Monday, June 8, 2009

Oriental Bank

Some other bloggers (Summer and Stefan) were talking about not being able to get their mature CD money from Banco Popular. Our CD with Oriental was not tied to a mortgage or anything but I wondered how things would work when ours matured. Here's the scoop...

The CD matured on a Sunday of course and Monday was Memorial Day. I went on Thursday just to get a feel for what was required and to try to finagle a better CD rate than advertised to roll it in to. The original 6 month CD was 4% which I talked them up to (their rate was 3.65 or something close to that). I didn't know these things were negotiable! They were.

I had been looking at bankrate.com for current rates and it was extremely dismal for a 6 month or even a year - under 2%. I wanted a CD for at least 2% and they were going to talk to a manager about it (which means yes) but... that's when the Oriental Money account was brought to my attention.

Get this...The Oriental Money account is a "tiered fixed rate" account. The rate depends on your balance. if $500 - $10000 you get 1%. 10000 - 25000 you get 2%, 25000 - 99999 it is 3.25% and over 100000 it is 3.5%.

Interest is compounded monthly and credited monthly. There is a $14.99 fee if you drop below $5000. It is the daily balance method for interest calculation. There is a $10 fee if you pull it out before a year but not if you put it into a CD through them. If you want there is a mastercard or checks (no ATH card).

So - this works out great for us, far better than a CD. And yes - FDIC insured. So how can they do this? I don't know, but my important questions were answered the right way so I am a happy camper!

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