Talk:Certificate of deposit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Bankcd.com
The "bankcd.con" site actually charges $7.95 to provide information on bank interest rates. The same information is available free at bankrate.com. Page edited to reflect this.
- Restored BankCD link. Although site charges to disclose which banks, rates are free to see. And I have checked and rates seem to be better than Bankrate's. It seems to me that BankCD does a better job in checking best rates. I think the users should decide by themselves which to chose.--AAAAA 02:09, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
- I just checked and BankCD is now totally free.--AAAAA 18:49, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Callable
Does anyone have information on Callable CDs that they could add to this article?--Adam 
(talk) 19:44, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Removing Links
BankRate.com has become the industry standard for free rate information, but they do not exist out of the goodness of their hearts. However, since they have climbed to the top of the industry their link might as well stay. All of the other sites are basically affliate based sites trying to cash in on advertisng or PPC. We have a site that has plenty of useful information and no ads. But we charge for our placement services. I will not post our link because it would be considered spam. I feel the same about the other sites that had links--Cdduncan 17:44, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
- I feel that all the links are useful. Bankrate also has a lot of advertising and it requires a lot of clicks to see all the rates. I did some checking and I found, for example, that bankcd.com updates their rates daily and bankrate only weekly, and bankcd.com, although not as popular, has better rates. Furthermore, BankRate requires one screen per term, so they show you more advertising. Bankcd.com shows all the rates in one screen.--AAAAA 18:46, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
- I was encouraged to post this for review. I would like to see all external links to "advertiser" pages be removed. Pleas read on and provide some feed back. I will be honest in that my first reason for coming here was a suggestion from some SEO person that at times you can get a link to your website if done correctly. When it comes to commercial sites you want to be ranked as high as you can, and relevant one-way links fit the bill. I spend a lot of time doing that on my own. I don't like link farms, etc. So when other sites are given free links it is frustrating. BankRate.com doesn't need anymore links. BankCD.com use to charge a fee, but I guess decided they could make more money by having people click ads on their site. And BestCashCow.com, although they give good info, doesn't exist for altruistic reasons. And I believe all 3 fall under #5 of the list of things to avoid when it comes to external links. So, I would like to see their links go away. And just so you know another user felt the same way I did, but I don't recall their exact user name, it was spam something. The history of their changes to the page have been removed. And another ad laden site has a link there now as well. So how many are needed? I vote to have them all removed. BTW, I did add some useful content to the article. $ isn't everything afterall. If those links are going to remain, I don't see why a link to a service company shouldn't be there, as well. Of course then every service company will want a link and your links section just looks useless. So my vote is to remove all "advertiser" links except for bankrate.com, because they are everywhere anyway. --Cdduncan 21:28, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
- There are about 10,000 FDIC-insured institutions and no single service monitors all of them. Therefore, it makes sense to have several links.--AAAAA 21:15, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
- I was encouraged to post this for review. I would like to see all external links to "advertiser" pages be removed. Pleas read on and provide some feed back. I will be honest in that my first reason for coming here was a suggestion from some SEO person that at times you can get a link to your website if done correctly. When it comes to commercial sites you want to be ranked as high as you can, and relevant one-way links fit the bill. I spend a lot of time doing that on my own. I don't like link farms, etc. So when other sites are given free links it is frustrating. BankRate.com doesn't need anymore links. BankCD.com use to charge a fee, but I guess decided they could make more money by having people click ads on their site. And BestCashCow.com, although they give good info, doesn't exist for altruistic reasons. And I believe all 3 fall under #5 of the list of things to avoid when it comes to external links. So, I would like to see their links go away. And just so you know another user felt the same way I did, but I don't recall their exact user name, it was spam something. The history of their changes to the page have been removed. And another ad laden site has a link there now as well. So how many are needed? I vote to have them all removed. BTW, I did add some useful content to the article. $ isn't everything afterall. If those links are going to remain, I don't see why a link to a service company shouldn't be there, as well. Of course then every service company will want a link and your links section just looks useless. So my vote is to remove all "advertiser" links except for bankrate.com, because they are everywhere anyway. --Cdduncan 21:28, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Old Terms and conditions section
I've removed the Terms and conditions section because it is a how to. See WP:NOT. There is potential here for it to be part of an article. But no where near in its current form... —Cliffb 16:28, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Terms and conditions
It is vital that a consumer study the terms and conditions for a CD before purchase.
Employees of the institution are generally not familiar with this information.
In the US, the Federally required "Truth in Savings" booklet, or other disclosure document that gives the terms of the CD, must be made available before the purchase. The standard practice, however, is to provide the booklet to the consumer only after they have purchased a Certificate of Deposit.
- If purchasing at a branch office, the consumer should obtain the disclosure document and check the CD terms before buying a CD.
- If purchasing online or by telephone, the consumer should have the disclosure document faxed or mailed and check the CD terms before buying. In those cases where the terms are posted online, the consumer should print a copy.
While the booklet is at first overwhelming due to the length and tiny type, the portion covering the terms specific to CDs is typically less than one page.
Consumers should not rely on verbal explanations from bank employees; only the documents carry any legal weight.
- Various "certificates" may be offered by companies that are not licensed and regulated financial institutions. CDs can also be forged. See external links in this article.
- In the US, the institution may not be federally insured by the FDIC or NCUA, which perform periodic audits. A few credit unions obtain insurance from private companies, which could fail in a financial crisis. Check that the institution is currently insured at the FDIC or NCUA website.
Check the terms of the CD:
- The penalty for early withdrawal—instead of being measured in months of interest—may be calculated to be equal to the institution's current cost of replacing the money.
- The penalty for early withdrawal may reduce the principal—for example, if principal is withdrawn three months after opening a CD with a six-month penalty.
- Withdrawals of principal may be at the discretion of the financial institution.
- The institution may specify that the CD may be "called"—i.e. closed out by the bank or credit union—at any time. Not good on a CD with a high rate.
- The institution may not commit to sending a notice before automatic rollover at CD maturity.
- The institution may not allow the customary five- or seven-day grace period before automatically rolling over the CD to a new CD at maturity.
- Withdrawal of principal below a certain minimum—or any withdrawal of principal at all—may require closure of the entire CD.
- Any withdrawal of the interest may be limited to the most recent interest payment rather than the accumulated total interest since the CD was opened.
- A fee may be charged for withdrawals or closure.
- The CD may start earning interest from the date of deposit or at the start of the next month or quarter.
- Accumulated interest at the time of withdrawal may be calculated only through the last full month or last full quarter.
- Institutions generally have the right to delay withdrawals by up to 60 days.
- If the CD is in a US Individual Retirement Account, a tax penalty is generally charged for withdrawals or closure before the holder reaches a certain age. There are several major exceptions which are explained on the IRS website.
In the US, if any of these conditions apply, they must be disclosed in the Truth in Savings booklet.
The consumer should file the document covering the terms and conditions under which the CD was purchased.
If the CD is closed early or there is some other issue, the consumer will need to refer to the document to ensure that the employee processing the withdrawal is following the original terms of the contract.
The institution's terms may have changed or the institution may have merged—in either case the original institution's terms still apply. Employees of the institution are generally not familiar with CD terms and the institution's computer system may apply different terms than those on the original contract.
