mm04 said:sushiosushi said:Still crossing fingers. Drove up and down Aviation blvd. last night looking for the post office when I should have been on Airport blvd a few blocks away. Hopefully last nights postmark will be ok even though they won't receive it until Thursday.

Sounds like Atlanta

LA.

catccc said:I just talked to a CSR who said it is over today.

I was asking if I would be able to get in on it if I went into a branch tomorrow. Unfortunately, the answer was no. One other CSR told me that this promo went for only 19 days last year. This year (if the CSR was right about it ending today) it was only 4 days. Woah, FW effect! I'm a little bitter though, actually being a U of MD grad, and having missed out on the fun.

They say 19 days, but that is likely the time when they stopped making exceptions to let people in last year. Last year it started on Monday Oct 16. On Thursday, Oct 19, they told people on the phone the deal is over and they took it off their website. The branches said the same thing (for the most part). However, those of us that had postmarks on or before Oct 19 (like me) got in. For my overnight, they deposited the check on Oct 20 and did not give me the CD.

I called a branch you got in touch w/ someone at the corp office and they honored the cd for me since my member app went in on the 18th and my cd app postmarked on the 19th. Therefore, that 19 days are either when they made the last exception, or there is some mixup with it ending on the 19th.

Either way, hopefully you got the stuff in for today's postmark!

BTW - FedEx offers great deals to groups. B/c of my affiliation elsewhere, my overnight delivery last year was $5.25.

Oh god, this is going to turn into the BofA $250 credit card promo, where every time someone gets a letter in the mail, they update about it?

I went ahead and put my member and CD apps in the mail today, despite it probably being too late. I figure three things can happen:

Best case: They let me open the Giving thanks CD.
Middle case: They refuse it and return the check.
Worst case: They still cash the check, but put it in a dumb prime share or conventional 12mo CD.

In any case, the money is currently sitting in a money market at Fidelity, so it's not like I'm crying over lost interest.

I signed up as a student at one of the community collges. I've already got the distance learning class I want to take picked out if SECU contacts me, but I haven't registered yet, since there's a chance they may just reject the whole dang app anyway.

markkundinger said:Oh god, this is going to turn into the BofA $250 credit card promo, where every time someone gets a letter in the mail, they update about it?

I went ahead and put my member and CD apps in the mail today, despite it probably being too late. I figure three things can happen:

Best case: They let me open the Giving thanks CD.
Middle case: They refuse it and return the check.
Worst case: They still cash the check, but put it in a dumb prime share or conventional 12mo CD.

In any case, the money is currently sitting in a money market at Fidelity, so it's not like I'm crying over lost interest.

I signed up as a student at one of the community collges. I've already got the distance learning class I want to take picked out if SECU contacts me, but I haven't registered yet, since there's a chance they may just reject the whole dang app anyway.

You are not late..You postmarked today which should be fine. I have not heard anyone getting rejected for SECU membership even for hideous reasons .

cga said: It's tempting. A legitimate and theoretically no risk 9% APR is unheard of. There's a lot of money at stake here. It's almost too much to expect. I don't know...
Funny because that is what kept me from even attempting to qualify for an account, My brain keeps going to that, "If it sounds to good to be true, It probably is" Has been very entertaining to following people scrambling for it. Sort of reminds me of rats running thru a maze to get the cheese. Would be interesting if all who attempted put results in quick summery, Including how they qualified and what they had to do to get the money there in time. I just don't get why the bank is doing this? If they needed to bring in some money they could have accomplished the same results with just offering a 7 month 6% CD. Might have taken a few days longer to reach their goal but would have been far more profitable for bank. Was the bonus to get more long term customers? From following this thread, No. If you want to do that you make the deal walk in only and would have made it that you need some relation package. I have seen some decent local offers like that where you need to also a checking and savings to get some great CD rate. It just seems that SECU is throwing money away and I have a tough time comprehending that

As long as you send a check...no harm. at least you won't lose any days of interest if they do not open the CD for you.

scott1961 said:
Funny because that is what kept me from even attempting to qualify for an account, My brain keeps going to that, "If it sounds to good to be true, It probably is" Has been very entertaining to following people scrambling for it. Sort of reminds me of rats running thru a maze to get the cheese. Would be interesting if all who attempted put results in quick summery, Including how they qualified and what they had to do to get the money there in time. I just don't get why the bank is doing this? If they needed to bring in some money they could have accomplished the same results with just offering a 7 month 6% CD. Might have taken a few days longer to reach their goal but would have been far more profitable for bank. Was the bonus to get more long term customers? From following this thread, No. If you want to do that you make the deal walk in only and would have made it that you need some relation package. I have seen some decent local offers like that where you need to also a checking and savings to get some great CD rate. It just seems that SECU is throwing money away and I have a tough time comprehending that

I understand your thinking, but let me point out a few things:

1. It is not a bank, but a CU. THat being said, it is MEMBER-owned and not for profit.
2. They bring in a lot of money through the year (not all members are FWF saavy). THey offer a credit card with 9% APR... great deal if you can't find something better (remember, members are students and State-employees, not the highest wage earners around).
3. Since they are not for profit, they need to return/churn their profits BACK to members... they could have done a 6% CD (but a lot of members don't have money saved to buy a CD), or raised their savings APY (again, only those that have $$$ make $$$).
4. They did this last year, with a 12 month CD, and it was an overwhelming success.... why fix what isn't broken?
5. They offered multiple ways for members to get some of the profits back:
A. The CD deal (which required NEW money)
B. 10 bucks for opening an add-on cd (min 100 to open)
C. 50 bucks for new checking, additional 50 for Dir Dep and Bill Pay added
D. 75 bucks for having 9 or more services on you membership.

EVERYTHING they offered required the member to do something... and those members that did the required made out. Just like the CC companies that charge "normal people" 23.99% APR, then offer the FWF-type crowds 0% BT for 12 or 15 months.... it is a re-distribution of wealth.

I, for one, like what they did, and although they "lost some money" on me, they have boosted their membership numbers, and probably have a "good customer" in me for years to come... especially if they keep doing promos like this!

CycloneFW said:They say 19 days, but that is likely the time when they stopped making exceptions to let people in last year.

I had no problem getting a CD on the 19th last year by going to my local branch (Greenbelt office). At the time the rep said that they were checking on an hourly basis to see if there was any money left. I got the impression that I got one of the last ones.

Do we need to pay top income tax?

scott1961 said:cga said: It's tempting. A legitimate and theoretically no risk 9% APR is unheard of. There's a lot of money at stake here. It's almost too much to expect. I don't know...
Funny because that is what kept me from even attempting to qualify for an account, My brain keeps going to that, "If it sounds to good to be true, It probably is" Has been very entertaining to following people scrambling for it. Sort of reminds me of rats running thru a maze to get the cheese. Would be interesting if all who attempted put results in quick summery, Including how they qualified and what they had to do to get the money there in time. I just don't get why the bank is doing this? If they needed to bring in some money they could have accomplished the same results with just offering a 7 month 6% CD. Might have taken a few days longer to reach their goal but would have been far more profitable for bank. Was the bonus to get more long term customers? From following this thread, No. If you want to do that you make the deal walk in only and would have made it that you need some relation package. I have seen some decent local offers like that where you need to also a checking and savings to get some great CD rate. It just seems that SECU is throwing money away and I have a tough time comprehending that

I assumed the reason you and David didn't join was because you enjoyed making debit card purchases for the Bank of Toledo so much and couldn't tear yourself away from those great potlucks in the community room.....