Don’t Bank on It

My bank got me good. I had a CD that was scheduled to mature in September. They sent me a notice in July saying that if I did nothing the CD would automatically renew at an interest rate that would be determined in September. I planned to call and ask about the new rate, but it’s hard to remember to do in September what you thought of in July. I figured that if I missed the deadline, the new rate would be similar and it would be no big deal. Idiot. I forgot about it until midmonth, one day after I could have done something about it. I just found out the rate difference. The original APY was 5.1%. The new one is 3.7%—that’s barely staying ahead of inflation! The penalty for withdrawing the principle would wipe out most of the gains made by moving the money. Yeah, they got me good.