<prompt> Human: My wife and I have decided on CDs for our savings because were saving up for land so we know we wont need this money for 4-5 years.We spoke with a financial adviser through our credit union, who introduced us to the concept of a CD ladder and let us know that the credit union offers CDs. Im seeing rates like 1.5 for 2 years. A quick look here tells me that this is quite low!Doing the simple math on 100k sitting in an account like this for a year ignoring compound interest reveals that by shopping around for an account with 2.5 APY gets us an extra 750 compared to 1.5 APYWhy does the credit union think well go for these rates? Is it somehow worth the convenience? These online banks look pretty easy to deal with and are FDIC insured just like the credit union. Am I missing something?!Are credit unions simply unable to offer rates which compete with national banks? Or do these rates fluctuate so much, that this is a temporary situation?  <response>: A CD ladder seems like exactly the wrong thing for a down payment. You need the down payment all at once. Why does the credit union think well go for these rates? They probably have no opinion on whether uHR_motonoob personally will go for this rate or not. But some people will do what the financial adviser recommends, without researching it themselves on nerdwallet or bankrate. Are credit unions simply unable to offer rates which compete with national banks? Well, the financial adviser has to get paid somehow, right? It isnt the online bank that is paying him. 