Best CD, MM Rates & Bank Special Deals Thread 2021 - Please post updates here

[Chuckanut]

Any downside to this T-Mobile checking at 1%. Right now I have some money in Ally at 0.5%. Obviously 1% sounds better.

Here's anther plus:

No account fees and over 55K no-fee ATMs.

It's an interesting time when one looks at the one-time bonus payment and the no-fee ATM and thinks that is where the big money is made with deposits these days.

Does anybody know which credit monitoring service they use? That would need to be thawed.

 

[jazz4cash]

Is there a bonus at T-Mobile?

 

[BergLust]

Is there a bonus at T-Mobile?

Do not think so.

 

[BergLust]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-...s-rate-when-you-save-your-paycheck-hmbradley/

Hi all: What do you think about this one? FDIC insured. soft pull. Good interest rate potential (3%). 1% at the onset and as long as you can manage a real direct deposits and don't have a lot of money moving out, it seems good.

 

[mn54]

the only "bonus" is the 4% interest on the first $3k.

 

[mn54]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-...s-rate-when-you-save-your-paycheck-hmbradley/

Hi all: What do you think about this one? FDIC insured. soft pull. Good interest rate potential (3%). 1% at the onset and as long as you can manage a real direct deposits and don't have a lot of money moving out, it seems good.

does the monthly direct deposit have to be from an employer? can it be from another savings account?

 

[njhowie]

the only "bonus" is the 4% interest on the first $3k.

Be aware, the 4% on the first 3k is not for everyone...

*How APY works and what it means for you: As a T-Mobile MONEY customer you earn 4.00% annual percentage yield (APY) on balances up to and including $3,000 in your Checking Account per month when: 1) you are enrolled in a qualifying T-Mobile postpaid wireless plan; 2) you have registered for perks with your T-Mobile ID; and 3) at least $200 in qualifying deposits have posted to your Checking Account before the last business day of the month. Deposits posting on or after the last business day of the month count toward the next month’s qualifying deposits. Promotional deposits are not eligible toward the $200 in deposits. If you meet this deposit requirement in a given month we will pay you this benefit in the subsequent month as an added value provided all other requirements are met. This added value is subject to change. Balances above $3,000 in the Checking Account earn 1.00% APY. The APY for this tier will range from 4.00% to 2.79% depending on the balance in the account (calculation based on a $5,000 average daily balance). Customers who do not qualify for the 4.00% APY will earn 1.00% APY on all Checking Account balances for any month(s) in which they do not meet the requirements listed above. APYs are accurate as of 12/7/2020, but may change at any time at our discretion. Fees may reduce earnings. For more information, see Account Disclosures / Terms and Conditions or go to our FAQs.

 

[njhowie]

does the monthly direct deposit have to be from an employer? can it be from another savings account?

https://faq.hmbradley.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038741592-What-qualifies-as-a-direct-deposit-

For our accounts, we define direct deposits as those deposits made by the customer’s employer, a federal or state government agency, retirement benefits administrator, or alimony. These generally include payments made by corporations and other organizations. We do not consider deposits to an account that are made by an individual using online banking or other payment provider such as PayPal or Venmo as direct deposits. HMBradley shall make the final determination as to whether a deposit qualifies as a direct deposit for purposes of qualifying for Savings Tiers.

 

[pb4uski]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-...s-rate-when-you-save-your-paycheck-hmbradley/

Hi all: What do you think about this one? FDIC insured. soft pull. Good interest rate potential (3%). 1% at the onset and as long as you can manage a real direct deposits and don't have a lot of money moving out, it seems good.

I wonder if there is a game to be played here. The interest paid is based on how much you saved in the previous quarter, a direct deposit is required and they do not pay interest on balances above $100,000. And first quarter is 1%.

I have a small pension that is $1,500/month. So I open an account and direct my deposit to that account and take nothing out. For first 3 months I get 1%... not bad. Based on the first 3 months I qualify for 3% for the second 3 months, so I dump in $75k on the first day of that second quarter bringing my balance up to $79,500... I get 3% that quarter and each subsequent quarter until by total reaches $100k. Then I do a $35k withdrawal that drops me to 0.5% for that next quarter (I think) but get 3% each quarter after that.

No time to model it out now but it might be worth the effort.

Obviously it would need to be MY account at an FDIC insured bank.... but it looks like it is an FDIC insured bank from a brief glance.

 

[njhowie]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-...s-rate-when-you-save-your-paycheck-hmbradley/

Hi all: What do you think about this one? FDIC insured. soft pull. Good interest rate potential (3%). 1% at the onset and as long as you can manage a real direct deposits and don't have a lot of money moving out, it seems good.

Don't expect it to last over the longer term and consider how much you'll make assuming you stick to your normal way of banking.

The reason I say this is that there are numerous Fintechs out there doing similar things to entice new customers. One with a high yield (Beam Financial) froze depositor money and it took some time for folks to get their money out (see https://www.americanbanker.com/news...ct-a-cautionary-tale-for-partners-of-fintechs ). I'm really not sure if it's been resolved, but the company has been in a lot of hot water with regulators. Another Fintech some here are familiar with from a bonus promotion early last year is simple.com. They offered a decent bonus and yield, but it was very awkward - they were pitching their own savings model to "help" customers. By mid-year they were reducing their yield just as quickly as everyone else, and just recently gave up, with parent bank taking control. Another Fintech gave a higher yield depending on how much exercise you did. They've essentially given up as well.

So, for any Fintech, take the time to investigate carefully and try to find what others have to say. I would not expect savings/checking yields above 1% (at this time) to last unless they are making money off of you or your activities...and then you need to consider how much you have to do to get the great yield and/or bonus...or what they are doing to be able to pay you the higher interest rate.

 

[BergLust]

I wonder if there is a game to be played here. The interest paid is based on how much you saved in the previous quarter, a direct deposit is required and they do not pay interest on balances above $100,000. And first quarter is 1%.

I have a small pension that is $1,500/month. So I open an account and direct my deposit to that account and take nothing out. For first 3 months I get 1%... not bad. Based on the first 3 months I qualify for 3% for the second 3 months, so I dump in $75k on the first day of that second quarter bringing my balance up to $79,500... I get 3% that quarter and each subsequent quarter until by total reaches $100k. Then I do a $35k withdrawal that drops me to 0.5% for that next quarter (I think) but get 3% each quarter after that.

No time to model it out now but it might be worth the effort.

Obviously it would need to be MY account at an FDIC insured bank.... but it looks like it is an FDIC insured bank from a brief glance.

This is very similar to what I was thinking. And the way you describe the timing on rate changes is also how I understand it.

 

[BergLust]

Don't expect it to last over the longer term and consider how much you'll make assuming you stick to your normal way of banking.

The reason I say this is that there are numerous Fintechs out there doing similar things to entice new customers. One with a high yield (Beam Financial) froze depositor money and it took some time for folks to get their money out (see https://www.americanbanker.com/news...ct-a-cautionary-tale-for-partners-of-fintechs ). I'm really not sure if it's been resolved, but the company has been in a lot of hot water with regulators. Another Fintech some here are familiar with from a bonus promotion early last year is simple.com. They offered a decent bonus and yield, but it was very awkward - they were pitching their own savings model to "help" customers. By mid-year they were reducing their yield just as quickly as everyone else, and just recently gave up, with parent bank taking control. Another Fintech gave a higher yield depending on how much exercise you did. They've essentially given up as well.

So, for any Fintech, take the time to investigate carefully and try to find what others have to say. I would not expect savings/checking yields above 1% (at this time) to last unless they are making money off of you or your activities...and then you need to consider how much you have to do to get the great yield and/or bonus...or what they are doing to be able to pay you the higher interest rate.

I am curious about their business model and will be poking around trying to understand it.

 

[jazz4cash]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-...s-rate-when-you-save-your-paycheck-hmbradley/

Hi all: What do you think about this one? FDIC insured. soft pull. Good interest rate potential (3%). 1% at the onset and as long as you can manage a real direct deposits and don't have a lot of money moving out, it seems good.

Talk about complicated! I’d be tempted to give it a shot but I’m not clear on the rules for taking withdrawals from the account. It seems like you lose the perk if you withdraw over 80% so a portion of your funds are locked up. It emphasizes several times it has to be a “real” direct deposit so I presume the rules are restrictive as to what qualifies. I’d also need to be comfortable with Hatch Bank.

 

[BergLust]

Talk about complicated! I’d be tempted to give it a shot but I’m not clear on the rules for taking withdrawals from the account. It seems like you lose the perk if you withdraw over 80% so a portion of your funds are locked up. It emphasizes several times it has to be a “real” direct deposit so I presume the rules are restrictive as to what qualifies. I’d also need to be comfortable with Hatch Bank.

It is a little convoluted. But, if you're not doing a lot of ins and outs, it seems pretty good.

The way I read it is if you withdrawal >80% of all deposits (not just direct deposits), then the next quarter your interest rate goes into a lower tier. The downside to this type of account is that you/I have a quarter where we deposit next to nothing, and we want to withdrawn almost any amount >$0, we get kicked out of the tiers and make 0% for the following quarter. I suppose we could play a back and forth game Quarterly with another institution and when/if that situation happens move everything out and start a deposit only process again to get in to the 3% tier....

In the end, you're right...IF you're planning on touching the money. If you just need a place to park money I think it's one of the best "no brainer" options out there, for $100k @ 3%.

 

[gozer]

Any downside to this T-Mobile checking at 1%. Right now I have some money in Ally at 0.5%. Obviously 1% sounds better.

I previously kept my excess cash on hand with DiscoverBank. It was earning 2% before the pandemic. When it goes up again, money will move back to DiscoverBank.

Through changing situations my mobile carrier changed from Verizon to Sprint and now to T-mobile. So I have access to the T-mobile money account with the 4% rate on the first $3000 dollars. 1% on everything else. To get the 4% you have to be a T-mobile customer and deposit $200/month into the account. The 4% starts as soon as the money is posted, before it is even available. I earned $0.09 on a $220 dollar deposit with a zero available balance. This was for 1 or 2 days of interest when I first opened the account.

Numerous people do the $200 with scheduled transactions in and out of the account. I do it by having my monthly investment draw spend a couple of weeks in T-mobile money before being forwarded onto my brick and mortar bank. Everything is scheduled transactions, nothing to actively manage. I would not have a paycheck, pension, tax refund, stimulus check or anything like that directly deposited in T-mobile money, but I will store the money there for the extra interest. I want minimal hassles if I drop the account in the future. It is my "side bank." Just using it for the interest.

I would not use T-mobile money as a primary bank account. It is missing features you might need. Notary or medallion signature guarantee services for example. It also has fewer text alert features than most banks I have dealt with. If you want to deposit cash, you would end up paying a fee for someone like Walmart or Green Dot places to convert the cash to an electronic transfer and send it in. If you switch phone carries you lose the 4% deal.

 

[BergLust]

I previously kept my excess cash on hand with DiscoverBank. It was earning 2% before the pandemic. When it goes up again, money will move back to DiscoverBank.

Through changing situations my mobile carrier changed from Verizon to Sprint and now to T-mobile. So I have access to the T-mobile money account with the 4% rate on the first $3000 dollars. 1% on everything else. To get the 4% you have to be a T-mobile customer and deposit $200/month into the account. The 4% starts as soon as the money is posted, before it is even available. I earned $0.09 on a $220 dollar deposit with a zero available balance. This was for 1 or 2 days of interest when I first opened the account.

Numerous people do the $200 with scheduled transactions in and out of the account. I do it by having my monthly investment draw spend a couple of weeks in T-mobile money before being forwarded onto my brick and mortar bank. Everything is scheduled transactions, nothing to actively manage. I would not have a paycheck, pension, tax refund, stimulus check or anything like that directly deposited in T-mobile money, but I will store the money there for the extra interest. I want minimal hassles if I drop the account in the future. It is my "side bank." Just using it for the interest.

I would not use T-mobile money as a primary bank account. It is missing features you might need. Notary or medallion signature guarantee services for example. It also has fewer text alert features than most banks I have dealt with. If you want to deposit cash, you would end up paying a fee for someone like Walmart or Green Dot places to convert the cash to an electronic transfer and send it in. If you switch phone carries you lose the 4% deal.

Got it. Thanks for the info. I'm not a T-Mobile customer, so I would simply get the 1%. I have other bank accounts that cover "full service" things, so that's not a problem for me. Just looking to park some cash. But, good point! Thanks again!

 

[jazz4cash]

I received a flyer in the mail but cannot find any details online......

M&T Bank MyChoice Premium Checking Bonus offer
Open new account by 2/26 with promo code CA
Maintain average monthly balance of $10k for March and April
Bonus of $350 will be credited by 5/31.

$50 close out fee if account is closed within 180 days. Offer not available in all regions

Well, I went against my gut and opened one of these accounts. I forgot about the 180 day requirement. It was super easy to open online (10 minutes, no proof of identity required). Now I'm having issues trying to fund the account. BoA doesn't like the info I provided to add them to bill pay so I can send the $25 minimum. $350 on $10k for 2 months is 21% annualized.

 

[BergLust]

Well, here's what I've done. I've opened up two accounts for a $500 and $600 bonus:

Huntington 25 Checking:

• Receive a $500 sign up bonus when you make at least $15,000 in total deposits within 60 days. I deposited $25,000 to avoid the monthly account maintenance fee.

BT&T Checking and Savings:

• Step 1: Open a checking account and complete qualifying direct deposits totaling at least $500 within 90 days of account opening. Also to avoid the maintenance fee on the account I'll maintain a monthly balance of $1,500. To guarantee the deposits are "clean", I'm going to route some of my paycheck from my employer to this account.
• Step 2: Open any new BB&T savings or MMA account deposit a rang of balances within 30 days and maintain for 90 days after account opening. I opened the free eChecking account and am in the process of depositing $25,000. This correlates to the bonus range of $25,000–$49,999.99 and brings a $600 bonus after maintaining in the account 90 days....along with completing Step 1, of course.
• SPECIAL NOTES: Have to open the two accounts on the same day and use Promotion code BCNGJ when opening the accounts.
• SPECIAL NOTES: If you want to try this, and you don't have an address in one of the qualifying states, their sister company SunTrust has the same promotion running in other states.

Lastly, to be forward thinking, beyond 90-ish days, in a couple weeks I'll open up a HMBradley account and start adding some deposits to work towards the 3% savings rate. If no other good (low effort, high value) bonuses arise I'll park some money there for a while. Small deposits in Q1 to move from 1% savings rate to 3% savings rate. Then a Big deposit in Q2, such that even if I pull out up to 80% of the deposited amount I'll stay in the 3% savings rate tier through Q3.

 

[jazz4cash]

I can’t believe the banks retain enough new money to justify these large bonus offers. I was thinking it permits them to leverage these deposits to make more loans based on reserve requirements but now I understand the Fed has set the requirement to 0%.

 

[njhowie]

Well, here's what I've done. I've opened up two accounts for a $500 and $600 bonus:

Great job! With HY savings accounts paying 0.5%, that's the equivalent of $220,000 needing to sit for a year...and you're getting it for $50,000 in just a few months.

Here's a Huntington link which has been continually updated with some of their offers for the past year:
https://www.huntington.com/checking-account-promotions-bonuses-offers


The Asterisk-Free offer of $150 for $1000 deposit and no minimum balance is a great one.

I did a BB&T offer without direct deposit two years ago, but the bonus amount was lower. I believe it was just a checking account, no minimum balance, just had to do 5 or 10 bill pays in 60 days after opening account for $150 bonus. They gave me a real difficult time opening the account (they claimed security issue when applying online) and made me drive to the closest branch about 25 minutes away. Aside from that, it all worked out, and they paid when they said they would.

 

[BergLust]

Great job! With HY savings accounts paying 0.5%, that's the equivalent of $220,000 needing to sit for a year...and you're getting it for $50,000 in just a few months.

Here's a Huntington link which has been continually updated with some of their offers for the past year:
https://www.huntington.com/checking-account-promotions-bonuses-offers


The Asterisk-Free offer of $150 for $1000 deposit and no minimum balance is a great one.

I did a BB&T offer without direct deposit two years ago, but the bonus amount was lower. I believe it was just a checking account, no minimum balance, just had to do 5 or 10 bill pays in 60 days after opening account for $150 bonus. They gave me a real difficult time opening the account (they claimed security issue when applying online) and made me drive to the closest branch about 25 minutes away. Aside from that, it all worked out, and they paid when they said they would.

Nice and thanks for the link! And thanks for the confidence/data point on BB&T. I had never heard of them before but they do have brick and mortar banks and of course are FDIC....so that gives more confidence.

 

[BergLust]

I can’t believe the banks retain enough new money to justify these large bonus offers. I was thinking it permits them to leverage these deposits to make more loans based on reserve requirements but now I understand the Fed has set the requirement to 0%.

Someday, I'd love to see data that shows why businesses think these bonus offers are a good idea for their business. I suspect the data would show that maybe I'm not their target client/audience. If anyone has some sort of report, I'd love to see it. There my be a Harvard Business Review or The Economists article (or something like that) somewhere on it....but I've not spent the time to look.

 

[njhowie]

Someday, I'd love to see data that shows why businesses think these bonus offers are a good idea for their business. I suspect the data would show that maybe I'm not their target client/audience. If anyone has some sort of report, I'd love to see it. There my be a Harvard Business Review or The Economists article (or something like that) somewhere on it....but I've not spent the time to look.

My guess is that they rely on some percentage to not be like us, going for the bonus and then looking to close the account. I see those with direct deposit requirements as a direct attempt to make it more difficult and a hassle to close the account...you need to put the same effort again to move or stop the direct deposit. Additionally, they're likely also figuring some percentage of folks will hit a gotcha and not meet all the requirements for the bonus - maybe they withdrew the funds or closed the account too soon, or racked up some fees. Lastly, they'll likely keep some percentage after the bonus is paid which they figure will generate fees over time.

They probably have enough past data points to be able to make the determination of what kind of offer will bring in some amount of future revenue.

 

[calmloki]

Someday, I'd love to see data that shows why businesses think these bonus offers are a good idea for their business. I suspect the data would show that maybe I'm not their target client/audience. If anyone has some sort of report, I'd love to see it. There my be a Harvard Business Review or The Economists article (or something like that) somewhere on it....but I've not spent the time to look.

Not data, but my guess is that most people are really bad at follow through. Bright shiny offer attracts the suckers in hordes and only some manage to meet requirements while even fewer hew close to the rules and take advantage of the poor banks.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Well we have $300,000 maturing on 2/17 in 3 no penalty CD's that were yielding 1.95% each. I had been planning on holding my nose and renewing into new 11 mo no penalty CD's that would yield .55%, but I decided to take $100K of that and set up the Citi Priority Account package ($50K each) which will net us $1,400 after 5 months(60 day requirement and up to 90 days to pay out the bonus). The same money would generate $229 by my math at Ally, so it seems like a no brainer. I don't intend to touch the money once at Citi, so I don't anticipate any hassles. We'll see.

I'd be up for doing a few more of these with the other $200K, but after reviewing this thread and the 2-3 websites that aggregate these offers, I don't see any other low hanging fruit. Some decent offers have geographic limitations and others require too many hoops, such as direct deposits, or the amounts seem too puny to me.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.