The Third Federal Savings & Loan has their highest CD rates at 4.00% APY for a 72-month program. Other competitive certificate of deposit deals are offered at 3.5% APY for 60 month CDs and 3.25% APY for the 48-month special.

These top CD rates can be enjoyed upon a minimum deposit of $500.

Looking at the 4.00% deal for the 6-year money in the bank a few years back is low but it is very competitive in today’s market. For this long term investment, there is a possibility of higher interest rates when inflation sets in the next few years given all the bail out funds being injected by the federal government into the financial system. This cannot be guaranteed though given the results in Japan during the Asian financial crisis in the 1990’s.

Long term investments like this one from Third Federal must have two features to be considered competitive. First, it must have low early withdrawal penalty. Second, it must come from a strong financial institution. Safe to say, consumers can tick the box for these two when looking at Third Federal.

You need to look for small withdrawal penalties to protect your investment from low rate certificate of deposit programs in case the interest rates will shoot up during the CD term. Third Federal imposes 6 months of interest as penalty for early withdrawal of terms more than 12 months. This penalty is not the lowest in the market but is better than other banks.

Who doesn’t need a strong financial institution? This is very important so that you can truly benefit from the CD program and that it will not end prematurely. In the event of bank closure, the FDIC will let another institution assume your deposit. The new bank reserves the right not to honor your existing rates.

Third Federal is in very good shape today. The bank survived what other banks was not able to solve because it did not have acid investments on risky lending in the past years. The review of its performance showed that 4Q figures for 2008 is lower compared to 2007 but the its stocks remain selling at 2 digits and is still profitable.

The bank was given 5 stars by BauerFinancial and 4 stars by bankrate.com.

A bank representative disclosed that people from any state can apply for the CD programs through their online system. Individuals can also visit their branches spread across South Florida and Ohio.