Update 11/30/23: At some point after publishing this post, PenFed changed the terms of this offer. It used to say:
Can I share/forward this offer to a friend or family member?
Yes, this offer is open to everyone. Maximum bonus received is $750 per member.
But, now it says:
This exclusive Bonus Offer is only available for the original recipient of the email and cannot be shared or made eligible beyond the original recipient.
Not a customer-friendly move, PenFed, to pull such a bait-and-switch!
Original post:
Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is offering a up to $750 deposit bonus when you add new funds to their Premium Online Savings account. You get $150 for every $10,000 of new deposits, up to $750 for $50,000 in new deposits. Must deposit new money by 12/30/2023 and maintain that level until 4/30/2024 (four months). There are two different offer links, one for those opening a new account and those adding new funds to an existing account:
- Offer link for new Premium Online Savings Accounts
- Offer link for existing Premium Online Savings Accounts (must still add new money)
From the offer FAQs and fine print:
What is considered new money?
New money is funds deposited from an external account into your new Premium Online Savings account. The funds must be new funds to PenFed.Can I share/forward this offer to a friend or family member?
Yes, this offer is open to everyone. Maximum bonus received is $750 per member.Can I open multiple Premium Online Savings accounts and receive a bonus for each?
No, this offer is limited to one bonus and one new Premium Online Savings account per member.Your account must stay open and be in good standing when bonus is credited to your account. Please allow up to 60 days for the Bonus to appear in your account.
Here are the highlights of the PenFed Premium Online Savings account:
- 3.00% APY as of 11/29/23.
- No monthly fees, no minimum balance requirement.
- Anyone can join PenFed via partner organization. You’ll have to keep $5 in a Share savings account, in addition to opening a separate Premium Online Savings account.
Napkin math. If you deposit towards the end of the 30-day funding period, your technical minimal holding period is 4 months (~120 days). If you meet one of the tiers exactly (such $10k or $50k), then the bonus works out to an additional 4.50% annualized yield. If you assume the current 3.00% APY, that adds up to a total effective interest of roughly 7.50% APY annualized for 4 months.
In absolute terms: If, for example, you deposit $50,000 right before December 30th, 2023 and keep it until April 30th, 2024, you’ll end up with $750 bonus + $500 in interest (from the 3% APY) = $1,250 at the end of the 4-month period.
PenFed no longer does a hard credit pull on new membership applications, so anyone should be able to join without having to pay any fees, other than a $5 deposit into Share Savings (only refundable when you close your membership). They also have interesting certificate rates from time to and time, and right now I see them advertising 5.35% APY on 15- and 18-month certificates (as of 11/29/23). If you’re in the market, also take a look at their interest rates on car loans and mortgages.
I already have a PenFed membership, so I hope to time things properly so that this can be another drop in my 2023 IRA challenge bucket (maybe count as 2024?).
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Not a very attractive deal. basically we put
the money for 4 months for 1.5% interest. So it covers to 4.5% annual rate, lower than high yield saving account.
You also earn the 3% APY interest that the account pays regardless, for a total of 7.5% annualized.
Are credit unions FDIC insured?
NCUA-insured is the credit union equivalent of FDIC-insured.
I’m confused, the offer links are crossed-out now. The links still load though & it looks like this is still active.
Thanks, I have a link checker plugin to find dead links, but sometimes it has a lot of false positives. It should be reset now.
Looks like for 50K coming out of 4-week treasury bills, a rough guestimate is this is worth ~ $300 depending on how badly state/local taxes bite you. fwiw.
The credit union is top-notch
clicking on new customer link takes me to https://www.penfed.org/getmyoffer1115.Q&A states Can I share/forward this offer to a friend or family member?
No, this offer is non-transferable.And disclosures state1. Offer is valid from 11/15/23 to 12/30/23. This exclusive Bonus Offer is only available for the original recipient of the email and cannot be shared or made eligible beyond the original recipient. Am i on the wrong offer page?
Grrrrr. They changed the terms and the text on the website mid-offer. Not customer-friendly at all, PenFed.
So does this mean, this is NOT a deal? Since many of us who are not members of PenFed did not get this offer in an email. I am torn now should I open the account and fund or NOT.
That’s the frustrating thing. I have no idea. PenFed is just changing the rules as they go along. They chose to explicitly say first “yes, share this offer with your friends!” and then without warning switch to “nope, we take it back, won’t work for anyone but you!”.
Given the standard APY is only 3%, I would probably not bother if I didn’t get the email. Why risk the hassle of having to fight with them.
Now it says Offer valid from 11/15/23 to 12/30/23 and is valid for all PenFed Premium Online Savings account holders.
Thanks for the heads up. The new customer link still says not transferrable, so I’m still wary of having to fight with them over this.
Thank you, Jonathan. It seems now there are multiple banks competing for your dollars.. I am not benefiting for the links or referrals, you can also google
A Chase offer
an up to $900 offer could be yours!
When you open a new Chase Total Checking® account1 and new Chase SavingsSM account1 with qualifying activities.
https://account.chase.com/consumer/banking/checkingandsavingsoffer
and Citi
Earn $200
Minimum balance:
$10,000
Earn $500
Minimum balance:
$30,000
Earn $1,000
Minimum balance:
$75,000
Earn $1,500
Minimum balance:
$200,000
Earn $2,000
Minimum balance:
$300,000
https://banking.citi.com/cbol/OM/checking/tiered/featured-offers/default.htm?venue=GoogleBR&BT_TX=1&ProspectID=90E7F7AC5CD74D8E98DF92574F86FA51
This is the footnote. Does it mean only if you received direct email for this promotion?
Offer is valid from 11/15/23 to 12/30/23. This exclusive Bonus Offer is only available for the original recipient of the email and cannot be shared or made eligible beyond the original recipient.
Has the Penfed web site experience gotten any better? I opened a HELOC with them a couple years ago and the web site made me want to pull my hair out. There are so many sites that function well these days that I have little patience for the clunky ones…never considered Penfed for anything else because everything was such a hassle.
Yep but not the greatest
I opened an account the day you posted this, 11/29. Moved the full $50K in. Because I saw your repost, I called PenFed. They said it was open to everyone until 11/21. After that, it is only open to current members who got the email. So I’m in the process of closing the account now…
I received a letter telling me about this promo. I didn’t get a thing about this in my email!
I opened an account and deposited $20K on 12/11/23 and keep the money there till now. I just read your post carefully and found it may not be eligible. So I called Pen Fed. I was surprised that I was told I would get the bonus after 60 days of 4/30/24!
I just was able to reap the harvest after depositing $50K Dec 2023. PenFed would not award the bonus after 4 months. OK
I withdrew the earned dividends during the time the $50K was on deposit. I always maintained a balance over $50K.
Alas, there were terms that no new (dividneds) or principal ($50K) old money could be withdrawn.
Constructive suggestion: if possible please point out dtls like that on your highlights or even include the T/C. I know it is on me. And I know this is a thankless job. And I know PenFed only did what they said on the T/C.
I still made real money in absolute terms.
I was the PenFed existing user and deposited $50k. PenFed says the bonus will be deposited in 60 days of 4/30/24, but I was hoping it to be earlier than 60 days. It’s almost 30 days past, so it could be really full 60 days I need to wait. If that is the case, this was not that good deal as I need to park the money longer than I expected. . .
Per the terms, it may take that long for the bonus to arrive, but you don’t have to keep your existing full balance there. You just need to keep the account open and in good standing.