FDIC Leaves All Fintech Users Unprotected in Regulatory Blindspot! (Too Small to Care?)

Posted on June 12, 2024 // 40 Comments

I’ve been traveling internationally for the last couple of weeks, and with all the chaos of trying not to lose any of the kids on whatever multi-transfer subway ride or hiking trail is on the agenda every day, I felt quite relieved that my finances were so low-maintenance. Buy-and-hold means I don’t need to check stock market quotes, I pay all my bills online once a month for 10 minutes, and I have enough cash cushion so I don’t stress about daily cashflow (matching up payday timing with expenses).

Unfortunately, for the folks that put their day-to-day cash in the “checking accounts” of fintechs like Juno and Yotta, the past few weeks have been the opposite. Their cash is frozen in limbo, with a bankrupt Synapse (Banking-as-a-Service provider) rapidly winding down and shedding all of their employees while pointing the fingers at everyone else.

Roughly $85 million in user deposits is unaccounted for. The ledger of transactions and balances does not match up between Synapse and Evolve. The bankruptcy judge apparently has very little power (and no money) and has resorted to asking for a private forensic accounting firm to help out “pro bono”. Given the possibility of theft there, I think potential jail time should be on the table, personally. Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly is still the best source track new developments.

To be clear, the users of Yotta and Juno had ABA routing numbers and account numbers from Evolve Trust & Bank. Users could very well be forgiven for assuming that they had “direct” or demand deposit accounts (DDA) accounts at Evolve Trust & Bank.

The FDIC has maintained their stance that this is not a bank failure, and thus not their responsibility to help. Instead, they just quietly updated their website with some “helpful” Consumer News:

Increasingly, some consumers are choosing to open accounts through nonbank companies (typically online or through mobile apps), such as technology companies providing financial services (often referred to as fintech companies), that may or may not have business relationships with banks. If and how a bank is involved is key to understanding whether or not your money is protected by deposit insurance. However, in some cases, it is not always clear to consumers if they are dealing directly with an FDIC-insured bank or with a nonbank company.

[…] However, FDIC deposit insurance does not protect against the insolvency or bankruptcy of a nonbank company. In such cases, while consumers may be able to recover some or all of their funds through an insolvency or bankruptcy proceeding, often handled by a court, such recovery may take some time. As a result, you may want to be particularly careful about where you place your funds, especially money that you rely on to meet your regular day-to-day living expenses.

This is clearly a huge regulatory blind spot. The FDIC (along with other regulators) has publicly allowed millions of individuals to open up accounts at this companies which promote “banking” services, “savings accounts”, “checking accounts”, and most importantly ‘FDIC-insurance”. The FDIC has allowed this advertising to happen for years and years. Everyday consumers clearly believed that their money is “safe” and FDIC-insured. Why wouldn’t they? The system benefited from the addition of billions of dollars in deposits into partner banks. Many of these customers are the previously “unbanked” and “underbanked”.

Chime has over 20 million customers and over $6 billion in deposits. You think all those people know that they could instantly lose access to their money for months? You think they know they could experience permanent financial loss if Chime doesn’t track everything perfectly?

I truly believed that some regulatory agency, perhaps the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in collaboration with the FDIC, would step in to close up this blind spot. The Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Reserve. But instead, everyone has backed away. In my opinion, this is a case of many small individual consumers being ignored. If this was a bigger story, if there was more political pressure from a single powerful person or company, I believe some positive action would have occurred.

Instead, fintechs are essentially sent back to the age of the Great Depression, before there was FDIC insurance and you never knew if your bank would fail and your money would disappear. How is the individual consumer supposed to know if their fintech is properly reconciling every single transaction? If a company can simply lose $85 million of user deposits that were marketed as “checking accounts” with “FDIC insurance” and not have any repercussions because they declared bankruptcy, then this is the Wild West again. What does it matter if pass-through FDIC insurance exists, if a simple addition or subtraction reconciliation error from the company can negate it?

The following quote is credited to John Maynard Keynes when questioned about changing his stance (long backstory):

When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?

Well, I’ve changed my mind. The FDIC has allowed misleading marketing for years, all while the member banks have profited from fintech deposits. Yet it won’t protect the affected everyday consumer. I will no longer trust any fintech with my money for longer than it takes to grab a quick sign-up bonus. I’ll probably avoid any sort of deposit bonus that requires a longer hold period. In my opinion, even the silence from other fintechs has been disappointing. This event stains them all. I will no longer maintain any significant balance at a fintech.

Dig deeper into the weeds here, here, and here.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Filed Under: Banking //

When Fintech Apps Break: Lessons From Juno, Yotta, Copper, Yieldstreet Wallet, Synapse, Evolve Bank Lawsuits

Posted on May 20, 2024 // 31 Comments

What happens when the technology behind a Fintech app breaks down? We found out last week, when unfortunately millions of users lost access to their funds (and still haven’t gotten it back as far as I can tell, as of this writing 5pm ET 5/20/24). That’s a week and counting! Spoiler alert: My understanding is it was really the relationships between humans arguing about money that broke down.

A little Fintech background. When you open an account with a Fintech App (financial technology company), you are often presented with some fine print: “*[Fintech App] is not a bank. Banking services provided by [Real Bank], Member FDIC.” What does that mean? It means that the Fintech is charge of managing the customer-facing interactions – a software layer if you will – and the bank provides access to FDIC insurance and the banking transaction infrastructure. The bank usually opens up an “FBO account” for the fintech. Here is a good definition from Treasury Prime:

An FBO Account (For-Benefit-Of Account) is an umbrella fiduciary account that pools various funds “for the benefit of” a number of beneficiaries, such as end-users, without the fintech assuming ownership interest in the accounts. For fintechs that want to control more of the user experience and not leverage pre-defined bank processes, a fintech may choose to open an FBO account instead. […]

The fintech company can open up the FBO account that sits on their partner bank’s core for the benefit of all of its customers, and use it to establish virtual accounts. In this scenario, the fintech’s end customer would have a sub-account (or “ledger” account) that sits within the umbrella FBO account. The fintech can then track these virtual accounts on a ledger with the support of its BaaS provider.

Deposits held by the customer as a beneficiary to the FBO account are FDIC-insured on a pass-through basis to the same extent as if the deposits were made directly, assuming specific requirements are met.

Significantly, the fintech has no ownership interest in the FBO account and has no control over the funds. The bank maintains control over the funds at all times.

In some cases, the bank itself provides and markets this “Banking as a Service” to external fintech companies. In other cases, there are standalone “Banking as a Service” (BaaS) companies that are essentially the middlemen between fintechs and banks. This was the case with Juno, Yotta, and Copper. (I would not open an account with any of these places right now. Read on for the drama.)


I’m not an expert on these matters, but this is my best understanding of what happened:

  • Synapse, a BaaS provider, had a dispute over millions in unpaid fees and misappropriated user funds with another fintech, Mercury, and the same Evolve Trust & Bank. (Mercury later went to partner directly with Evolve.) Synapse filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Another company, Tabapay, was in talks to acquire Synapse, but that was announced as cancelled on May 9th, 2024. Synapse blamed Evolve Bank & Trust for not resolving existing issues so that the acquisition could move forward. Another player, Lineage Bank, did payment processing for Synapse and also cut off Synapse on May 9th, 2024. They also still holds millions of user funds in an FBO account.
  • On May 11th, 2024, Synapse blocked Evolve from accessing to their “Dashboard” which had the transaction ledger data of every fintech user from Juno, Yotta, and Copper. Since this meant that Evolve Bank & Trust couldn’t verify the reason for money coming in and out of the FBO accounts held at their bank, they completely froze access to those FBO accounts.1 This meant that ACH transfers in and out no longer worked, and debit card transactions also failed.
  • Synapse says that they restored this Dashboard access on May 13, 2024.2 Evolve disputes this and says that they have not received adequate settlement and ledger reports.3 Evolve and Synapse continue to argue inside a US bankruptcy court.
  • Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly, @mikulaja) has been providing some of the most direct and timely insight on this situation.
  • Right now, things are still a dumpster fire. 🗑🔥 The FDIC apparently is not getting involved because this is not a bank failure. The bankruptcy judge is basically looking down at two fighting children and yelling “You two! Sort it out!” Meanwhile, more than entire week has passed and the end customers still haven’t been able to access their funds as this writing 5pm ET 5/20/24.

In the previously-mentioned Treasury Prime article, it goes on to mention the heightened risk of an “intermingled FBO model” setup. I don’t know if this is what Synapse offered, but it does ring several alarms 🚨:

Some BaaS providers offer an intermingled FBO model through bank partnerships. In this particular model, the BaaS provider opens one FBO account for the benefit of all of its fintech end-users across various companies, rather than have each fintech open an FBO account with the partner bank directly.

The level of risk in this arrangement could be profoundly greater than the risk of a traditional FBO account.

[…] Even more concerning to the fintech in this arrangement is the significant ledgering precision and reconciliation required in this model. Any slight ledgering error or calculation gap could require rebalancing and re-ledgering all ledger accounts or sub-accounts in the entire FBO account. This could potentially create a domino effect and impact the records and corresponding funds of a large number of accounts.

The takeaway? Fintechs are still a new form of banking that isn’t well-regulated and things can break. Even though pass-through FDIC insurance applies, I would still never make any fintech my primary day-to-day checking account due to the possibility of short-term loss of access. Now, I’d bet that I am in the top 0.1% of people with the most fintech accounts opened. I’m probably nearing triple digits. I still plan to open new accounts, try out new features, and earn sign-up bonuses and perks. Even if I try to perform due diligence, I know that these folks learned from the school of “ask for forgiveness, not permission”. If startups choose to “move fast and break things”, it may take a while to fix them. Not all fintechs are the same, but never put all your eggs in one basket.

I still expect all customer funds to be released eventually, but I know that the lack of access to funds can be very painful for people and that is very unfortunate. It bugs me that you know that the rich CEOs aren’t being forced to negotiate with landlords, credit card companies, medical providers, and so on. Here is a link to file a CFPB complaint.

I don’t plan to do any future business with any of the parties involved. The biggest fintechs involved seem to have stuck with a bankrupt BaaS provider for several months because they didn’t find a better option (or nobody else wanted to deal with them). Yotta did lottery-type games. Juno did crypto. Per an email from Juno:

Over the last 6 months we have attempted several times to diversify our banking stack and even spent 3 months of engineering resources to integrate with a new partner. Given that our platform offers crypto adjacent services, it has been incredibly difficult to get a final approval from a bank partner to onboard customers. This is a broader problem specific to the crypto industry due to the current regulatory climate not being favourable to crypto or crypto adjacent companies.

Copper, Juno, and Yotta all neglect to mention this crisis on their front pages. They should be more transparent with their issues. With the public anger growing, Yotta instead went and completely deleted their X/Twitter account. Wow.

1 From TechCrunch:

An Evolve spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that on May 11, “Evolve Bank & Trust faced an unexpected challenge when Synapse abruptly and without prior notice disabled our access to an account and transaction information dashboard controlled by Synapse and needed by Evolve. This sudden disruption significantly impacted our ability to maintain the visibility and transparency that Evolve needs to have into accounts and transactions. In response to this situation, Evolve took swift and decisive action to safeguard the security of end user funds and ensure compliance with applicable laws. As a precautionary measure, we made the difficult decision to freeze payment and card activity until we could successfully re-establish access to the dashboard as well as receive necessary account and transaction data and reports. While we understand the inconvenience this may have caused, this step was taken with the utmost consideration for the security and integrity of end user accounts. Evolve continues to work diligently to obtain necessary information from Synapse.”

2 From Medium written by the Synapse founder:

The continuation of the account freeze by Evolve, despite the restoration of Dashboard access on Monday, May 13, 2024, is unsupportable. Freezing the funds has been unnecessary and punitive, causing significant harm to depositors who rely on access to their funds for essential needs.

3 From Forbes:

The hearing brought no end to the dispute that led Evolve to block customer access to funds, after, it says, Synapse cut off its access to a dashboard necessary for the bank to run compliance screens and determine how much money each individual fintech customer actually has in pooled accounts maintained for their benefit. Synapse says that access was restored this past Monday, but Evolve insists it still doesn’t have what it needs.

Barash did what he could to force a resolution. He ordered Synapse to provide settlement and ledger reports that Evolve Chief Technology Officer Christopher Staab testified the bank had not received. He also ordered executive and technical team members from Evolve and Synapse to meet and confer by Monday to discuss how to restore consumers’ access to their funds.

Filed Under: Banking //

5.10% APY CDs, 5.10% APY No-Penalty CDs, 5.276% APY Savings via Raisin (Limited-Time Bonus Boost, up to $200)

Posted on May 13, 2024 // 28 Comments

Limited-time Referral Bonus Boost: The Raisin referral bonus for new accounts has been hiked for a limited time, doubled on some tiers and now up to $200. The new tiers are below. At the $5,000 and $10,000 amounts, the bonus works out to 1% of the deposit for a minimum 90 day hold, which works out to a 4% annualized boost above the existing interest rates. ($50k tier = 1.2% APY annualized boost, $100k tiers = 0.8% annualized boost). Here is my referral link and my personal referral code is jonathanp31786. Thanks if you use it.

Full review:

Updated rates for July 2024. Raisin.com (formerly SaveBetter) is a financial marketplace that allows you to access high-interest certificates of deposit and savings accounts from multiple different banks and credit unions without having to open up a new account at each one. Every participation institution is either FDIC-insured or NCUA-insured. The participating banks, product terms, and interest rates change regularly. SaveBetter is now Raisin, to better match the same popular service that runs in Europe. Here are the top Raisin offers as of 5/1/2024:

High-Yield CDs

  • 5.10% APY for 12-month CD. CDs are for locking in a rate. I don’t really consider anything less than a year term to be useful. Minimum opening deposit is $1.

No-Penalty CDs

  • 5.10% APY for a 9-month No Penalty CD. Your rate will never go down, but there is also no early withdrawal penalty. Withdrawals may be made 30 days after opening.

Liquid Savings

  • 5.27% APY Savings Account. Minimum opening deposit is $1. No limit on number of transactions.

Background on Raisin. Raisin is a marketplace for partner banks and credit unions looking to promote their deposit products. They offer liquid savings account, No-Penalty CDs, and High-Yield traditional CDs. Funds are held in a custodial account at the bank or credit union that is providing your selected savings product(s). The banks are all FDIC-insured and the credit unions are all NCUA-insured. Raisin does not charge any monthly maintenance fees. Raisin’s US operations are a subsidiary of Raisin GmbH, a German financial company that also offers high-interest deposit products across Europe.

The benefit for the consumer is that you can easily access promotional rates at a new bank or credit union without having to open yet another new account (and endure credit checks, identify verification hurdles, join partner organizations, leave funds in share savings accounts, etc). This makes it easier to chase higher savings accounts and CD rates. You must link a single external bank account and make all your deposits and withdrawals electronically through that linked account. You can only have one external bank account linked at a time, so choose carefully.

A drawback is that you do not get direct access to your Raisin sub-accounts via routing number and account number. You must go through the Raisin site to open accounts, make deposits, and make withdrawals. Your single linked external bank is your only access to Raisin, so in a way I mentally name it also as my “Raisin bank account”. Here is a simple illustration I made that helps me visualize this setup:

Here are some more details from the Raisin site:

5. What is a custodial account and how does it work?
Custodial accounts are involved in how Raisin directs the money transfers from customers to the banks and credit unions holding their savings. When a customer makes a deposit through their Raisin account into a savings product offered by a given financial institution, the funds move from the customer’s external bank account (also referred to as the reference account) to an omnibus custodial account held by Lewis and Clark Bank (functioning in the role as a custodian bank) at the financial institution offering the savings product.

6. How does pass-through deposit insurance work?
Although Raisin customers’ deposits are pooled in omnibus accounts, there is no impact on the eligible deposit insurance coverage you receive from the financial institution holding your savings. This is because the government entities providing federal deposit insurance — the FDIC for banks and NCUA for credit unions — permit pass-through coverage. So your money that’s pooled in a custodial account still has the coverage it would have were it held in an individual account in your name.

I suspect this setup is a lower cost structure for the banks as well, which in turn allows higher interest rates. After learning about omnibus accounts, I noticed that other places like Fidelity Investments also use them in their cash sweep accounts as temporary holding accounts. Search for “omnibus” in your terms and conditions. This is also similar to how “brokered CDs” are usually managed when you buy them through a broker like Vanguard and Fidelity – the funds are pooled together at the issuing bank and don’t include individual account numbers. Same with the FDIC-insured accounts inside many 529 plans.

Referral bonus ($5,000+ deposit required). The minimum deposit for both their savings and CDs are usually as low as $1 (each product has different terms). However, if you are new to Raisin and plan to deposit at least $5,000, they do have a referral program if you open via a referral link and enter my personal referral code jonathanp31786. You must deposit $5,000 for 90 days to earn $25, and then additional $5 for every subsequent $5,000 deposit past that, up to a max of $125 bonus ($105,000 total deposit). Here’s the fine print:

Making $125 has never been so easy or rewarding. Simply enter in the code you received from your friend or family member when you sign up for an account with Raisin. Once you fund your account and maintain an initial balance of $5,000 or more for 90 days, you will earn a minimum bonus of $25 and a maximum bonus of $125 depending on the account balance you maintained after 90 days. The bonus will be paid out within 30 days of qualification. Funds will be deposited into your external bank account linked to Raisin.

The referral bonus has gone up for a limited-time. Please see the top of the post for the current tiers.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Juno Finance App: Banking Interruptions, 5% APY and 5% Cashback Terminated

Posted on May 13, 2024 // 62 Comments

Update May 2024: Juno just sent out the following e-mail today, which may be the best of example of public relations double-speak that I’ve seen in a while. Look at all those meaningless words! 😳 Juno paid out a lot of above-average valuable perks for a while, even before their crypto pivot, and I’m still not sure where the money came from. Unfortunately, the music has finally stopped and the party looks to be over. 🎉 🙅 They are reporting banking interruptions (ACH transfers + debit cards) and are terminating their 5% APY interest and 5% cashback program with only 48 hours notice (5/15/24). If you still have money there, I would recommend starting the withdrawal process but also having some patience. I have no reason to expect any principal losses but these types of disruptions do occur with fintech apps at times, unfortunately. This tweet says they are looking to switch banking providers in the next 4 weeks (!), but when you allow something like this to happen, that may be too little too late.

Dear Jonathan,
Juno stands at the intersection of banking and cryptocurrency, providing the quickest and easiest access to over 20 blockchains in the United States through ACH, Wire, Cash App, and more. We pride ourselves on promoting self-custody by eliminating mandatory holding periods for crypto withdrawals, distinguishing us from many U.S. crypto exchanges.

The past 18 months have witnessed remarkable growth in crypto and stablecoin sectors. These innovations are essential for creating fair and transparent financial services. At Juno, we are committed to a future where financial control rests with the users, not the banks.

In the past few days, banking services on Juno have been temporarily disrupted. Our team is hard at work collaborating with our banking services provider, Evolve Bank & Trust, and brokerage partner, Synapse Brokerage LLC., to resolve the disruptions as quickly as possible. This disruption, however, further strengthens our commitment to build a future where you are in control of your money at all times, not the banks.

Introducing Juno 2.0 – Reimagining Banking for Tomorrow

In 2024, Juno will focus intensively on developing financial services centered around crypto and stablecoins to ensure that you are always in control of your money. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate banking and crypto infrastructures to foster innovative experiences in savings, payments, and investments, making crypto and stablecoins practical for everyday use.

As part of this strategic realignment, starting May 15, 2024:

Cash held in Juno accounts will no longer accrue the 5.00% bonus, regardless of the account balance.
Additionally, purchases made with the Juno card will no longer receive a 5% cashback.

We recognize that these changes might be disappointing. However, please be assured that this decision was made with careful consideration of our long-term vision to give Juno members financial freedom by placing crypto and stablecoins at the heart of banking and financial services.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support. Should you have any questions or need more information, our customer support team is always here to assist you.

Update January 2024: Juno is now paying a 5.00% annualized bonus on balances from $20,000 up to $250,000 and 3.00% annualized on balances below $20,000.

Original post below, now outdated, last updated circa 2023:

Juno.finance (formerly OnJuno) is a fintech that combines an FDIC-insured bank account and a crypto custodian. Details:

  • New: Earn 5.00% annualized bonus on all cash deposits up to $250,000 and 3.00% annualized on balances below $20,000. This applies to traditional cash deposits (USD), which are FDIC-insured through Evolve Bank & Trust. Applies to both the Basic and Metal tiers. No transaction or direct deposit requirements.
  • New: JCOIN Loyalty Program. Earn loyalty tokens “JCOIN” when you complete certain actions with Juno. Existing users should check their accounts as Juno may have given you a bunch for free that you must claim. These loyalty tokens are redeemable inside the app for various perks including gift cards.

OnJuno partners with Evolve Bank and Trust for FDIC insurance. A reminder that cryptocurrencies, including USDC stablecoins, are not covered by FDIC insurance even though the creators claim they are backed 1:1 by US dollars. Juno has added support for crypto and external wallets. Don’t confuse your FDIC-insured USD deposits with stablecoins.

Traditional Bank-to-bank transfers. OnJuno uses the Plaid service to link with external bank accounts for funding and free ACH transfers (both deposits and withdrawals). They also provide you with the full account number and routing number, which you can use to connect with other banks like Ally, Marcus, CapOne 360, etc. The routing number is 084106768 which is confirmed as that of Evolve Bank & Trust. I was able to make a deposit and withdrawal initiated at Ally without issue (subject to transfer limits of $20,000 daily/$500,000 monthly). As with some other fintechs, their in-house limits are lower.

Bonus rate, not APY? You may notice that they don’t use “APY” and instead say “bonus rate”. Here’s their reason:

The Bonus Rate is offered entirely by OnJuno and is not interest provided by Evolve Bank and Trust. The bonus rate You earn will be credited to Your account at the beginning of each month. Your funds begin generating a bonus rate once they are available on Your OnJuno Checking Account. Please note that OnJuno reserves the right to cancel, remove, and change this bonus at any time. OnJuno also reserves the rights, in sole discretion, to refuse this bonus without cause, reason, and notice.

I’ve been getting my bonus rate every month without issue at the proper annualized rate, so this just seems to be a legal thing. Your interest is still shown on a 1099-INT at the end of the year.

Additional details.

  • Customer service. You can contact them via phone at 415-969-5775 (9am to 6pm Pacific) or online message (they replied to me within a few hours).
  • No minimum balance requirement.
  • Fee-free access to both Allpoint and Moneypass ATM networks (85,000+ locations).
  • Free debit Mastercard.
  • No mobile check deposit yet.

Bottom line. Juno is a fintech banking app with a high-interest checking account with no direct deposit or debit card usage requirements. FDIC-insurance from Evolve Bank and Trust. It does have ties with crypto, which may be either a plus or minus for you.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Reviews //

Best Interest Rates on Cash Roundup – May 2024

Posted on May 8, 2024 // 6 Comments

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of May 2024, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. There are lesser-known opportunities available to individual investors, often earning you a lot more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you could earn from switching. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 5/8/2024.

TL;DR: Mostly only minor changes since last month. Still 5%+ savings accounts and short-term CDs, with long-term CD rates holding roughly steady since last month. Compare against Treasury bills and bonds at every maturity, taking into account state tax exemption.

Fintech accounts
Available only to individual investors, fintech companies often pay higher-than-market rates in order to achieve fast short-term growth (often using venture capital). “Fintech” is usually a software layer on top of a partner bank’s FDIC insurance.

  • 5.26% APY ($1 minimum). Raisin lets you switch between different FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions easily without opening a new account every time, and their liquid savings rates currently top out at 5.26% APY across multiple banks. See my Raisin review for details. Raisin does not charge depositors a fee for the service.
  • 5.36% APY (before fees). MaxMyInterest is another service that allows you to access and switch between different FDIC-insured banks. You can view their current banks and APYs here. As of 5/8/24, the highest rate is from Customers Bank at 5.36% APY. However, note that they charge a membership fee of 0.04% per quarter, or 0.16% per year (subject to $20 minimum per quarter, or $80 per year). That means if you have a $10,000 balance, then $80 a year = 0.80% per year. This service is meant for those with larger balances. You are allowed to cancel the service and keep the bank accounts, but then you may lose their specially-negotiated rates and cannot switch between banks anymore.

High-yield savings accounts
Since the huge megabanks STILL pay essentially no interest, everyone should have a separate, no-fee online savings account to piggy-back onto your existing checking account. The interest rates on savings accounts can drop at any time, so I list the top rates as well as competitive rates from banks with a history of competitive rates and solid user experience. Some banks will bait you with a temporary top rate and then lower the rates in the hopes that you are too lazy to leave.

  • The top rate at the moment is at My Banking Direct at 5.55% APY . Poppy at 5.50% APY (3-month rate guarantee). I have no personal experience with them, but they are the top rates at the moment. CIT Platinum Savings at 5.00% APY with $5,000+ balance.
  • SoFi Bank is at 4.60% APY + up to $325 new account bonus with direct deposit. You must maintain a direct deposit of any amount each month for the higher APY. SoFi has historically competitive rates and full banking features. See details at $25 + $300 SoFi Money new account and deposit bonus.
  • Here is a limited survey of high-yield savings accounts. They aren’t the top rates, but a group that have historically kept it relatively competitive such that I like to track their history. Sad to see Ally Bank falling even further behind.

Short-term guaranteed rates (1 year and under)
A common question is what to do with a big pile of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (plan to buy a house soon, just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). My usual advice is to keep things simple and take your time. If not a savings account, then put it in a flexible short-term CD under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.

  • No Penalty CDs offer a fixed interest rate that can never go down, but you can still take out your money (once) without any fees if you want to use it elsewhere. Raisin has a 9-month No Penalty CD at 5.10% APY with $1 minimum deposit and 30-day minimum hold time. Marcus has a 13-month No Penalty CD at 4.70% APY with a $500 minimum deposit. Also available at 7- and 11-months. Consider opening multiple CDs in smaller increments for more flexibility.
  • NexBank has a 1-year certificate at 5.40% APY ($25,000 min). There is a 180-day interest penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.
  • CIBC Agility Online has a 13-month CD at 5.36% APY ($1,000 min). Reasonable 30-day penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.

Money market mutual funds + Ultra-short bond ETFs
Many brokerage firms that pay out very little interest on their default cash sweep funds (and keep the difference for themselves). Note: Money market mutual funds are highly-regulated, but ultimately not FDIC-insured, so I would still stick with highly reputable firms. I am including a few ultra-short bond ETFs as they may be your best cash alternative in a brokerage account, but they may experience losses.

  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund is the default sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, which has an SEC yield of 5.26% (changes daily, but also works out to a compound yield of 5.39%, which is better for comparing against APY). Odds are this is much higher than your own broker’s default cash sweep interest rate.
  • The PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Bond ETF (MINT) has a 5.33% SEC yield and the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR) has a 5.24% SEC yield while holding a portfolio of investment-grade bonds with an average duration of ~6 months.

Treasury Bills and Ultra-short Treasury ETFs
Another option is to buy individual Treasury bills which come in a variety of maturities from 4-weeks to 52-weeks and are fully backed by the US government. You can also invest in ETFs that hold a rotating basket of short-term Treasury Bills for you, while charging a small management fee for doing so. T-bill interest is exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a significant difference in your effective yield.

  • You can build your own T-Bill ladder at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a brokerage account with a bond desk like Vanguard and Fidelity. Here are the current Treasury Bill rates. As of 5/7/24, a new 4-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.37% annualized interest and a 52-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.15% annualized interest.
  • The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has a 5.27% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.10 years. SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has a 5.21% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.08 years.

US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest. The annual purchase limit for electronic I bonds is $10,000 per Social Security Number, available online at TreasuryDirect.gov. You can also buy an additional $5,000 in paper I bonds using your tax refund with IRS Form 8888.

  • “I Bonds” bought between May 2024 and October 2024 will earn a 4.28% rate for the first six months. The rate of the subsequent 6-month period will be based on inflation again. More on Savings Bonds here.
  • In mid-October 2024, the CPI will be announced and you will have a short period where you will have a very close estimate of the rate for the next 12 months. I will have another post up at that time.

Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with unique risks. You have to jump through certain hoops which usually involve 10+ debit card purchases each cycle, a certain number of ACH/direct deposits, and/or a certain number of logins per month. If you make a mistake (or they judge that you did) you risk earning zero interest for that month. Some folks don’t mind the extra work and attention required, while others would rather not bother. Rates can also drop suddenly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling.

  • OnPath Federal Credit Union pays 7.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and login to online or mobile banking once per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization. You can also get a $100 Visa Reward card when you open a new account and make qualifying transactions.
  • Credit Union of New Jersey pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • Andrews Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit or ACH transaction per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization.
  • Pelican State Credit Union pays 6.05% APY on up to $20,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, log into your account at least once, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization membership.
  • Orion Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make electronic deposits of $500+ each month (ACH transfers count) and spend $500+ on your Orion debit or credit card each month. Anyone can join this credit union via $10 membership fee to partner organization membership.
  • All America/Redneck Bank pays 5.15% APY on up to $15,000 if you make 10 debit card purchases each monthly cycle with online statements.
  • Find a locally-restricted rewards checking account at DepositAccounts.

Certificates of deposit (greater than 1 year)
CDs offer higher rates, but come with an early withdrawal penalty. By finding a bank CD with a reasonable early withdrawal penalty, you can enjoy higher rates but maintain access in a true emergency. Alternatively, consider building a CD ladder of different maturity lengths (ex. 1/2/3/4/5-years) such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account. When one CD matures, use that money to buy another 5-year CD to keep the ladder going. Some CDs also offer “add-ons” where you can deposit more funds if rates drop.

  • Credit Human has a 59-month CD at 4.70% APY. 48-month at 4.70% APY. 35-month at 4.75% APY. 23-month at 5.30% APY. 1-year at 5.05% APY. $500 minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 36 months or more is 365 days of interest. For CD maturity of 1 year, the EWP is 270 days of interest. This is actually a credit union, but is open nationwide with a American Consumer Council (ACC) membership. Try promo code “consumer” when signing up at ACC for a free membership.
  • First Internet Bank has a 5-year CD at 4.50% APY. 4-year at 4.45% APY. 3-year at 4.61% APY. 2-year at 4.76% APY. 1-year at 5.26% APY. $1,000 minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 2 years or more is 360 days of interest. For CD maturity of 1 year, the EWP is 180 days of interest.
  • BMO Alto has a 5-year CD at 4.50% APY. 4-year at 4.50% APY. 3-year at 4.50% APY. 2-year at 4.65% APY. 1-year at 5.05% APY. No minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 1 year or more is 180 days of interest. For CD maturities of 11 months or less, the EWP is 90 days of interest. Note that they reserve the right to prohibit early withdrawals entirely (!). Online-only subsidiary of BMO Bank.
  • You can buy certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. You may need an account to see the rates. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance and easy laddering, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. Right now, I see a 5-year non-callable CD at 4.60% APY (callable: no, call protection: yes). Be warned that now both Vanguard and Fidelity will list higher rates from callable CDs, which importantly means they can call back your CD if rates drop later.

Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution due to increased interest rate risk (tbh, I don’t use them at all), but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.

  • Willing to lock up your money for 10 years? You can buy long-term certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. You might find something that pays more than your other brokerage cash and Treasury options. Right now, I see a 10-year CDs at 4.50% (callable: no, call protection: yes) vs. 4.47% for a 10-year Treasury. Watch out for higher rates from callable CDs where they can call your CD back if interest rates drop.

All rates were checked as of 5/8/2024.

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Investing // Tagged:

Evergreen Money “Liquid Treasuries” Review: Checking Account + T-Bill Combo, $250 Bonus

Posted on May 1, 2024 // 24 Comments

Evergreen Money is a new fintech startup focused on tax-smart money management by Bill Harris, previously CEO of Intuit, PayPal, and Personal Capital (now Empower). Here a short video clip of his Bloomberg TV appearance. They are starting out with their “Liquid Treasuries” product, which combines a bank account and Treasury Bills using two different accounts:

  • Traditional checking account through Coastal Community Bank, member FDIC. You get the usual fintech bank stuff: ATM/debit card, ACH routing/account numbers. Currently pays 5.00% APY as of 4/1/2024. As with all checking accounts, the APY may change at any time.
  • US Treasury Bills held inside a brokerage account through Jiko Securities, Inc, member SIPC. US Treasury Bill are fully backed by the US government. Current yield for a 4-week T-Bill is ~5.48% and the interest is exempt from state and local taxes.
  • There is a 0.03% monthly fee for their Treasury Bill service, which works out to a 0.36% annual fee.

Here’s a visualization of how this works:

At a very high level, this is already how my Fidelity Brokerage and Cash Management Account works. Their money market mutual fund holds mostly Treasury bills and repos, which are also very safe, and then when I need money to pay for stuff, they sell some of those securities and my kids have new goggles to lose. Fidelity also charges a similar 42 basis points (0.42% annual expense ratio) for SPAXX.

However, I can see the appeal here because the Treasury Bill interest would be “pure” and 100% exempt from state and local income taxes. Very often, money market fund interest (like SPAXX) is not 100% exempt from state taxes as it holds a lot of stuff that isn’t T-Bills, and even something like the Fidelity Treasury Only Money Market Fund (FDLXX) that I manually buy was only about 90% exempt in 2023.

There is currently a $10,000 minimum to open account at Evergreen Money. T-Bills are sold in $100 minimum increments, so if you kept at least $10,000 there (which they technically require), they could probably get pretty close to maintaining 99%+ of assets in T-Bills.

You could also create your own ladder of T-Bills, either directly at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a broker with an auto-roll feature like Fidelity, but that is still some degree of work to manage. If you have significant cash assets, this might probably be worth saving the expense ratio, whereas 0.36% on $10,000 is $3 a month ($36 a year).

$250 New Client Bonus. Currently, if you open and fund with the $10,000 minimum buy 6/30/24, they will give you a $250 bonus. There doesn’t appear to be a minimum hold period, but it will take 15 days for the credit to post and I’m not sure if they will close your account if you go below $10,000. Their Rates and Fees page lists a “Minimum Relationship Balance Requirement: $10,000 (We may waive this at our discretion)”. The fine print:

To qualify for the $250 New Client Bonus, you must open a new Liquid Treasuries account and fund it with deposit(s) of at least $10,000 between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on April 11, 2024 and 11:59 PM Eastern Time and June 30,2024. The full $10,000 must be cleared and posted to your account prior to 11:59 Eastern Time on June 30, 2024 to be eligible for the bonus. The one-time bonus will appear as a credit to your account within 15 calendar days from the date the qualifying deposit has cleared and posted. Evergreen employees and paid testers are not eligible. You are responsible for any taxes owed. This offer is non-transferable and Evergreen reserves the right to change or cancel this offer at any time.

You know I can’t help myself with these things, so I decided to open an account and try it out. Expect the usual fintech ID verification process where you have to take a picture of your ID with your smartphone. I also had to send in a bank/credit card/utility bill with my name and address on it. Here’s a screenshot of my account (funds are still in-transit).

Despite the fact that the EvergreenMoney.com website has a very generic feel, after doing my own due diligence, they do appear to be a legit company trying something different (although Jiko has done the T-Bill thing with the Public brokerage app). I do wonder why Jiko is licensing out their technology when they themselves offer a very similar product called Spendable T-Bills. I am guessing Evergreen Money has the marketing budget, as they are on a hiring binge with many job openings on LinkedIn in Miami, Florida. I wonder what features they will add next. Thanks to reader Larry for the tip.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Savings I Bonds May 2024: 1.30% Fixed Rate, 2.98% Inflation Rate (4.28% Total for First 6 Months)

Posted on April 30, 2024 // 11 Comments

Update: Savings I Bonds bought from May 1, 2024 through October 31, 2024 will have a fixed rate of 1.30%, for a total composite rate of 4.28% for the first 6 months. The semi-annual inflation rate was 1.48% as predicted (2.96% annually), but the full composite rate is dependent on the fixed rate for each specific savings bond and so it is a little bit higher. This total composite rate is a bit lower than current short-term Treasury yields, and the fixed rate is about 1% lower than that of current short-term TIPS yields.

Every existing I Bond will earn this inflation rate of ~2.96% eventually for 6 months; you will need to add your own fixed rate that was set based the initial purchase month. See you again in mid-October for the next early prediction for November 2024.

Original post from 4/14/24:

Savings I Bonds are a unique, low-risk investment backed by the US Treasury that pay out a variable interest rate linked to inflation. With a holding period from 12 months to 30 years, you could own them as an alternative to bank certificates of deposit (they are liquid after 12 months) or bonds in your portfolio.

New inflation numbers were just announced at BLS.gov, which allows us to make an early prediction of the May 2024 savings bond rates a couple of weeks before the official announcement on the 1st. This also allows the opportunity to know exactly what a April 2024 savings bond purchase will yield over the next 12 months, instead of just 6 months. You can then compare this against a May 2024 purchase.

New inflation rate prediction. September 2023 CPI-U was 307.789. March 2024 CPI-U was 312.332, for a semi-annual inflation rate of 1.48%. Using the official composite rate formula:

Composite rate formula: [Fixed rate + (2 x semiannual inflation rate) + (fixed rate x semiannual inflation rate)]

This results in the variable component of interest rate for the next 6 month cycle being ~2.96% to 2.97% if you use a fixed rate of between 0% and 1%.

Tips on purchase and redemption. You can’t redeem until after 12 months of ownership, and any redemptions within 5 years incur an interest penalty of the last 3 months of interest. A simple “trick” with I-Bonds is that if you buy at the end of the month, you’ll still get all the interest for the entire month – same as if you bought it in the beginning of the month. It’s best to give yourself a few business days of buffer time. If you miss the cutoff, your effective purchase date will be bumped into the next month.

Buying in April 2024. If you buy before the end of April, the fixed rate portion of I-Bonds will be 1.30%. You will be guaranteed a total interest rate of 1.30 + 3.97 = 5.27% for the next 6 months. For the 6 months after that, the total rate will be 1.30 + 2.97 = 4.27%.

Let’s look at the scenario where you hold for the minimum of one year and pay the 3-month interest penalty. If you theoretically buy on April 30th, 2024 and sell on April 1st, 2025, I estimate that you’ll earn a ~4.04% annualized return for an 11-month holding period, for which the interest is also exempt from state income taxes. If you theoretically buy on April 30th, 2024 and sell on July 1, 2025, you’ll earn a ~4.09% annualized return for an 14-month holding period.

Comparing with the best interest rates of October 2023, these rates are lower than what is available via regular nominal Treasury bonds and other deposit accounts.

Buying in May 2024. If you buy in May 2024, you will get ~2.97% plus a newly-set fixed rate for the first 6 months. The new fixed rate is officially unknown, but is loosely linked to the real yield of short-term TIPS. My rough guess is somewhere between 1% and 1.5%. The current real yield on short-term TIPS is a tiny bit lower than it was during the last reset, when the fixed rate was set at 1.3%. Every six months after your purchase, your rate will adjust to your fixed rate (set at purchase) plus a variable rate based on inflation.

If you have an existing I-Bond, the rates reset every 6 months depending on your specific purchase month. Everyone will eventually get this variable rate. Your bond rate = your specific fixed rate (based on purchase month, look it up here) + variable rate (total bond rate has a minimum floor of 0%).

Buy now or wait? Between those two options, I would buy in April as you’ll likely get a the same or tiny bit higher fixed rate and a decent initial 6-month rate. However, I actually don’t plan to buy any savings bonds right now and will be waiting until the next CPI announcement in mid-October, as I have been buying longer-term TIPS instead (in tax-deferred) to lock in the current 2%+ real yields.

Unique features. I have a separate post on reasons to own Series I Savings Bonds, including inflation protection, tax deferral, exemption from state income taxes, and potential tax benefits if used toward qualified educational expenses.

Over the years, I have accumulated a nice pile of I-Bonds and consider it part of the inflation-linked bond allocation inside my long-term investment portfolio.

Annual purchase limits. The annual purchase limit is now $10,000 in online I-bonds per Social Security Number. For a couple, that’s $20,000 per year. You can only buy online at TreasuryDirect.gov, after making sure you’re okay with their security protocols and user-friendliness. You can also buy an additional $5,000 in paper I bonds using your tax refund with IRS Form 8888. If you have children, you may be able to buy additional savings bonds by using a minor’s Social Security Number. TheFinanceBuff has a useful post on gifting options if you are a couple and want to frontload your purchases now. TreasuryDirect also allows trust accounts to purchase savings bonds.

Concerns about TreasuryDirect customer service. Opening a TreasuryDirect account or conducting other transactions can sometimes be a hassle as they may ask for a medallion signature guarantee which requires a visit to a physical bank or credit union and snail mail. This doesn’t apply to everyone and seems to have gotten better recently, but plan to experience delays in any transaction that you try to accomplish (registration changes, converting paper bonds, changing bank accounts). They just seem to be overwhelmed in general. Also know that if your password in compromised, they will not replace any lost or stolen savings bonds.

Bottom line. Savings I bonds are a unique, low-risk investment that are linked to inflation and only available to individual investors. You can only purchase them online at TreasuryDirect.gov, with the exception of paper bonds via tax refund. For more background, see the rest of my posts on savings bonds.

[Image: 1942 US Savings Bond poster – source]

Filed Under: Banking, Investing, Retirement, Savings Bonds //

Acorns App Results: How Much Did Folks Earn Rounding Up Spare Change?

Posted on April 9, 2024 // Leave a Comment

If you don’t remember, Acorns was a hot app for a little while due to their primary feature of allowing you to automatically “round up” your purchases and invest them into a portfolio of ETFs. So if you made a $10.45 purchase, it would be rounded up to $11.00 and $0.55 would be invested.

This Axios article managed to obtain some proprietary data from Acorns and reverse-engineers it to estimate how much the average Acorns user saved (and spent) from their Roundups from 2015 to 2024. While the big-picture conclusions aren’t exactly surprising, the fintech geek side of me appreciated the peek into these details. My takeaways:

  • Survivorship bias. These numbers are taken from roughly 50,000 of their most dedicated users from 2015 to March 2024. Nine years is a long time in the fintech world! Everyone who closed their account before March 2024 was not included.
  • Average roundup per user: $43 a month. Times 9 years = $4,644. Assuming randomly-distributed purchases, that’s about 86 purchases a month. This assumes no other deposits, no withdrawals, and no investment growth.
  • Average withdrawal per user: $28 a month. In reality, over half of these Roundups were withdrawn, which led to a lower final balance.
  • Average additional deposit per user: $86 a month. In addition to the automated round-ups, this is the average additional deposit per month.

Did Acorns make users rich? The article title was “How much Acorns savers amassed by investing spare change”? Their conclusion:

Now we know just how meaningful the amount is — enough to buy a decent vacation, but not remotely enough to make a down payment on a house.

Well… yeah? Did anyone expect what used to be a jar of coins to cover a house downpayment? Back in the day, the big jar of coins also often went towards a family vacation.

My wife’s family once filled up one of those 5-gallon office water cooler jugs, and they weren’t alone. From Reddit/Imgur, this 5-gallon jug held very close to $3,000 and took the user 7 years to fill:

Did Acorns inspire additional savings? The optimistic way to think of Acorns is that it can show you that saving is indeed possible and easier than you thought, and that realization can inspire even more savings. A not-so-optimistic way is to point out that paying $3 every month to help you put aside $43 of your own money is kind of a big percentage. Especially if you’re going to take a lot of it out and disrupt the compounding growth.

The real-world results are that amongst Acorn’s most loyal users (the ones that kept using and paying for the service for 9 years), roughly and on average, along with the $43 in monthly Roundups contributed an additional $86 a month via recurring deposits but ended up withdrawing roughly half of the total amount (including any investment gains). My view is that this account was treated more commonly like a small emergency fund cushion, which is not a bad thing but a much smaller scale than they might have hoped for.

Filed Under: Banking, Investing //

Best Interest Rates on Cash Roundup – April 2024

Posted on April 4, 2024 // 5 Comments

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of April 2024, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. There are lesser-known opportunities available to individual investors, often earning you a lot more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you could earn from switching. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 4/4/2024.

TL;DR: Future Fed rate cuts appear expected, and some banks are already making rate cuts themselves. Still 5%+ savings accounts and short-term CDs, but long-term CD rates dropped slightly again. Compare against Treasury bills and bonds at every maturity, taking into account state tax exemption.

Fintech accounts
Available only to individual investors, fintech companies often pay higher-than-market rates in order to achieve fast short-term growth (often using venture capital). “Fintech” is usually a software layer on top of a partner bank’s FDIC insurance.

  • 5.26% APY ($1 minimum). Raisin lets you switch between different FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions easily without opening a new account every time, and their liquid savings rates currently top out at 5.26% APY across multiple banks. See my Raisin review for details. Raisin does not charge depositors a fee for the service.
  • 5.36% APY (before fees). MaxMyInterest is another service that allows you to access and switch between different FDIC-insured banks. You can view their current banks and APYs here. As of 4/4/23, the highest rate is from Customers Bank and BankProv at 5.36% APY. However, note that they charge a membership fee of 0.04% per quarter, or 0.16% per year (subject to $20 minimum per quarter, or $80 per year). That means if you have a $10,000 balance, then $80 a year = 0.80% per year. This service is meant for those with larger balances. You are allowed to cancel the service and keep the bank accounts, but then you may lose their specially-negotiated rates and cannot switch between banks anymore.

High-yield savings accounts
Since the huge megabanks STILL pay essentially no interest, everyone should have a separate, no-fee online savings account to piggy-back onto your existing checking account. The interest rates on savings accounts can drop at any time, so I list the top rates as well as competitive rates from banks with a history of competitive rates and solid user experience. Some banks will bait you with a temporary top rate and then lower the rates in the hopes that you are too lazy to leave.

  • The top rate at the moment is at Poppy Bank at 5.50% APY. BrioDirect at 5.35% APY. I have no personal experience with Poppy or Brio, but they are the top rates at the moment. CIT Platinum Savings at 5.05% APY with $5,000+ balance.
  • SoFi Bank is at 4.60% APY + up to $325 new account bonus with direct deposit. You must maintain a direct deposit of any amount each month for the higher APY. SoFi has historically competitive rates and full banking features. See details at $25 + $300 SoFi Money new account and deposit bonus.
  • Here is a limited survey of high-yield savings accounts. They aren’t the highest current rate, but historically have kept it relatively competitive and I like to track their history. This past month, I have seen some quiet, small, ominous rate drops.

Short-term guaranteed rates (1 year and under)
A common question is what to do with a big pile of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (plan to buy a house soon, just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). My usual advice is to keep things simple and take your time. If not a savings account, then put it in a flexible short-term CD under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.

  • No Penalty CDs offer a fixed interest rate that can never go down, but you can still take out your money (once) without any fees if you want to use it elsewhere. Raisin has a 9-month No Penalty CD at 5.10% APY with $1 minimum deposit and 30-day minimum hold time. Marcus has a 13-month No Penalty CD at 4.70% APY with a $500 minimum deposit. Consider opening multiple CDs in smaller increments for more flexibility.
  • CFG Bank has a 1-year certificate at 5.40% APY ($500 min). There is a 180-day interest penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.
  • CIBC Agility Online has a 13-month CD at 5.36% APY ($1,000 min). Reasonable 30-day penalty if you withdraw your CD funds before maturity.

Money market mutual funds + Ultra-short bond ETFs
Many brokerage firms that pay out very little interest on their default cash sweep funds (and keep the difference for themselves). Note: Money market mutual funds are highly-regulated, but ultimately not FDIC-insured, so I would still stick with highly reputable firms. I am including a few ultra-short bond ETFs as they may be your best cash alternative in a brokerage account, but they may experience losses.

  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund is the default sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, which has an SEC yield of 5.28% (changes daily, but also works out to a compound yield of 5.41%, which is better for comparing against APY). Odds are this is much higher than your own broker’s default cash sweep interest rate.
  • The PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Bond ETF (MINT) has a 5.32% SEC yield and the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR) has a 5.10% SEC yield while holding a portfolio of investment-grade bonds with an average duration of ~6 months.

Treasury Bills and Ultra-short Treasury ETFs
Another option is to buy individual Treasury bills which come in a variety of maturities from 4-weeks to 52-weeks and are fully backed by the US government. You can also invest in ETFs that hold a rotating basket of short-term Treasury Bills for you, while charging a small management fee for doing so. T-bill interest is exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a significant difference in your effective yield.

  • You can build your own T-Bill ladder at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a brokerage account with a bond desk like Vanguard and Fidelity. Here are the current Treasury Bill rates. As of 4/3/24, a new 4-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.36% annualized interest and a 52-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 5.04% annualized interest.
  • The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has a 5.26% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.10 years. SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has a 5.21% SEC yield and effective duration of 0.08 years.

US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest. The annual purchase limit for electronic I bonds is $10,000 per Social Security Number, available online at TreasuryDirect.gov. You can also buy an additional $5,000 in paper I bonds using your tax refund with IRS Form 8888.

  • “I Bonds” bought between November 2023 and April 2024 will earn a 5.27% rate for the first six months. The rate of the subsequent 6-month period will be based on inflation again. More on Savings Bonds here.
  • In mid-April 2024, the CPI will be announced and you will have a short period where you will have a very close estimate of the rate for the next 12 months. I will have another post up at that time.

Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with unique risks. You have to jump through certain hoops which usually involve 10+ debit card purchases each cycle, a certain number of ACH/direct deposits, and/or a certain number of logins per month. If you make a mistake (or they judge that you did) you risk earning zero interest for that month. Some folks don’t mind the extra work and attention required, while others would rather not bother. Rates can also drop suddenly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling.

  • OnPath Federal Credit Union pays 7.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and login to online or mobile banking once per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization. You can also get a $100 Visa Reward card when you open a new account and make qualifying transactions.
  • Credit Union of New Jersey pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • Andrews Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit or ACH transaction per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization.
  • Pelican State Credit Union pays 6.05% APY on up to $20,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, log into your account at least once, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization membership.
  • Orion Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make electronic deposits of $500+ each month (ACH transfers count) and spend $500+ on your Orion debit or credit card each month. Anyone can join this credit union via $10 membership fee to partner organization membership.
  • All America/Redneck Bank pays 5.15% APY on up to $15,000 if you make 10 debit card purchases each monthly cycle with online statements.
  • Find a locally-restricted rewards checking account at DepositAccounts.

Certificates of deposit (greater than 1 year)
CDs offer higher rates, but come with an early withdrawal penalty. By finding a bank CD with a reasonable early withdrawal penalty, you can enjoy higher rates but maintain access in a true emergency. Alternatively, consider building a CD ladder of different maturity lengths (ex. 1/2/3/4/5-years) such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account. When one CD matures, use that money to buy another 5-year CD to keep the ladder going. Some CDs also offer “add-ons” where you can deposit more funds if rates drop.

  • First Internet Bank has a 5-year CD at 4.55% APY. 4-year at 4.50% APY. 3-year at 4.66% APY. 2-year at 4.82% APY. 1-year at 5.31% APY. $1,000 minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 2 years or more is 360 days of interest. For CD maturity of 1 year, the EWP is 180 days of interest.
  • BMO Alto has a 5-year CD at 4.50% APY. 4-year at 4.50% APY. 3-year at 4.50% APY. 2-year at 4.65% APY. 1-year at 5.95% APY. No minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for CD maturities of 1 year or more is 180 days of interest. For CD maturities of 11 months or less, the EWP is 90 days of interest. Note that they reserve the right to prohibit early withdrawals entirely (!). Online-only subsidiary of BMO Bank.
  • You can buy certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. You may need an account to see the rates. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance and easy laddering, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. Right now, I see a 5-year non-callable CD at 4.30% APY (callable: no, call protection: yes). Be warned that now both Vanguard and Fidelity will list higher rates from callable CDs, which importantly means they can call back your CD if rates drop later.

Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution due to increased interest rate risk (tbh, I don’t use them at all), but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.

  • Willing to lock up your money for 10 years? You can buy long-term certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. You might find something that pays more than your other brokerage cash and Treasury options. Right now, I see a 10-year CDs at 4.05% (callable: no, call protection: yes) vs. 4.36% for a 10-year Treasury. Watch out for higher rates from callable CDs where they can call your CD back if interest rates drop.

All rates were checked as of 4/4/2024.

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers, Investing // Tagged:

Axos Bank Cashback Checking $300 Bonus w/ Direct Deposit

Posted on March 18, 2024 // 4 Comments

Updated with new offer. Axos Bank has a $300 bonus with relatively straightforward requirements using promo code FREEDOM300. You must open a new Cashback Checking account by 7/31/2024 and fund within 30 days of account opening. Set up direct deposit of $1,000+ each calendar month, and that will earn you $100 per month for 3 months ($300 total). Historically, they have been pretty flexible on what is considered direct deposit.

The fine print:

To be eligible to earn all or a portion of the cash incentive as part of the “FREEDOM300″ $300 promotion, an Axos Bank CashBack Checking account that includes the promotional code ” FREEDOM300″ must be opened between November 1, 2023, at 12 a.m. PST and July 31, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. PST. Axos Bank reserves the right to limit each primary account holder to one (1) checking account promotional offer per year, and customers who have held primary ownership of an Axos Bank or Axos Bank for Nationwide checking account at any time in the past 12 months may be disqualified from the “FREEDOM300” offer. Promotional terms and conditions are subject to change or removal without notice. Bonus cash may be taxable and reported on IRS Form 1099-MISC. Consult your tax advisor. After meeting the initial requirements mentioned above, the amount of cash bonus earned will depend on meeting the additional requirements outlined below:

To earn up to a $300 bonus, you must be approved for your new Axos Bank CashBack Checking account, fund it within 30 days of account opening, and have qualifying direct deposits that total at least $1,000.00 each calendar month. A cash bonus of up to $300 can be earned in the following manner during the first four (4) statement cycles. A statement cycle is a calendar month consisting of the days your account was open during that month. A maximum of three (3) payouts of $100 for each calendar month that the CashBack Checking account is receiving the direct deposit requirement, the bonus can be earned during the first four (4) statement cycles, and the bonus will be deposited into your Axos Bank CashBack Checking account within 10 business days following the end of the statement cycle in which the direct deposit requirement was met. Your Axos Bank CashBack Checking account must be open and in good standing at the time the bonus is paid to be eligible to receive the bonus, and your Axos Bank CashBack Checking account must remain open for 120 days, or an early closure fee of up to $300 may apply, equal to the amount of the total bonus earned up to $300.

I’ve done a few Axos Bank bonuses in the past (too recent for me to qualify for this), and the good news is that they do pay out reliably in my experience.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

First Tech Credit Union: $300 Rewards Checking Account Bonus

Posted on March 18, 2024 // 3 Comments

Updated with new bonus details. First Tech Federal Credit Union has a new $300 checking bonus. This new promo is set to run through 6/30/24, but is specifically for their new Reward Checking account that pays up to 5.00% APY (on up to $15,000 balance) if you meet a bunch of different hoops including 20 debit card transactions with $500+ in monthly spend. However, you can still get the $300 without meeting the 5.00% APY requirements. This promo is also valid for existing First Tech Rewards checking account owners who have not set up a direct deposit yet.

Here’s how to make it happen:

1) Open a First Tech Reward Checking account. Already have one? You’re set!
2) Set up a new payroll direct deposit to your First Tech Rewards Checking of $1,000+ per month for a minimum of three months.
3) Earn your $300 bonus!

When I applied for a previous promo, First Tech CU paid the $8 membership fee for the partner organization on my behalf so that I could join the credit union, although they mentioned it might be eventually be reported on 1099-INT. I did not experience a hard credit check, although they did a soft check on Experian.

The monthly requirements for earning the 5.00% APY interest (on up to $15,000 balance) are:

  • 20 card transactions with $500+ in monthly spend.
  • Electronic statements
  • ACH / direct deposit $1,000+ monthly

Offer valid for enrollment between February 26, 2024 and June 30, 2024 for members without an existing direct deposit. Members with existing direct deposits or who are already enrolled in a First Tech direct deposit campaign are not eligible. Participant is defined as 18 years of age or older and the primary account owner on a First Tech Rewards Checking (FTRC) account. Direct deposits are considered new if there has been no direct deposit activity in the Participant’s share accounts on which they are the Primary Owner within the previous 18 months. Membership is required and is subject to approval. Fees could reduce earnings on the account. FTRC accounts must be personal accounts. Fiduciary, trust, business, or organization accounts are not eligible. Participant will be enrolled in the promotion upon receipt of new direct deposit transaction into the FTRC account (“Enrollment”). In order to receive any bonus payout, in addition to satisfying the payout conditions set forth in this disclosure, the Membership Savings account must be in good standing (not in default, closed, inactive, or otherwise not in good standing) during the period of time commencing with Enrollment and ending with the applicable date of payout. Any inquiries or disputes must be received by January 31, 2025.

New Direct Deposit Offer: New direct deposit must occur at least on New Direct Deposit Offer: New direct deposit must occur at least once per calendar month from the Participant’s employer payroll into the First Tech Rewards Checking (FTRC) account of which the Participant is the primary account owner. Direct deposits from a non-employer payroll source do not qualify. The monthly aggregate amount of all qualifying direct deposits must equal to at least $1,000 to earn the $300 bonus. Enrollment is the date of the initial direct deposit transaction. During the period of time commencing with Enrollment and ending 120 calendar days after Enrollment (“Enrollment Period”), at least one direct deposit transaction must occur each calendar month starting with the initial direct deposit transaction. A minimum of three direct deposit transactions must be received during the Enrollment Period. (EXAMPLE: If a member’s initial direct deposit is March 1, 2024, additional required direct deposits must occur at least once in each subsequent calendar month following the month in which the initial direct deposit is made, the last direct deposit must be received by June 29, 2024.) Only the Participant will receive credit for the direct deposits. Any qualifying bonus will be deposited to the Participant’s Membership Savings account the first week following the Enrollment Period. Bonuses will be considered dividends and may be reported on IRS form 1099-INT.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Greenlight Debit Card For Kids: Free Subscription for PSECU Members ($60/year Value)

Posted on March 10, 2024 // Leave a Comment

Greenlight is a popular reloadable debit card service for kids, where parents can manage and track their kids spending. You can also add an allowance, payments for recurring chores or one-time jobs, and teach them compound interest via “parent-paid interest”. I suppose its wise to show the kids how handle digital spending before the credit card offers arrive.

I decided to try out the new PSECU perk that offers the basic tier of Greenlight for free. (I did the PSECU $300 checking promo first.) You must enroll at Greenlight.com/PSECU and link a PSECU checking account in order to get the benefit. The “Greenlight Select” membership is a special tier for such partners, but is mostly comparable to the “Greenlight Core” tier on their website, which costs $4.99 a month. Included in the “Greenlight Select” membership:

  • Debit Mastercards for up to 5 kids. Send money instantly and keep tabs on spending with real-time notifications.
  • Educational app. The parents have their app where they get notified of every purchase, and the kids have their own app with educational games and short lessons (optional). Kids can divide their money into “savings” or “giving” baskets as well as create specific savings goals.
  • Parental controls. Created automated allowance payments. Set category and store-level spending limits.
  • 1% APY interest. This is the lowest tier and the lowest interest, although some other apps don’t pay any interest at all. You can get up to 5% APY on $5,000 if you upgrade to the $15/month tier.
  • Roundup feature. You can set it to round up purchases to the next dollar and put the difference in a savings account.
  • No overdraft fees. Does not allow overdrafts, so no overdraft fees.
  • Banking services provided by Community Federal Savings Bank, member FDIC.

Teaching compound interest with higher interest rates. It can be hard to visualize compound interest at low interest rates, so parents can increase it by paying a higher “interest” rate out of their own pockets. For example, here is an illustration of $100 earning a 25% interest rate (paid by the parent) as opposed to a 5% interest rate. It makes the idea of earning interest on interest more immediate and tangible. Ideally, this can teach them that delayed gratification turns it into future rewards. You can set interest rates from 1% up to 100%.

Unfortunately, to add on investments, I would have to upgrade to the $10 a month tier or higher. If I had a teen ready for investing, I’d probably use the Fidelity Youth account instead (available for age 13-17 only, and my kids aren’t that old yet).

For kids under 13, I think that Greenlight would serve as a nice alternative to piggy banks. (Greenlight has no minimum age requirement.) While I suppose $5 a month isn’t a lot of money for all these features, I still like “free” better. After a few quick internet searches for “Greenlight Select”, I found multiple local banks and credit unions in my area that offered this free tier of service. If you plan on paying for it, there is $30 bonus available with a 1-month free trial (bonus not stackable with this free offer).

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //
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