unions with nine terms to choose from ranging from six months to seven years. Their CDs, called money market ​certificates,​ provide very good returns compared to the current national average(s). These accounts are federally insured by the NCUA up to $250,000 per depositor or $500,000 for joint accounts.

They are very easy to open, especially for credit union standards. Once you’re a member, certificates can be opened online within minutes.

CD Rates

CD Term	APY
6 month	0.75%
12 month	1.75%
15 month	1.90%
18 month	2.05%
2 year	2.75%
3 year	2.60%
4 year	2.60%
5 year	3.50%
7 year	3.00%

To put their 12 month and 5 year CD in perspective, the current national average for those terms sit at just 0.25% APY and 0.48% APY, respectively, according to FDIC data.

You’ll need a minimum of $1,000 to open any money market certificate account with PenFed.

Compounding and Crediting Interest

Dividends are compounded daily and paid monthly – except for the 6 month certificate – which earns only simple interest, paid at maturity, on the principal.

You can choose to have your dividends deposited into a separate account if you’re using these proceeds for income, or it can be returned to the CD account to compound further. The latter is the default option.

Early Withdrawal Penalties

• For a 6 month certificate, you’ll have to pay 90 days’ interest;
• for any other certificate (from 12 months to seven years), you’ll pay 365 days’ interest if you withdraw ​within a​ year of issuance and 30% of the gross interest earned if you withdraw after a​ year of issuance but before maturity.

Money Market Rates + Account Details

A money market account with PenFed requires an opening deposit of just $25, however their rates are quite low and do not compete with other banks we’ve covered such as Vio Bank or Discover Bank.

Money Market Rates

Balance	APY
$25 – $9,999	0.05%
$10k – $99,999	0.10%
$100k +	0.15%

The national average for money market rates sits at just 0.06%, so unless you have more than $100,000 lying around, you can expect below average payouts, paid and compounded monthly.

A PenFed money market savings account does not come with a monthly service fee or balance requirement. You are allowed no more than six withdrawals per month and you will be charged a fee of $10 for every excessive transaction. You may withdraw funds from a non-PenFed ATM, but you’ll have to pay $1.50 per.

Other Savings Accounts Offered

PenFed offers regular savings and premium online savings accounts.

For a $5 deposit, you become a member of PenFed, purchase a share in the credit union, and open a regular savings account all at once. But this savings account is called “regular” instead of “premium” for good reason: it pays a rate of just 0.05% on any balance. For comparison, that’s 0.02% below average.

Dividends are paid and compounded monthly and you do have the option of withdrawing funds from an ATM with this account type. There is no monthly maintenance fee for a PenFed regular or premium savings account, but there are other fees you’ll want to watch out for. You will be charged an insufficient funds fee of $30 every time you try to overdraft your account and there is no overdraft transfer service, so stay on top of your account balances if you plan to join PenFed.

Premium Savings Account

Minimum Deposit	APY
$5	0.75%

PenFed’s “premium savings account” offers an APY of 0.60%. Interest is compounded and credited monthly and the account requires just $5 to open. Keep in mind this savings account does not allow for ATM transactions, so you will not be able to conduct any regular banking activity out of the account.

About PenFed Credit Union + Eligibility

In its 2018 Annual Report, PenFed reported growing by 80,000 members and $170 million in net worth for that year. Today, PenFed has 1.75 million members across the world and over $25 billion in total assets. It has members in every U.S. state as well as the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico and the prefecture Okinawa.

There are only 50 PenFed branch locations in select cities and states, but over 60,000 ATMs nationwide. To find ATMs and/or branch locations start here. You are more than likely within a mile of several ​ATMs accepted by PenFed.​ Some of these surcharge-free ATMs are branded as PenFed Credit Union and some of them are not. However, like other large credit unions, PenFed DOES NOT participate in shared or co-op branching. Branches can be found in Washington, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

PenFed membership eligibility is inclusive to just about everyone regardless of military affiliation. You can qualify for membership in any of the following ways:

1. You are an active-duty or retired military member
2. You are employed at a qualifying organization (such as a veterans service organization)
3. You belong to a qualifying association (such as the American Red Cross)
4. You are a United States government employee
5. You live or work in a qualifying location

For a complete list of qualifying organizations, associations, and locations, go ​here. If you are not eligible in any of these ways, you can access membership by joining either the ​National Military Family Association ​for $17 or Voices for America’s Troops ​for $14.

The goal of both of these organizations is to help military members feel seen and heard. The National Military Family Association supports military families by bringing pressing issues that service members and dependents face to the attention of Congress and other decision-making officials when it matters most. Voices for America’s Troops advocates for career incentives in order to make a life serving in the military a sustainable option for soldiers and their families.

PenFed banking can be done in-person at a branch, ​online, or through the ​PenFed mobile app.​

Final Thoughts

There are pretty clear pros and cons of PenFed membership when you look at their yields alone. For a certificate of deposit or premium online savings accounts, PenFed has very attractive rates.

Other than their high rates, it’s also nice to see that there are no membership or maintenance fees. There are also perks like discounted offers through partner organizations such as TurboTax and Sprint, that PenFed members can take advantage of.

PenFed is one of the most inclusive credit unions in the country opening their doors to nearly any US citizen or resident.

[📌 Update June 2022: Huntington Bank’s CD rates remain largely uncompetitive despite savings and CD rates rising throughout the country following the FED’s historic rate hike on June 15. Huntington Bank did add a new promotional CD which is now their most competitive product. It is a 14 month CD yielding 0.50% APY. See all CD rates below.]

Originally founded as The Huntington National Bank in 1866 in Columbus, Ohio, Huntington Bank has maintained its regional status over the years despite several mergers and acquisitions and hefty asset growth.

Today, Huntington Bank is the 28th largest U.S. bank by asset size with over $113.8 billion in assets and $90.7 billion in deposits.

The regional bank serves seven states in the Midwest:

• Ohio,
• Illinois,
• Indiana,
• Kentucky,
• Michigan,
• Pennsylvania,
• and West Virginia.

The holding company of which Huntington Bank is the banking subsidiary is called Huntington Bancshares. This entity trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker HBAN.

If you’re a consumer looking to earn a good rate of return on the money you deposit, this bank leaves much to be desired.

Its deposit products—CD and money market accounts, specifically—are far from competitive and even lag the national average currently.

That said, the bank has good branch and service accessibility and lets you waive account fees fairly easily, so if you can look past low APYs, there are some advantages.

In this review we’ll be looking at Huntington Bank’s CD Rates and Relationship Money market account.

Huntington Bank CD Rates + Account Details

Huntington Bank’s deposit products are insured by the FDIC up to $250k per depositor or $500k on joint accounts.

Their CD rates, while competitive in the past, are extremely low at the moment. This is on par with what we see at many large national banks today, such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo, who have very little incentive to attract new savers with high returns.

We should also note that in a normal interest rate environment Huntington Bank’s deposit rates would increase with deposit size, but today all come with the same APY (annual percentage yield).

All Huntington Bank certificates of deposit require a minimum opening deposit of $1,000.

Promotional CD Rates

Term	APY
14 month	0.50%

This 14 month promotional CD is Huntington Bank’s most competitive CD account. They also offer a promotional 425 day CD for jumbo accounts with deposits of $100,000 or more. That product also earns 0.50% APY.

Standard CD Rates

Term	APY
1 month	0.05%
3 months	0.05%
6 months	0.10%
9 months	0.10%
12 months	0.10%
18 months	0.10%
24 months	0.10%
36 months	0.10%
48 months	0.10%
60 months	0.10%
72 months	0.10%

To give these yields (above) some context, the current national average on a 12 month CD and a 60 month CD sit at just 0.25% APY and 0.48% APY, respectively, according to FDIC data.

Compounding and Paying Interest

Interest is compounded daily and credited either monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, or at maturity. You get to choose the frequency.

Huntington Bank offers Jumbo CDs and IRA CDs as well however these all come with the same yields shown above. Certificates with balances of $100,000 are considered to be Jumbo CDs. This bank has also offered promotional deposits in the past, but is not running any at this time.

Early Withdrawal Penalties

If you need access to your funds prior to the maturity date of your Huntington Bank CD you will incur the following penalties:

• For terms of 91 days or less, you will owe the full term of your account in simple interest.
• For terms of 92 days to 1 year, the penalty is 3 months interest.
• For terms of 1 year to 18 months, the penalty is 6 months interest.
• Finally, for terms of more than 18 months, the penalty is 12 months interest.

The minimum early withdrawal penalty is 7 days interest.

Grace Period

There is a standard grace period of 10 days for Huntington Bank CDs in which you can withdraw or add funds to your deposit. All accounts are automatically renewable unless you specifically request otherwise except for accounts used for public funds or those with opening balances of $100,000 or more with a term of less than one month. These are not eligible for automatic renewal.

Huntington Bank Relationship Money Market Account Rate + Details

A Huntington Bank Relationship Money Market account offers more attractive yields than the fixed rate CDs but also comes with a significantly steeper minimum deposit requirement of $25,000.

The precise interest rate you’ll earn, however, depends on your “relationship” with the bank. And by this, they mean which other accounts you hold with them.

The rate table below shows the APY you’ll earn based on the type of account(s) you hold.

Money Market Rates (including 90 day promotional rate)

Account Held	APY on money market
Standard	0.05%
Huntington 5 Checking	0.05%
Huntington 25 Checking	0.05%
Private Client Account	0.06%

To put these yields in perspective the current national average for a money market account with a balance of less than $100,000 is 0.08% APY.

That said, there are still a number of online banks with savings accounts and/or money market accounts featuring rates above 1.50% APY and minimum balance requirements of less than $1,000.

All of Huntington Bank’s money market accounts have promotional, introductory interest rates that last for 90 days before dropping down to the standard 0.05% APY (or 0.08% APY for private clients).

The MMA of a customer with a Huntington 5 Checking account, for example, begins with an interest rate of 0.05% APY. This drops back down to 0.05% after the 90-day introductory period is up and leaves you with a blended APY of 0.05% for the year.

Interest is compounded monthly and credited monthly.

Avoid Fees

These accounts have the potential to ding you $25/month in maintenance fees. Here’s how to avoid that:

1. Maintain an average daily balance of at least $25,000 (which is also the only way to earn dividends on your balance).
2. Maintain either a Huntington 5 or Huntington 25 Checking account.

A Huntington Bank MMA does have check-writing capabilities, but checks are only free if you also have a Huntington 25 checking account.

Huntington Bank Fee Schedule

Type	Fee
Wire Transfers – Domestic Incoming	$15
Wire Transfers – Domestic Outgoing	$25
Wire Transfers – International Incoming	$15
Wire Transfers – International Outgoing	$75
Stop Payment	$31
Return Deposit Item	$10
Foreign Currency Fee	$8 (exchange rates apply)
Expedited Delivery	$25 (debit or ATM card)
Cashier Check	$6

Checks are also available but the cost per box varies based on design.

If you plan on using a Huntington Bank ATM card you’ll want to note that Huntington Bank charges a $3 fee for each out of network cash withdrawal on top of whatever the ATM owner charges.

Huntington Bank Account Features + Customer Sentiment

One of the noteworthy account features across many Huntington Bank accounts is the 24-Hour Grace, which is basically built-in overdraft protection.

This protection feature will give you 24 hours to make a deposit to bring your balance positive in the event of an overdraft. It is applied for free to all checking, savings, and money market accounts with Huntington Bank.

Relationship rate benefits take certain decent Huntington Bank products—like savings and money market accounts—and make them better. So if you intend to join Huntington, know that you will get the most out of this membership if you have multiple accounts with the bank.

This bank hasn’t received the best ratings from other review sites online with scores ranging between 1.5 (ConsumerAffairs) and 3.5 (WalletHub) stars. That said, the majority of the dis-satisfaction tends to reside on the loan site with mortgage and auto loan clients being the most vocal about their negative experiences.

The Huntington Bank app has a 4-star rating on Google Play and a 4.8-star rating on the App Store. This app has been praised for being comprehensive and having unique features that you don’t always see in a banking app.

You can reach customer service in a number of ways. You can call (800) 480-2265 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM ET, live chat with a representative through the Huntington website, tweet @AskHuntington, or even direct message the bank on Facebook.

Customer service isn’t the only important aspect of overall banking experience. As mentioned, Huntington Bank has great accessibility. There are over 800 Huntington Bank branches and 1,400 ATMs across Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and this bank does a good job of placing its branches strategically for maximum convenience. Case in point, if you live in the Midwest, you’ve probably even seen a Huntington Bank hub in your local grocery store.

Huntington Bank customers can make ATM and mobile deposits up to midnight with All Day Deposit.

[Update June, 2022: Synchrony Bank’s CD rates are on the rise again this month after the Fed’s historic rate increase on June 15. They’ve risen across the board on all terms by between 0.10% and 0.40% APY. This is after Synchrony Bank raised their rates twice in May following the FED’s May 4th rate hike. They also introduced a 12 month CD Special featuring an APY of 1.90% and removed their previous 16 month CD special that was yielding 2.0% APY. See all CD rates below.]

Synchrony Bank is an ultra-convenient, online-only bank that you’ve probably seen advertised in various places online over the years.

More than just the result of good marketing, Synchrony has gained a great deal of recognition and praise for regularly having some of the best rates on the market across their product suite. The likes of Nerdwallet, MyBankTracker, and Bankrate have awarded this bank for having the best CD and savings accounts for multiple years.

This bank traces its history all the way back to 1932 when General Electric founded the GE Contracts Corporation for financing appliance purchases. This became the General Electric Capital Corporation or GE Capital in 1943. GE Capital remained in operation for more than a half century before being spun off and rebranded as Synchrony Bank on June 2, 2014.

Synchrony Bank’s current deposit products feature above average rates on a wide range of variable and fixed rate accounts. Synchrony Bank doesn’t offer a checking account at this time however, therefore may not meet all of your banking needs.

Synchrony Bank has a high yield savings account, CDs, IRA CDs, a money market account, and IRA money market accounts in its current lineup. These are all competitive, interest-bearing accounts that can be opened and managed digitally. This can be done online or with the highly-rated MySynchrony mobile app(s) for Apple or Android devices.

All of Synchrony Bank’s deposit products are federally insured by the FDIC up to $250,000 per depositor or $500,000 for joint accounts.

Below is our full review of Synchrony Bank’s deposit products.

Synchrony Bank CD Rates + Account Details

Synchrony Bank has plenty of CD terms to choose from with competitive rates across the board. All certificates of deposit at Synchrony Bank require a minimum opening deposit of $2,000. Like all other savings accounts with Synchrony, interest is compounded daily and credited monthly.

CD Rates

CD Term	APY
3 months	0.60%
6 months	1.05%
9 months	1.10%
11 month No Penalty	1.10%
12 months*	1.90%
13 months	1.90%
14 months	1.90%
15 months	1.90%
16 months	1.90%
18 months	2.00%
19 months	2.00%
24 month	2.25%
36 months	2.50%
48 months	2.50%
60 months	2.90%

To put these offers in perspective the current national average for a 12 month CD and a 60 month CD sit at just 0.25% and 0.48% APY, respectively, according to recent FDIC data.

15 Day Best Rate Guarantee

A 15-day Best Rate Guarantee is applied to all Synchrony bank CDs. This means that if you open a CD and fund it sufficiently within 15 calendar days and the posted rate then becomes higher than what you locked into, the new higher rate will be applied to your account. Don’t underestimate the value of this free insurance during periods of high rate fluctuation.

Early Withdrawal Penalties & Grace Period

Early withdrawal penalties will be charged when you withdraw funds after opening an account but before it reaches maturity or after the 10 day grace period is up following maturity. This will be 90 days’ simple interest for terms of 12 months or less, 180 days’ simple interest for terms between 12 and 48 months, and 365 days’ simple interest for terms of 48 months or more.

CDs automatically renew at maturity and have a grace period of 10 days in which you can deposit or add funds freely.

Opening an Account

As is the case with many digital banks, just about anyone can open a deposit account with Synchrony Bank.

To open an account, you must be a U.S. citizen at or above the age of 18, have a valid Social Security number, phone number, and mailing address within the United States.

To get started, visit the Synchrony Bank website and select “Open Account.”

You will first be asked whether or not this is your first Synchrony Bank account, then you will be provided with a form to fill out.

The final step, after signing a couple of agreements and opting in to online access, will be to fund your account. This can be done in a few different ways.

Funding your Deposit Account

Fund your Synchrony Bank savings accounts via:

• ACH transfer from an external account,
• transfer from a Synchrony account,
• mobile check deposit,
• direct deposit from a third party,
• wire transfer, or
• personal check mailed to: Synchrony Bank, PO Box 105972, Atlanta, GA 30348-5972