posted: Jul. 22, 2005 @ 9:13a
LFCU is federally insured by NCUA up to 100,000 according to the website. It's also rated 5* by Bauer Financial.
According to CSR, 25K is required to earn 4% APY, interest accumulates daily and starts as soon as check or ACH hits the account. If balance falls below 25K, current savings account rate applies which is currently 1.57. Somewhat peculiar is that this account will be converted to the Market Maximizer account on April 2006 and will earn whatever interest rate is applicable to that account at that time. There is no early closure fee so it's a good thing to enable the money to be withdraw once/if other banks exceed 4% APY.
Also, thought that there is a $5 fee initially for membership but CSR said that $5 is 'on retention' which is perhaps the same as initial deposit requirement which will be part of your deposit not the CU to keep. Requested paperwork to be sent yesterday, will see if anything new comes up from reading the fine print to verify what was told by this CSR. Interesting how CUs are competing with banks as this will be the 2nd 4% APY account with my deposits if I decide to go with it.
Edit to add that CSR also mentioned there is no check with this account, 6 withdrawals monthly. No problem or no need to open a LHCU checking account if you have a Capital One or any other accounts that can be linked without requiring a check so that ACHs can be initiated.