It's hard to find rates in the 3.00% range but there are still a few insititutions keeping their rates above that mark. Navy Federal Credit Union takes the spotlight this week for its 3.00% APY 20-Month IRA CD. The retirement CD has a low minimum deposit requirement of $50. That's a great rate considering that the best 5-year CD from a bank is 2.78% APY and from a credit union it's 3.10% APY.

IRA CDs are certificates of deposit that are held within individual retirement accounts. They accrue interest just like regular CDs although because the certificate is held in a retirement account, the interest is tax deferred (Traditional IRA) or tax free (Roth IRA). The limit for contributing to an IRA each year is:

• Traditional IRA - An amount equal to your taxable income up to $5,000 or up to $6,000 if you are 50 or over.
• Roth IRA - Same as the Traditional IRA, with one exception: you cannot contribute if your income exceeds a certain level for your tax filing status.

Once money is in a Traditional or Roth IRA, you can move between different investment options, with an IRA CD being one of them.

The 20-month Navy certificate has a maximum balance limit of $18,000. Unlike regular CDs, you can make additional deposits to the IRA CD at any time. At maturity, the CD will automatically convert to a 24-month IRA CD at the prevailing rate if you don't specify otherwise or move the money elsewhere.

In October, I highlighted Navy Federal's 12-month 3% CD special (offer still good). In the article I explained that:

"Credit unions, unlike banks, often restrict membership. In the case of Navy FCU, the membership criteria is quite broad. You have to have some relation to the military, civilian or uniformed personal, or be a grandparent, child, or grandchild of someone who does. A complete elibibility list is here. Note: I called and was told that if you are a child or grandchild, parent or grandparent must have retired from the military, not just served in order for you to qualify."

Navy Federal Credit Union is the largest credit union in the United States according to BestCashCow data with $45 billion in assets, up $1 billion from last quarter. It is NCUA insured. The credit union has a low Texas Ratio of 8.34%, normally a sign that the institution is sound.

• Find other great IRA CD rates.

New - Email Rate Updates for BestCashCow Readers

I also wanted to announce that we recently added a new feature to the site. Users can now register to receive the best bank rates via email every Monday. You can choose to either receive the best rates for banks across the country, or you can receive the best rates for your state. You can cancel delivery at any time and also login to change which product rates you receive for which state. This email service is free. You can register for the service here.

I hope to eventually also have the weekly rate updates go out via this email service.

Previous Weekly Rate Deals

• January 5, 2012 - Consumers Credit Union Offers 4.09% APY Rewards Checking Account - Nationally Available
• December 29, 2011 - Aflac Federal Credit Union Offering 2.41% APY Savings Account
• December 19, 2011 - CIT Bank and Its 1.15% APY 12-Month Achiever CD
• December 12, 2011 - Citizens State Bank of TX Offering 2.85% IRA CD
• December 5, 2011 - Digital Federal Credit Union Offering 2.86% APY CD - Nationally Available

Check back next Monday for a new bank deal. Email any deals you know about to ratedeal (at) bestcashcow.com. Feel free to also share them below. If you're a bank and have a great deal not listed on BestCashCow, register for access and add the deal to the site.

New- Remember, to receive FREE weekly emails updates with the best bank rates for your state, click here to register.

Over the past nine weeks we've gone mostly local in search of the best places to put your money. This week, we're going virtual and are shining the spotlight on CIT Bank. The bank offers a line of competitive CDs with the best among them their 12-month Achiever CD, which boats a 1.15% APY. That's the top cd rate for that term according to the BestCashCow rate tables. Not only is it a good rate, but the CD has some flexibility. If CD rates go up you have the opportunity to bump up your rate and your deposit amount once over the term of the CD.

I don't expect rates to rise over the next 12 months so I would normally discount this option. Banks usually provide it in return for a low starting rate. But in this case, the 1.15% APY is a great rate, so you aren't giving up anything for the flexibility.

In addition to this competitive 12-month CD rate, CIT also leads the online CD Rates in the following terms:

One disadvantage is the relatively high minimum balance required to get the rates. The 1-year Achiever CD has a minimum balance of $25,000 but it increases to $100,000 for the other terms.

CIT Bank operates exclusively online so if you want these rates you'll have to open them via the Web. The good news about that is that these rates are available nationally.

CIT Bank was founded in 2000 and has approximately $7 billion in assets, up from $2.8 billion in 2006. The bank's Texas Ratio of 9.18% is well below the national average of 21.06% (lower is better). The bank is a subsidiary of CIT Group, a publicly traded company founded in 1908 that provides financing and leasing capital to more than a million small and mid-sized businesses. The company trades under the symbol (NYSE: CIT).

If you don't want to open an account online, then check out the best CD rates in your local area.

Previous Weekly Rate Deals

• December 12, 2011 - Citizens State Bank of TX Offering 2.85% IRA CD
• December 5, 2011 - Digital Federal Credit Union Offering 2.86% APY CD - Nationally Available
• November 29, 2011 - Community First Bank Offering 2.78% APY 60-Month CD
• November 21, 2011 - Premier Federal Credit Union Offering 2% APY on 24-Month CD
• November 14, 2011 - Institution for Savings of Newburyport Offering 3 Year CD at 2.50% APY
• November 7, 2011 - State Savings Bank of Rake, IA Offering 3.82% APY FIRA
• October 31, 2011 - First Choice Bank Offering 2.80% APY 5-Year CD
• October 24, 2011 - First National Bank of St. Ignace Offering 12-Month Flex CD at 1.51% APY
• Oct 17, 2011 - Weekly Rate Deal - Navy Federal Credit Union Offering 3% APY 12-Month CD
• Oct 7, 2011 - Farmers & Traders Bank Takes Weekly Rate Deal for 3% APY 60-Month CD

Check back next Monday for a new bank deal. Email any deals you know about to ratedeal (at) bestcashcow.com. Feel free to also share them below. If you're a bank and have a great deal not listed on BestCashCow, register for access and add the deal to the site.

This week we travel to Buffalo, TX to recognize Citizen State Bank and their extremely awesome 2.85% Fixed rate IRA (FIRA also known as IRA CDs). How good is that? Very good. According to BestCashCow data (based on data from thousands of banks and credit unions) the best 5-year CD rate is 2.78% APY. So that means the Citizen State's retirement CD beats the best regular CD regardless of term. Now, this is a retirement product so it's a bit different, but still, the rate is very good.

What makes it even better is that the product and term are flexible. You can invest the money into either a Roth IRA or a Traditional IRA. If you invest in a Roth, then you can choose terms of 3, 12, or 60 months. If you invest in a Traditional IRA, then the terms are 3, 12, 18, 30. That means you could invest money into your IRA for three months and receive 2.85%. Or you could invest in an 12 month FIRA and receive the same rate. Where can you earn 2.85% annual return for a three month term?

I spoke to Citizens State and they confimed this. The nice woman on the phone also told me that she didn't expect they would be lowering rates anytime soon.

So, who is Citizens State Bank? The bank, founded in 1925 operates five branches spread out south of Dallas. You can view the bank's branches here. This is important because you can only open a FIRA with Citizens State by walking into one of their branches. They don't accept applications via the phone or Internet. That's the biggest negative about this product - it's not available to those outside of the bank's region.

The bank has an extremely low Texas Ratio of 1.96% (low is good) and has aggressivily grown their assets over the last five years from $205 million in 2006 to $458 million today.

If you don't live near a Citizens State branch, check out the Fixed IRA rates from banks and credit unions in your local area. If you do open an FIRA there, let us know how the process went. We'd love to hear your experiences cashing in on some of these weekly rate deals.

Previous Weekly Rate Deals

• December 5, 2011 - Digital Federal Credit Union Offering 2.86% APY CD - Nationally Available
• November 29, 2011 - Community First Bank Offering 2.78% APY 60-Month CD
• November 21, 2011 - Premier Federal Credit Union Offering 2% APY on 24-Month CD
• November 14, 2011 - Institution for Savings of Newburyport Offering 3 Year CD at 2.50% APY
• November 7, 2011 - State Savings Bank of Rake, IA Offering 3.82% APY FIRA
• October 31, 2011 - First Choice Bank Offering 2.80% APY 5-Year CD
• October 24, 2011 - First National Bank of St. Ignace Offering 12-Month Flex CD at 1.51% APY
• Oct 17, 2011 - Weekly Rate Deal - Navy Federal Credit Union Offering 3% APY 12-Month CD
• Oct 7, 2011 - Farmers & Traders Bank Takes Weekly Rate Deal for 3% APY 60-Month CD

Check back next Monday for a new bank deal. Email any deals you know about to ratedeal (at) bestcashcow.com. Feel free to also share them below. If you're a bank and have a great deal not listed on BestCashCow, register for access and add the deal to the site.