At the end of a week filled with news about interest rate reductions, here’s a bit of news to brighten your day…

A tipster named John wrote in to say that Pentagon Federal Credit Union has raised their CD rates, bumping their 3, 4, 5, and 7-year CDs to 6.00% APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000.

The only catch is that you have to meet the membership criteria of PFCU before you can open an account. Fortunately, this is pretty easy. If you don’t already belong to an eligible group, you can join the National Military Family Association (NMFA) for $20 (there’s no need to renew the membership once your account is open).

As for my opinion of PenFed, we’ve had CDs there since January of 2004 and we’ve been very happy with them. They’re NCUA insured, they offer consistently high rates, and they frequently run specials such as this to attract new money. They also have competitive mortgage rates with really low closing costs and free 90 day rate locks. All in all, their offerings are well worth the small amount of trouble involved in opening an account.