Rates are still moving up, especially in the shorter maturities. Even the rates quoted below may become outdated quickly, but so here is a mid-month update for June 2022. As of 6/21/2022: Brokered CD rates: 3-month CD at 2% APY, 2-Year CDs at 3.15% APYat Vanguard and Fidelity fixed income desks (non-callable). Online bank rates: 1.61%-1.65% APY liquid, 3.05% APY for 3-year CD at Bask Bank, First Foundation and Rising Bank. Expect a lot of movement in this area. US Treasury Bonds: 3-month at 1.85%, 2-Year CDs at 3.21% yield to maturity, secondary market. Interest from Treasury bills and bonds are exempt from state and local income taxes. Fixed Annuity: 4% rate on 3-year MYGA from American Life (B++ Rating) on via Blueprint Income and Stan … [Read More...]

Fifth Third Bank has a $375 new checking bonus when you open an eligible Fifth Third checking account and make direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days of account opening. Thanks to reader Charles for the heads up. Note that Fifth Third Bank usually only accepts applications from the geographic area where they have physical branches, including the following 10 states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia. Opening online should populate the offer code (currently RKWHT3), or you can request an e-mail with a unique code to bring to a physical branch. Here the fine print: To qualify for the $375 checking bonus, provide the offer code, open a Fifth Third Momentum® Checking, or Preferred2 checking account … [Read More...]

Each year, I have a side goal of earning the equivalent of the maximum annual IRA contribution limit of $6,000 using the profits from various promotions alone. In 2021, I reached $5,592 in bonuses and $2,500+ in extra interest. If you had put $6,000 into your IRA every year for the recent 10 year period (2011-2020) and invested in a simple Target Date retirement fund, you would have turned small deals into a $100,000+ nest egg. An extra hundred grand can be the real-world result of regularly investing $500 a month into productive assets. A couple could double these numbers. Ground rules: Real-world results for one real person only. As following with My Money Blog tradition, this will track my personal, real-world results… [Read More...]

SoFi has added an excellent deposit bonus worth up to $300 to the new member referral offer on their SoFi Money checking account: $25 bonus if you open a new SoFi Checking & Savings account and deposit at least $10. Additional $300 bonus if you deposit at least $5,000 within 30 days from the date of your first Qualifying Direct Deposit. SoFi will credit members who meet qualification criteria within 14 days of the end of the 30-day Evaluation Period. Promo ends 5/31/22. (Alternatively, $100 bonus for $2,000 deposit, $50 bonus for $1,000 deposit. See table below.) 1.25% APY on ALL account balances (no more cap) in Checking and Savings accounts (including Vaults) with monthly direct deposit (of any amount). 0.70% APY without direct deposit. Rates are as of 4/7/22. … [Read More...]

Updated. SoFi (“Social Finance”) is a financial “super app” that expanded from students loans into banking, stocks, crypto, credit cards, and more. They’ve been more aggressive recently on many of their promotions, with many worth a second look. Both referral and alternate options are included below. New users can receive a separate opening bonus for each separate part of SoFi (Money, Invest, Crypto, etc). SoFi App Download Referral offer: $25 user bonus. “Get up to $25 cash rewards when you use my link to sign up and check your credit score.” Must be completely new to SoFi for this one. SoFi Money Referral Offer: $25 new user bonus. Banking features. Open a new SoFi Money account and add at least $10 … [Read More...]

Lafayette Federal Credit Union (LFCU) has a respectable history of offering competitively-priced banking products. I recently joined and here is a quick review of their current promotions and the application process. Highlights: 2.02% APY Checking account on up to $25,000 balance (details below). $100 bonus for new members (details below) Competitive CD rates: 7-month at 0.70% APY, 3-year at 1.01% APY, 5-year at 1.26% APY Membership eligibility. You can view your membership eligibility options here, including working/living in the Washington, DC area. Anyone nationwide can join LFCU by joining the Home Ownership Financial Literacy Council (HOFLC) for a one-time $10 fee. Account opening process. I went to the HOFLC.org website and paid my $10 to join. (I hope to spend more time exploring … [Read More...]

Update 1/19/22: HMBradley announced a few additional changes (on the positive side). They are offering a bit more grace period for new credit cardholders, and ongoing cardholders now only need to maintain $1,500 in direct deposits per month (down from $2,500) along with $100 of monthly purchases on the credit card to get the 3X interest boost. Applies immediately as of January 2022. Update 12/15/2021: On December 15th, 2021, HMBradley announced upcoming changes to their interest rate that will become effective February 1st, 2022, along with changes to their credit card boosts that are effective January 1st, 2022. Here are the old and new “no credit card” interest rates on balances up to $100,000: Savings Tier APYs effective now through 1/31/2022: Tier 1: 3.00% APY Tier 2: 2.00% APY Tier 3: 1.00% APY Tier 4: 0.50% … [Read More...]

Enzo is another fintech app meant to manage all your money… Spending, savings, long-term investing. Via DoC, the catchy feature is 2% cash back on rent (subject to caps). They are also dangling the possibility of owning shares in the actual company. They are not live yet, but let’s take a closer look. Cashback on spending. From their disclosures (emphasis mine): Earn 10% cashback on Uber, 5% on DoorDash, and 2% on rent, limited to $65 per calendar month and $500 per calendar year. Earn unlimited 1.25% cashback on everything else. Once the monthly and/or annual limits have been reached, you will continue to earn 1.25% on everything (excluding rent). Cashback on rent is limited to one transaction per month. Enzo reserves the right … [Read More...]

Update December 2021: Follow-up that I eventually did receive my 90,000 Drop points (see screenshot) but I did have to contact Drop support and send them a screenshot of my account opening e-mail for proof as it didn’t track on its own. Sometime in November 2021, Drop added the restriction “No stacked deals available. Promotion codes found outside of Drop are not eligible for points.” Therefore, stacking is no longer available today, but if you applied through Drop back in September/October 2021 when there was no such restriction, I would encourage you to do the same. The Drop app itself has also been earning an easy trickle of points via Target and Amazon purchases that I would have made anyway by linking a payment card… [Read More...]

(Updates: BlockFi announced that they will pay 9% APY on stablecoin balances up to $40,000 as of 11/1/21, up from 8.25% APY for October. BlockFi credit card now has no annual fee and offers 3.5% back in Bitcoin for first 3 months and a rebate on BTC trades. The credit card also adds another 2% APY to your stablecoin interest earned. Also, earn 0.5% back on recurring crypto purchases set up by 10/31/21.) BlockFi is a cryptocurrency platform that both pays high interest on crypto deposits (including stablecoins) and lets you gain liquidity by borrowing cash backed by your cryptocurrency. They also a have a new credit card that pays Bitcoin rewards. BlockFi Interest Account bonus. Receive up to $250 in bonus Bitcoin for new clients that sign up … [Read More...]

Hanscom Federal Credit Union (HFCU) has hiked back up the rate on their CU Thrive account to 5.00% APY, which is a capped certificate of deposit that rewards consistent saving. The rate is set for 12 months, and during those 12 months you can transfer up to $500 every month from a HFCU checking account. No monthly fees. However, you cannot make any withdrawals during those 12 months, or you will be subject to an early withdrawal penalty of 90 days interest. This product is not meant for big balances. Instead, it is meant to encourage the creation AND maintenance of a modest savings habit. 5.00% APY is more than 10 times what the top “high-yield” savings accounts offer right now. How much interest can I earn? At 5% APY, … [Read More...]

For those following stablecoin, Centre (founded by Circle) has released another breakdown of USDC reserves as of July 16, 2021. The accounting firm Grant Thornton attests that the total fair value of US dollar denominated assets held in segregated accounts are at least equal to the now $22.2 billion of USDC in circulation. Here is their breakdown of the reserves: I honestly don’t see why they don’t just keep it all in cash. If they maintain the highest level of trust, they can make so much money elsewhere. Yet, while I am not a fan of seeing the 9% in commercial paper and 5% in corporate bonds, this breakdown is much better than Tether (USDT) reserves breakdown. Tether reported only 3% in cash and 65% in commercial… [Read More...]

Updated: Deposit bonus, APY promo, and new credit card details. BlockFi is a cryptocurrency platform that both pays interest on crypto deposits (including stablecoins) and lets you gain liquidity by borrowing cash backed by your cryptocurrency. Two promotions going on now include the up to $250 bonus Bitcoin for new deposits and the 10% APY on stablecoin deposits. Up to $250 in bonus Bitcoin for new clients that sign up and fund a new BlockFi Interest Account. Here are the updated bonus tiers: Deposit $25 to $1,499 Get $15 in BTC. Deposit $1,500 to $19,999, Get $20 in BTC. Deposit $20,000 to $39,999, Get $40 in BTC. Deposit $40,000 to $74,999, Get $75 in BTC. Deposit $75,000 to $99,999, Get $150 in BTC. Deposit $100,000+, Get… [Read More...]

Updated May 2021. OnJuno is a new fintech banking app with a competitive Bonus rate and 5% cash back on select merchants. They partner with Evolve Bank and Trust for FDIC insurance. As of May 2021, they announced the following changes to their structure: 2.15% Bonus Rate will be dropping to 1.20%. For existing users, this will not take effect until November 2021. For new users, this will take effect on May 20th, 2021. Metal Tier is now free for everyone (formerly $9.99 a month). Eligible balance for the Bonus Rate is increased to $50,000 (formerly $30,000). All in all, I feel that these changes are a net improvement as the ongoing monthly fee was going to be a problem in keeping customers. A higher bonus rate doesn’t help when … [Read More...]

Alliant Credit Union, one of the top 10 largest US credit unions by assets, has teamed up with Suze Orman to promote their new Ultimate Opportunity Savings account. The interest rate of 0.55% APY and structure appears to be the same as their existing High-Rate Savings account, just with an added $100 cash bonus if you deposit at least $100 a month for 12 consecutive months. Unfortunately, it is open to new Alliant CU members only. Thanks to reader Bill for the tip. Note that the fine print also states that you must have at least $1,200 in your account at the end of the period (you can’t have withdrawn it after the deposits). The $100 bonus is automatically deposited into The Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account after … [Read More...]