Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash for December 2020, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I track these rates because I keep 12 months of expenses as a cash cushion and there are many lesser-known opportunities to improve your yield while still being FDIC-insured or equivalent. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you’d earn by moving money between accounts. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 12/10/2020. Fintech accounts In the currently low-interest rate environment, individual investors can get higher-than-market rates by moving their money into fintech accounts that are trying to achieve high short-term growth through a combination of lower cost structure and venture … [Read More...]

The Blackrock article Emergency Savings = Better Retirement? comes from Blackrock’s department that helps companies manage their retirement plans. They propose the idea of creating a separate “sidecar savings account” in order to prevent early withdrawals via 401k loans (and often defaults): A “sidecar savings” account may help build short-term stability, giving participants the confidence to commit to long-term retirement goals. […] Plan sponsors could help participants meet short-term financial needs by taking steps to help reduce [401k loan] defaults. In other words, they want to give employees an emergency fund! Not exactly a new idea, but it supports the idea that the highest priority should be a short-term emergency fund, even if the real goal is higher retirement … [Read More...]

Update: BlockFi now supports ACH to transfer funds electronically from your bank account to the BlockFi Interest Account. Both deposits and withdrawals are fee-free. There is currently a daily transfer limit of $500. Linking is done via the Plaid platform. Please see full post for details, but ACH transfers make this bonus much easier to complete and exit. New promo, similar but slightly different. BlockFi is a cryptocurrency platform that both pays interest on deposits and earns interest via cryptocurrency-backed loans. Right now, they are offering an up to $250 in bonus Bitcoin for new clients that sign up and fund a new BlockFi Interest Account. Here are the bonus tiers: Deposit $25 to $249, Get $15 in BTC. Deposit $250 to $999, Get $20 … [Read More...]

Citibank has tiered $200, $400, and $700 bonus offers when you open a new eligible Citi checking account by 6/30/20 and deposit and maintain a certain balance for 60 to 150 days. There is also a $1,500 bonus if you have $200,000 to move over. This offer is restricted to those who have not had a Citibank checking account within the last 180 calendar days. Here are the highlights followed by a few tips on how to optimize the bonus. $200 bonus details: Open a new eligible checking account in the Basic Banking Package during the offer period 4/01/2020 to 6/30/2020. Within 30 days of opening your account, deposit $5,000 in New-to-Citibank funds into the new checking account. Maintain a minimum balance of $5,000 for 60 consecutive calendar days. You will receive your… [Read More...]

With rates drops everywhere and no end in sight, I can’t open up a new account for a 4% APY CD, so I’ve been picking up various cash bonuses while stuck at home instead. Chime is a popular fintech bank app with a $50 cash bonus after a payroll direct deposit of $200+ within the first 45 days of new account opening. To get this offer, you must be referred by an existing user. Here is my Chime $50 referral link. Thanks if you use it! It’s a very simple bonus. Here is a screenshot of my bonus appearing nine minutes after my direct deposit: Here is the fine print: *In order for both the referred individual and the referring Chime member to each… [Read More...]

HMBradley is another fintech bank startup that differs by offering customers up to 3% APY based on the percentage of their paycheck that they save. Deposits are FDIC-insured through Hatch Bank. What do you have to do to actually qualify for this rate? Will it be worth the hassle? Here’s my review of HMBradley after reading their FAQ, fee schedule, and deposit agreement. Thanks to reader Guarav for the tip. Rate tiers. Interest is earned on balances up to $100,000 and is set each calendar quarter. The interest rate updates for all customers at the beginning of each calendar quarter: January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st. In order to qualify for a “Savings Tier”, you must receive a direct deposit at… [Read More...]

The Federal Reserve is buying everything in sight (even junk bonds apparently), so it has been rate drops all around. Bank accounts now offer much higher available rates than Treasury bonds. I’d also recommend checking on your brokerage money market sweep fund as most are back to very low rates. Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash for May 2020, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I track these rates because I keep 12 months of expenses as a cash cushion and also invest in longer-term CDs (often at lesser-known credit unions) when they yield more than bonds. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you’d earn by moving money between accounts. Rates … [Read More...]

Update: $300 promotion may end soon. CIT Bank has brought back their Savings Builder Account deposit bonus. The bonus has increased to up to a $300 cash bonus depending on deposit amount, and it is open to both new and existing customers. The bonus is on top of the interest rate, currently 1.70% APY (as of 4/9/20) at their top tier for qualifying accounts. Unfortunately, if you did an earlier bonus, you are not eligible for this one: PLEASE NOTE: Existing Customers enrolled in a Savings Builder bonus promotion prior to January 17, 2020, are not eligible for this promotion. New deposit bonus details. For new customers, you must first open a new account with at least $100 and promo code Spring20 at this link. If you already had… [Read More...]

Fort Bragg Federal Credit Union has some solid rates on their term share certificates, most notably the 5-year jumbo certificate at 2.99% APY ($25,000 minimum) and 2.89% APY ($5,000 minimum). Available both in regular taxable and IRAs. These are even “step-up” CDs where you can bump up the rate once if the advertised rates rise. NCUA-insured. Found via DepositAccounts. This is a relatively small credit union, so this rate probably won’t last very long. I would also expect it to require a little effort to be opened if you don’t live near their branches in North Carolina. Even their 2.99% APY is a bit odd. When it’s a loan where you pay interest, you always see APRs of 2.99% or 9.99%… [Read More...]

Bonus refreshed, bigger bonus, new promo code. CIT Bank has refreshed their Savings Builder Account deposit bonus. The bonus has increased to up to a $300 cash bonus depending on deposit amount, and it is open to both new and existing customers. The bonus is on top of the interest rate, currently 1.75% APY (as of 2/4/20) at their top tier for qualifying accounts. Unfortunately, if you did an earlier bonus, you are not eligible for this one: PLEASE NOTE: Existing Customers enrolled in a Savings Builder bonus promotion prior to January 17, 2020, are not eligible for this promotion. New deposit bonus details. For new customers, you must first open a new account with at least $100 and promo code Spring20 at this link. If you already had… [Read More...]

The NY Times recently published an article stating Safe Deposit Boxes Aren’t Safe. I was a little disappointed in the article because it was a bit sensational, but I suppose the takeaway is important for folks that made other assumptions. A more accurate headline would be “Safe Deposit Box Contents Aren’t Insured”. No federal laws require banks to compensate customers for lost property from a safe deposit box. Usually, you have agreed in the rental contract that that maximum liability is on the order of $1,000. Unfortunately, there have been rare cases where folks have lost the contents of your safe deposit box. Natural disasters like fire, flood, or even a movie-style bank robbery have occurred. The NYT article told the story of a… [Read More...]

Online bank Marcus (formerly Goldman Sachs Bank) has a new Cash Bonus Offer which includes 1% cash bonus (up to $500) on new deposits on top of their existing interest rate (currently 2.15% APY). Valid for both new and existing customers. Given the holding period, this roughly equates to the same total interest paid as a 3-month bank CD at 6% APY. Here’s how it works: Enroll first at the offer link and designate a specific savings account to be tracked for this promotion. Deposit your new funds ($1,000 minimum) within 10 days of enrollment. Multiple transfers within that 10 days is fine, but funds must be new to Marcus Bank. Maintain your balance at enrollment plus the new funds for 90 days. Receive your 1% cash bonus… [Read More...]

Savings I Bonds are a unique, low-risk investment backed by the US Treasury that pay out a variable interest rate linked to inflation. 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 2019 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 2019 savings bond purchase will yield over the next 12 months, instead of just 6 months. New inflation rate prediction. September 2018 CPI-U was 252.439. March 2019 CPI-U was 254.202, for a semi-annual increase of 1.16%. Using the official formula… [Read More...]

Update: Rate increased 1/3/19. CIT Bank raised the rate on their Savings Builder account to 2.45% APY. That’s a solid rate on liquid savings as long as you set up a $100 monthly auto-deposit so you have nothing to remember. Details and screenshots on how to do that in my original review below. (You could also keep $25,000 there.) CIT Bank has a new high-yield savings account called the Savings Builder Account. This is a unique savings account with two ways to qualify for their highest interest rate tier of 2.45% APY (as of 1/3/19). You need ONE of the following in each Evaluation Period: Maintain at least one single monthly deposit of $100+, OR Maintain a balance of $25,000+. I noticed … [Read More...]

I don’t know who does PR for Robinhood, but they are good. I don’t ever recall this many media articles in a single day for a pseudo-checking account. Techcrunch, Barron’s, Business Insider, Bloomberg, USA Today, CNBC, Marketwatch… All coming the day after they deactivated some user accounts without notice and halted all options trading mid-day. Robinhood announced a new Checking & Savings Cash Management account to expand their existing (required) brokerage account product. Robinhood is not a bank, and this account is not FDIC-insured. They did partner with Sutton Bank to provide a debit card, but deposits are not held at Sutton Bank. After reading through all their materials, here’s what is included: 3% APY, subject to change at any … [Read More...]

Citibank has $500 bonus offer when you open a new eligible Citi checking account 10/1/18 through 12/31/18 and complete qualifying activities. This offer is restricted to those who have not had a Citibank checking account within the last 180 calendar days. Here are the bonus requirements, condensed from their full terms and conditions: You must first enroll at citi.com/checkingrewards (or in-branch). You must open a new Citibank Checking and Citi Savings Account in “The Citibank Account Package”. You must make a deposit of $15,000 or more (multiple deposits okay) in “new-to-Citibank” funds within 30 days of account opening. For the $400 bonus, you must maintain a minimum balance of $15,000 for 60 consecutive calendar days after deposit. The $15,000 can be spread between checking and … [Read More...]