- The Finance Gourmet

8 Biggest Credit Unions in Colorado

August 18, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

For most people, a credit union offers a better banking platform than a traditional bank. Here are the biggest credit unions in Colorado to get you started. Remember, bigger is not always better and smaller Colorado credit unions might offer better value for your situation. There are over 100 credit unions service Colorado, so there is sure to be one that suits your banking needs. CD Rate Specials Are Back Credit unions, like banks, need to balance their deposits against their loans. When loan activity increases faster than deposits, credit unions often turn to CD specials to improve their ability to attract new deposits. And, when things are going good, people tend to tap those home equity loans for summer projects like a new deck, or updated kitchen. More loan dollars requires more deposit dollars and BOOM, rate specials. People who might not normally bother joining a credit union change their tune when they can pick up a sweet CD rate instead of resigning themselves to a measly 3%. When loans are high (here come the profits) credit unions don’t mind the rate shoppers so much. These big Colorado credit unions are offering those specials now as we head into …

Marcus High Interest Savings Account Review

October 11, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

Update: As of January 2024, the current interest rate Marcus accounts is 4.50% Update: As of July 2024, the interest rate on the Marcus High-Yield Savings Account is 4.40%. Update: As of 10/11/24, the interest rate on Goldman Sach’s Marcus High-Yield online savings account is now 4.10% after recent rate cuts by the Fed. High Yield Savings Worth It Again After a few years decades of the Fed running along with near zero interest rates yielding high-yield savings account earning only a few cents more, online high yield savings accounts are back. With interest rates up over 3% for the first time in a long while, watching that monthly interest payment hit is a whole lot more fun now. As someone a little older and with more finance experience the return to 6% mortgages and savings accounts paying at least a few percentage points feels like normal. However, it’s been over 20 years since the Fed Funds rate was this high, so this might all be new to you if you are in your 30s, or younger. While the cost of your borrowing has gone up, whether it’s mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, or personal loans, taking out a loan …

Westerra Goes Big (For a Little)

September 4, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

9 percent cd credit union financegourmet.com

The main credit unions in Colorado have left behind the days where marketing meant sitting there, serving your customers well, have lower fees, and higher interest, and waiting for the smart, financially savvy people to find you on their own. Well, that, and collecting new employees at the companies they started out servicing. Today’s credit unions are willing to put some effort into finding new members and making sure you find them. Westerra Credit Union 90th Anniversary CD Westerra has been around since 1934, which is bonkers. I didn’t even think they had credit unions by then. Be that as it may, the company is making a splash with an outlandish 5-month 9.0% APY CD. Of course, 9% comes with some fine print. In this case, the CD has a maximum deposit of $3,000 and those funds have to be new money to the credit union. Still, 9% on $3,000 is a lot better than 2.5% on $3,000 in some savings account, or even 4.5% in an online high-yield savings account. And you get local, physical locations to go with it just in case you ever need to talk to someone in person, get a cashier’s check, or even get …

Venmo Debit Card Review

February 25, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

I resisted the various cash transfer apps for as long as a could. My primary issue was always security, and judging by the number of people who end up calling, crying and trying to get their money back, that wasn’t unfounded. But time marches on, and it turns out that, used properly, services like Venmo, Cashapp, and Zelle can actually be easier, better, and more efficient than the old, “I’ll get you next time.” It also eliminates the need to carry around smaller bills just in case you need to break a twenty in order to pay for something with friends. However, just because Venmo is a good idea, doesn’t mean that a Venmo debit card scam isn’t in the offing. So, let’s do a Venmo debit card review to make sure no one is getting cheated by Venmo, and answer is the Venmo debit card good. Venmo Debit Card Review Basics How To Get a Venmo Card Venmo offers both a debit card and a credit card. To get a Venmo debit card you simply request one within the Venmo app or click the button on the Venmo debit card email they send out to verified Venmo users. Do …

Is Zelle Scam or Legit? A Zelle Review

February 28, 2024January 26, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

You may have seen the commercials for Zelle, the payment app. They aren’t very specific about what Zelle does, or how it does it. Questions that may pop into your mind are things like, how does Zelle work? Is Zelle legit, or a scam? Why would I bother to use Zelle? Is Zelle safe? You might even have Zelle through your bank without even asking for it. Time to check out some Zelle reviews. If you already use a payment app, your questions are probably more like, is Zelle better than Venmo, or is Square Cash better than Zelle? It’s time for our Zelle review. Soon we’ll have a look at Zelle vs Venmo. Zelle Reviews Zelle is actually two products from the same company. One version of Zelle is the behind-the-scenes payment system backed by, and used by, several American banks inside of their own banking apps. This is the part that the commercials claim is “already on your phone,” or “already in your banking app.” Since Zelle works directly with various banks, they play nicer with Zelle than with others including transferring money with no fees and allowing “instant” transfers and withdrawals. Check out my Acorns app review …

SoFi Review – Legit, Scam, Worth It?

January 4, 2024November 11, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

What Is SoFi? In this SoFi review we will take a look at what SoFi offers and the pros and cons of SoFi. We’ll see is SoFi legit, or is is SoFia scam? SoFi, like most other niche financial services companies, is expanding. It turns out that once you get a foothold, and a few developers working full-time for you, cranking out “disruptive” finance services is easy. SoFi has a wide array of financial products including loans, banking, investing, and more. Most of SoFi money is legit, but whether it’s better than others is the key. SoFi Loans First, SoFi was a lender. If you scroll to the bottom of their webpage, you’ll see in the fine print that officially, SoFi (the lending part) is SoFi Lending Corp. NMLS #1121636. You see, lending corporations are real things that exist and are also heavily regulated. Believe it or not, there is no need, nor requirement to be a bank to give out loans. It just means you have to get the money you are going to lend out to people from somewhere besides customer bank deposits. In this case, SoFi investors supply the money the company lends out. At this stage, …

Merrick Bank Credit Card Reviews

January 7, 2024August 19, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

merrick bank credit cards secure credit card

Recently, someone asked me about a credit card offer they received from Merrick Bank. I wasn’t familiar with Merrick Bank, so I agreed to look into it. The Merrick Bank credit card is pretty interesting for the right type of person. The Merrick Bank secure credit card lets people with no credit, or terrible credit, rebuild their credit or build a high credit score for the first time. They also seem to offer people who recently emerged from bankruptcy low-limit unsecure credit cards as well. So, if you are looking for something that works as a credit card for 500 score, this might be your huckleberry. Let’s dive in a bit deeper than most Merrick bank reviews. Merrick Bank Credit Card Reviews The first thing about Merrick Bank is where it is located. If you’ve never heard of Merrick Bank, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Most people don’t realize that “bank” can mean a lot of different things. In this case, bank means an issuer of loans and credit cards, not a bank that takes regular deposits and has branches. It is FDIC insured and is one of the top issuers of Visa cards, but you won’t see a Merrick …

Should I Open a CD Now Before the Next Fed Meeting?

July 12, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

The Federal Reserve has been highly predictable for the last few years thanks to Covid and a brittle economy, but high inflation changed the game. Now knowing if you should open a CD before the next Fed meeting is a little trickier. However, this Fed hasn’t changed its stripes and predicting the Fed’s moves in the short term is still easy enough to make decisions with your money. Should I Open a CD If the Fed Is Raising Interest Rates? If you bought a 5-year CD paying 1.45% a year or two ago, that probably feels like a bad move buying a CD. Don’t feel too bad you aren’t the only ones. Professional asset managers bankrupted a favorite Silicon Valley stock by buying long-term treasuries when they were paying pennies. Like you, they took what they could get. Ideally, you want to wait until the Fed raises interest rates before buying a CD. Higher rate CDs mean more interest for you. However, you have to remember about opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of what you could have been doing with your money while you were doing something else, like waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates. That …

WalletHub Review Is It Legit or Scam Free Credit Reports

February 3, 2024June 18, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

WalletHub reviews are mostly positive, but let’s take a deeper look into exactly who WalletHub is, and what they do. What Is WalletHub? WalletHub is an online financial service that offers personal finance tools for users. The main offering is a daily free credit score, and the related free credit report. After taking a close look, here is my WalletHub review. Is WalletHub Legit, or is WalletHub a scam? In order for a company to pull and use your credit report, and then calculate a credit score, it will need to collect personal identifying information. This is exactly the kind of information you don’t want to be handing off to a scammer, so the first item of business with a company like this is determining if Wallet Hub is legitimate or not. So, the first step of any Wallet Hub review needs to be finding out who they are. WalletHub is an offering by a company called Evolution Finance. The company was founded in 2008, according to Bloomberg, and has been mentioned numerous times in the media. The original product was a credit card comparison website called CardHub. This isn’t a WalletHub scam necessarily. You can still get there if you …

CIT Bank High Yield Savings

June 4, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Getting high interest rates from CIT Bank is not that hard, but as always, you want to be sure it is the right choice for your finances. High Interest Rates Online Savings As with most things these days, there is a way to get a better financial deal on your money if you find an online bank without the overhead of a local bank. We’ve talked before about Marcus high-yield savings, Goldman Sach’s, entry in the high online interest account world. Like Marcus, CIT Bank is an online brand of a bigger bank. In this case, CIT Bank is a division of First Citizens Bank, a publicly traded financial institution with $100+ billion in assets. Is CIT Bank a Scam? As always, we start from the beginning. Is CIT Bank a scam or is CIT Bank legit for higher interest rates? It doesn’t take much digging to see that CIT Bank is not a scam. As mentioned above, it is part of a large U.S. Bank that is FDIC insured, the gold standard for banks in America. Just because CIT Bank is not a scam as a fly by night company doesn’t necessarily mean that CIT Bank offerings are not …