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Citizens Access VS Citizens Trust Bank

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Variety of Terms: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Required Opening Amount: 3.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Competitive interest rates on CDs
  • CD Rate Pledge guarantee
  • Good variety of CD terms offered
  • Encourages CD laddering

Cons:

  • High opening required amounts
  • Limited ways to fund your CD
  • Customer service sets up maturity plan
  • Only two ways to receive CD interest
  • Financial Rates: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Variety of Terms: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Required Opening Amount: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
Star Icon Star Icon Star Icon Star Icon Star Icon

Pros:

  • Low opening required amounts
  • Good variety of CD terms
  • Can open CD terms online
  • Account statements are electronic

Cons:

  • Low interest rates on CDs
  • Jumbo CDs do not earn higher rates
  • Short-term rates are much lower
  • Customer service has limited hours
Citizens Access CD Review

Citizens Access CDs offer competitive interest rates. The rates are much higher than typical bank rates. Each of the CD terms offers interest rates competitive with other online CDs. The interest rates are not tiered. Any balance above $5,000 earns the most competitive interest rate offered.

Each Citizens Access CD comes with the CD Pledge Rate guarantee. Once you fund your CD, Citizens Access watches interest rates for ten days. The Rate Pledge guarantees you lock in the highest interest rate during that time. Once you lock in the highest interest rate, the rate stays the same for the entire term.

Citizens Access offers a good variety of CD terms. Those terms range from a six-month term to a five-year term. In all, Citizens Access offers seven CD term lengths.

Citizens Access encourages CD laddering. This means dividing up your investment between different term CDs. Dividing up your money can earn more interest. You can invest your money into short-term or long-term CDs. The Citizens Access website offers tools to help you understand CD laddering better.

The Citizens Access CDs have high opening required amounts. Each of the CD terms require $5,000 to open. The savings account also requires $5,000 to open.

There are limited ways to open and fund Citizens Access CDs. You cannot deposit cash or make a wire transfer into the CD. You can link an external bank account or deposit a check to fund the account. Make changes to the account during the 10-day grace period or once the CD reaches maturity.

To set up a maturity plan for your Citizens Access CD you need to call customer service. They can help you figure out what happens to your CD once it reaches maturity. Customer service has set hours they are available. Find the hours listed below.

Citizens Access offers two ways for customers to receive the interest earned on their CDs. You can choose to have the money added to the CD principal or transfer the money to another account. Those are the only two options for how to receive the interest earned.

Read the full Citizens Access review.

Citizens Trust Bank CD Review

The initial amount required to open standard Citizens Trust Bank CDs is low. All the standard CDs only require $500 to open. The jumbo CDs require $100,000 to open.

Citizens Trust Bank offers a variety of CD terms. The terms range from seven days to 60-months. There is a total of ten standard CD terms offered. The jumbo CDs also offer the same ten CD terms.

The CD terms offered through Citizens Trust Bank can be opened online. The application is online and completed entirely online.

The statements for Citizens Trust Bank accounts are free. To receive the free statements, signup to receive them electronically. If you wish to receive a statement in the mail, there is a fee of $5 per statement cycle.

The interest rates for Citizens Trust Bank are not competitive with other online CDs. These CD rates are competitive with typical bank rates. The interest rates are not tiered. Any amount over $500 earns the highest rate offered for Citizens Trust Bank CDs.

The jumbo Citizens Trust Bank CDs do not offer any higher interest rates. To open a jumbo CD requires $100,000. These rates are not competitive with other jumbo online CDs. The jumbo rates are not higher than the Citizens Trust Bank standard CD rates.

The short-term CDs hardly earn interest. The seven-day to 31-day terms, 90-day term, and six-month term earn very low interest. These term rates are similar to typical bank savings accounts. Online CDs earn much higher interest.

There are specific hours Citizens Trust Bank operates. Customer service is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. You can call or email customer service. Citizens Trust Bank does offer some branch locations.

Read the full Citizens Trust Bank review.

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