Updated 5/15/2019
AAPR is no longer offering saving accounts through Huntington National Bank. For a list of AARP benefits see their site.

Updated: 7/08/08. AARP had an amazing savings rate. They took in a lot funds and then kindly dropped the rate. It stands at 4.05% APY. The underlying bank is Huntington National Bank. Their FDIC # is 6560. I will warn you though. The health of Huntington is questionable. Granted, they are a very large bank, about $54BB, and the Fed has shown some resistance to allowing large banks to fail;the Fed did close down ANB Financial, about $2BB.

Bankrate.com gives them 3-stars which is average. When I actually tried to review the report, there was an error. Interestingly enough, there was a big ad for AARP on the site. I’m jealous. The rating system we use gives them the equivalent of 1-star. That is for data reported as of 12/07.

I believe the deposit may be able to be held at Countrywide instead. I saw some other people posting they wouldn’t dare let that happen. Ironically, Countrywide has a higher rating in the system we use (3-stars), but everyone has been scared away by the bad press. Bankrate.com has Countrywide as unrated.

So tread carefully. I would recommend keeping funds under $100,000 if you go through with the deposit. If you are doing POD accounts make sure it is titled correctly. The FDIC regs say not only do the bank records have to clearly have the beneficiaries listed, but the letters POD or ITF have to be on the account title.

cd :O)

-- By Chris Duncan

Posted in Best Savings Rates