$250 promo still available, higher ACH limits now possible. 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 in BTC.
• Deposit $1,000 to $4,999, Get $40 in BTC.
• Deposit $5,000 to $9,999, Get $75 in BTC.
• Deposit $10,000 to $19,999, Get $150 in BTC.
• Deposit $20,000+, Get $250 in BTC.

This must be your first deposit, and you must make the qualifying deposits within 30 days of account opening. The required holding period is roughly 3 months. For example, if you participate in the promo anytime in December, your bonus will be paid out March 15th. This one is an affiliate offer and you should see the promo code partner250 auto-filled on your application.

New BlockFi clients who sign up with a specific partner referral code and fund their account during the promotion period (current calendar month ending at 23:59:59 UTC on the last day of the month) are eligible to receive a tiered bonus paid in BTC. To be eligible for the promotion, this must be your first ever deposit in the BlockFi Interest Account, and you must maintain a $25+ crypto balance through the 14th of the month at 23:59:59 UTC two and a half months from the month of eligibility in order to remain eligible. Eligible payouts occur on the 15th of every month on a rolling basis. If the 15th falls on a weekend, then the payout will occur by the end of the next business day (ex. If you participate in the promo in December, your bonus will be paid out March 15th). This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other current or past promotions and the promo code on the account will be used to determine promo eligibility for new accounts. The bonus will be paid in BTC based on the prevailing market price at the time of payment. Payout will be based on your average daily balance (USD equivalent) maintained through 23:59:59 UTC on the 14th on the month you are eligible to be paid on. Any withdrawals made before 23:59:59 UTC on the 14th of the month you are eligible to be paid out on may affect your tier. BlockFi Interest Accounts are available in most countries worldwide and all U.S. states other than NY. There is a maximum of one bonus per client. This offer is not valid in conjunction. Terms subject to change.

To fund larger amounts quickly, you can do a wire transfer from your bank account or USDC transfer from Coinbase/Coinbase Pro. Update: BlockFi now supports free ACH transfers direct from your bank account, and you can now transfer up to $5,000 every day. The funds are available to use instantly. Both deposits and withdrawals are fee-free. Linking is done via the Plaid platform, which means BlockFi never sees your passwords and your info is encrypted.

The BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) currently pays 6% APY on up to 2.5 Bitcoin (BTC) and 8.6% APY on USDC/GUSD stablecoins (subject to change on a monthly basis). There are no trade requirements, but when you deposit USD it will be converted to the GUSD (Gemini stablecoin) by default. (You can then use it to buy USDC or something else if you wish.) You could simply hold the stablecoin and earn interest until the bonus posts. Their overall business model is to earn a spread on the difference between lending out money and paying interest.

To earn interest on crypto, we lend assets to highly vetted and audited institutional counterparties. The interest we are able to pay is based on the yield that we are able to generate from lending, which directly correlates to the market demand in the space (I.e. what rate institutions are willing to pay to borrow specific crypto assets, as it varies from asset to asset).

BIA is available in 49 of 50 U.S. states (excluding New York). One free crypto withdrawal per calendar month and one free stablecoin withdrawal per month. After that, additional stablecoin withdrawals are $0.25 each.

Update 2: BlockFi has announced a new credit card that lets you earn 1.5% back in the form of BTC. You can only join the waitlist if you already have an open BlockFi BIA accounts, so I’d grab this bonus first. However, I’d rather get a better 2% cash back elsewhere and just buy BTC directly.

BlockFi is definitely one of the more well-established crypto sites, but you should do your own due diligence as it is not an FDIC-insured bank account nor a SIPC-insured brokerage account. I found that they were backed by some reputable firms including Fidelity Investments and Coinbase, with over $100 million raised so far. They use Gemini as their primary custodian, which is a licensed custodian and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. As such, they will still require your name, address, and Social Security Number to verify the identity of all accountholders.

Bottom line. BlockFi offering up to $250 in bonus Bitcoin, depending on deposit size, for new clients that sign up and fund a new BlockFi Interest Account. They also pay interest on both Bitcoin and stablecoin.

Also see: $25 BTC Voyager promo.

(Update: Marcus has a new referral program for new customers. If you open with a Marcus referral link, you will get an extra 0.20% on all your balances for 3 months. I believe that the referrer gets the same. That’s my referral link, thanks if you use it!)

Marcus by Goldman Sachs is offering a $100 bonus if you deposit $10,000+ in new funds into their online savings account within 10 days of enrollment at this special offer page. Valid for both new and existing customers. You must enroll by 2/12/2021 and maintain the new $10,000+ deposit for 90 days. They have done a similar promotion in past years (and it’s nice that you can keep doing it). Thanks to Bill P and others who sent this in.

Yes. after enrollment, you must deposit $10,000 or more in new funds (internal transfers won’t count) into a Marcus Online Savings Account within 10 days of enrollment and maintain at least $10,000 of those new funds in your account in addition to your account balance at the time of enrollment for 90 consecutive days from the date of reaching the required dollar amount.

Each customer is limited to one bonus offer, which can only be applied to a single account. For eligibility purposes, each joint owner will be treated as a separate customer. For example, if you apply the bonus offer to a joint account, the remaining joint owner(s) may apply this offer to another account they own if they have not done so already.

The bonus will be deposited into your account within 14 days after fulfilling all of the bonus requirements.

Bonus math. This is a 1% bonus on $10,000 if you keep it there for 90 days, which makes it the equivalent of ~4% APY annualized. The bonus is on top of the standard interest rate, currently 0.50% APY as of 1/18/21. (0.60% APY for AARP members.) This total of roughly 4.5% APY over 90 days makes it a great short-term rate at that balance size when compared to my January 2021 monthly update of best interest rates. I have gotten the bonus in the past with no issues.

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 you’ve successfully made a monthly deposit of $100 or more for 12 consecutive months. To qualify for the bonus, you must keep a minimum balance of $100 in your savings account, and have $1,200 (or more) in your account at the end of the 12-month period.1

There is no minimum balance required, but you must accept paperless statements to avoid a monthly fee.

Bonus math. In terms of equivalent interest rate, earning an extra $100 of interest for a $100 monthly deposit is roughly 16% APY, so definitely better than any other non-bonus savings account out there. (Without the bonus, this account would earn less than 4 bucks!) Add in the normal 0.55% APY, and your total APY is ~16.5% APY. It’s much less exciting for bigger deposits, but this can still be a pretty good incentive if you want to start building up an emergency fund.

Alliant CU membership eligibility. Credit unions are supposed to be a cooperative non-profit that serves a specific community, but Alliant is pretty much open to anyone nationwide. If you start the online membership application, it will walk you through their various eligibility options. Here are their membership groups:

Any employee or retiree of a Qualifying Company.
Any member of a Qualifying Organization.
Any immediate family member of an existing Alliant member.
Anyone who lives or works in a Qualifying Chicagoland Community.
Anyone who is a member of the Foster Care to Success charity group.

You’ll find that it only costs $5 to join Foster Care to Success, and Alliant will pay that fee on your behalf!

Other potential member perks. Alliant has a good checking account product and their savings account rates have been historically pretty competitive. Like many other credit unions, they also offer competitive rates on auto loans on both new and used cars.

They also have a 2.5% cashback credit card, but there is a $10,000 monthly cap on purchases plus a $99 annual fee after the first year. After that first year, you’ll need to spend at least $19,800 annually (average $1,650 monthly) and less than $10,000 per month to exceed to do better than a 2% cash back card.

Bottom line. If you’ve been meaning to join a credit union and/or start a new savings/emergency fund for the new year, this $100 bonus might be a nice incentive to reach the modest savings goal of $100 per month.

Porte is another banking fintech app, this time with the notable feature of 3.00% APY on up to $15,000 on their attached high-yield savings account. To enable access to this account, you must have a one-time occurrence of $1,000+ of direct deposits within one month. There doesn’t appear to be any ongoing requirements after that.* This makes it a more simple setup than the 3% APY accounts of HM Bradley and One Finance, albeit with a lower balance limit. Thanks to reader Matt for the tip.

Referral bonus. New sign-ups can also earn an additional $50 bonus if you open a new account via referral link (now working with in both regular and mobile browsers) and establish a direct deposit of at least $500. That’s my link and I will also get the same bonus, so thanks if you use it! If you have issues with the bonus posting, please let me know.

Quick 3% APY math. If you were to max out the $15,000 at 3% APY and this interest rate holds for a year (a big if), you would get $450 of interest over that year. Compare with a 0.50% APY savings account that would earn $75 in interest on $15,000 in a year, for a difference of $375 a year. As long as that gap stays wide enough, that could be an ongoing $20 to $30 a month in extra interest income.

Additional features.

• No monthly fees, no minimum balances.
• Fee-free access to Moneypass ATM network (32,000+ locations).
• Free debit Visa card.
• Mobile check deposit via app.

They have “real human” (their words) customer service available at 800-267-7080. FDIC insurance is provided by their partner bank, MetaBank. This is the same bank behind Netspend, which used to have a more interesting 5% APY prepaid card. Note that interest also posts quarterly.

An important missing feature is that you can’t use their app to link an external bank account to make ACH deposits/withdrawals. You can make one-time deposits via a debit card from one of your other accounts (they use Plaid). You will have to link this account using another online bank as the hub (Ally, CapOne 360, Marcus, etc) to make ACH transfers. Otherwise, you’ll have to use their debit card and use Venmo/Apple Cash or similar. Little things like this show that it is a small start-up.

* Fine print. The wording on the site is a little ambiguous, but if you look through the fine print you’ll see that you only need one direct deposit to open the savings account, and once it is open, everybody gets the higher interest rate (3% APY as of this writing). There are no ongoing hoops listed.

No minimum balance to open Savings Account or obtain the yield(s). However, you must receive direct deposit(s) totaling at least $1,000 within one (1) calendar month to be eligible to open a Savings Account.

If the Average Daily Balance is $15,000.00 or less, the interest rate paid on the entire balance will be 2.97% with an annual percentage yield (APY) of 3.00%.

My experience. I opened the checking account and was allowed to open the savings account immediately after making $1,000 in qualifying direct deposits. (They don’t seem to be highly discerning as to what constitutes a direct deposit, but no guarantees.) You must manually transfer your funds from the checking to savings in order to get the 3% APY, which makes the funds inaccessible to your debit card. Even so, I declined their “Overdraft Service”, as I’d rather they just reject any transaction that would send me into negative territory. It doesn’t appear that the savings can be used as an overdraft source. My routing number is 073972181, which matches MetaBank, NA. I was able to make deposits and withdrawals to this account.

Bottom line. Porte is a new fintech app that offers a notable 3% APY on balances up to $15,000 once you complete a one-time direct deposit of $1,000 within a month. This is currently a much higher interest rate than the competition. The rest of the app is similar to other fintech offerings, but the high-yield savings account may be attractive for savers. There is $50 sign-up bonus via referral link (see above).

HMBradley is a fintech bank startup that differs by offering customers a variable interest rate based on their savings rate. Deposits are FDIC-insured through Hatch Bank. As of October 2020, the top rate is 3% APY, which is over 2% higher than the popular online savings accounts like Ally Bank, Capital One, or Marcus. Is there a catch? What’s the fine print? Here’s my review of HMBradley after opening an account and 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 least once every month and save at least 5% of your quarterly deposits.

New customers start in Tier 3 and stay there as long as they maintain at least one direct deposit per month. For example, if you open in October, the next reset date would be January 1st and your interest earned for the next 3 months is based on your activity in the previous 3 months. Here are the current rates for each tier:

Requires a “real” direct deposit every month. You must receive some sort of direct deposit each month, as defined below:

For our accounts, we define direct deposits as those deposits made by the customer’s employer or a federal or state government agency or retirement benefits administrator. 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.

They appear to be relatively strict on receiving a “real” direct deposit and not a person-to-person transfer. Based on my experience, they have a system for detecting incoming deposits and marking them automatically as “real”, but it is not 100% accurate and your direct deposit may have to be reviewed manually. Their online account interface clearly tells you if you have made the required direct deposit for the current month (see screenshot below). If not, you should contact them in order for them to manually check and mark your transfer as a direct deposit. I have a legit employer direct deposit and still had to do this every month. Having it marked properly is required to get the top rate.

Savings rate is based on ALL deposits and withdrawals. For the calculation of “savings rate”, all deposits are considered including incoming transfers from another personal bank account. At the same time, your “spending” will also include any transfer out of your account, even if it’s just to another bank account that you own.

Basically, money has to keep coming into HMBradley and not go back out, if you maintain a positive savings rate. That’s rather clever. They just have to maintain the high interest rates to keep reinforcing this cycle.

NOW account? No paper checks. It should be noted that HM Bradley’s account is actually a lesser-known form called a “negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) account”, which per the CFPB which gives the bank the right to require at least seven days written notice of a withdrawal. Supposedly, this is rarely done in practice. Like a checking account, there are no limits on the number of withdrawals each month. However, unlike a checking account… there are no checks! I suspect that not having to deal with paper checks saves them a good chunk of money. I’m personally fine with that as long that equates to a higher interest rate.

The Bank offers Negotiable Order of Withdrawal transaction checking accounts, which allows you to make deposits by check, ACH payment, transfer from another account at the Bank, or wire transfer. NOW accounts only are available to consumers for personal, family, or household purposes. The Bank does not offer business accounts and you agree not to use your HMBradley Account for business purposes. The Bank may request 7 days’ advance notice of a withdrawal or transfer of funds from the NOW account.

Credit card adds 0.50% APY. They recently added a credit card, but it is only open to those that have sizable payroll direct deposits as that is part of their creditworthiness criteria. If you do get it, you can earn another additional 0.50% APY, for a total of up to 3.5% APY.

Additional features. No minimum balance, no monthly fees. $100 minimum to open. Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly. No paper checks. There is fee-free ATM access via your Debit Mastercard at over 55,000 ATMs in the STAR and MoneyPass networks (or at any store that allows for cash back on debit purchases). There is no online billpay (“coming soon”) and there is no ability to deposit checks (remote deposit also “coming soon”). They may close your account without notice if you maintain a zero balance.

My thoughts. In the current rate environment, the ability to earn 3% APY on up to $100,000 is exceptional. I don’t know of any “rewards checking” account has a balance limit of $100,000. This can be a good opportunity if you understand the rules and the top interest rate stays higher than the competition.

All new customers that open now will earn a maximum of 1% APY until the next quarter starts (January 1st, 2021 as of this last update). This is actually a good rate in the current rate environment. If your savings rate is determined to be above 20% as of December 31st and you had a “verified” direct deposit each month, then you will reach Tier 1, but will Tier 1 still be 3% APY then? There is no rate guarantee and they don’t promise to provide any set amount of advance notice. I was happy that they maintained their 3% APY rate for October-December 2020, but it should also be noted that some of their lower rate tiers have already dropped from when they first starting taking deposits.

The idea of incentivized higher savings rates is good, but it may be a tough hurdle for those living paycheck-to-paycheck. On the other hand, as long as you can switch over a partial direct deposit, adding some consistent amount each month with minimal withdrawals would also work.

Bottom line. HMBradley is a digital bank startup that differs by offering customers a high rate (currently up to 3% APY) based on the percentage of their deposits that they save. They require moving over a monthly direct deposit, and the rules are a bit more complex than I’d like, but if the rates hold steady it can be a very competitive offer for motivated savers.

Added 11/16/20: HMB added a new referral program. If you sign up via my referral link, I will get a free “Tier Rewind” if my savings rate drops later on. You can refer others for the same benefit. Thanks if you use it! Also here is an interesting interview with the CEO, which thankfully shows a good respect for anti-fraud vigilance.

Updated with $50 bonus. There seems to be a new fintech app every day, but that’s also where higher interest rates on FDIC-insured funds still live (after doing your due diligence). I’m genuinely curious to see what each one comes up as a differentiator. One Finance offers up to 3% APY on select balances and replaces overdraft fees with a line-of-credit. Thanks to reader Matt for the tip. New sign-ups can earn a $50 bonus via referral link (that’s mine) after first qualifying direct deposit of $250 or more. FDIC insurance is provided by their partner bank, Coastal Community Bank.

Let’s cut straight to what earns the 3% APY in their “Auto-Save Pocket”:

• Paycheck Auto-Save. Add your paycheck direct deposit and contribute up to 10% of each paycheck. Up to $1,000/month.
• Debit card automated round-ups. Round up every One card purchase to the next dollar and deposit the difference.

If you have any sort of Direct Deposit, you can earn 1% APY on up to another $25,000 (“Save Pocket”). If you don’t have Direct Deposit, you earn 1% APY on up to $5,000.

This structure is rather clever, as it directly incentives real-world savings while inherently limiting the balance on which they pay 3% APY. Even if you made 100 debit card purchases a month, you’d only average $50 a month in savings via roundups. Most people would also have to move over their entire direct deposit to take full advantage of the paycheck deferral portion. It would take $10,000 in monthly direct deposits to max it out.

(There is also no cash back or round-up matching on those debit card purchases, so you’d be giving up potentially valuable cashback/points/miles rewards to get that 3% APY. I’d prefer the 2% cash back, personally.)

Another somewhat unique feature is the no-fee line-of-credit for overdraft protection (charges 12% APY). There is no interest at all if you repay any negative balance by the end of the same month. Even at 12% APY, this can be a lot less painful than a $35 flat fee if you only overdraft by a few dollars for a few days. For example, overdrafting by $500 for a week would cost nothing if you went back up by the end of the month, or about $1.15 if you didn’t. I’m guessing that most other big banks don’t do this because charging those $35 fees is much more profitable.

Additional features.

• No monthly fees, no minimum balances.
• Fee-free access to Allpoint ATM network.
• Free debit Mastercard.
• Person-to-person payment system.

Finally, they promise “World-Class Live Customer Service”. That is a bold claim coming from a crowd of startups trying to get by with the bare minimum of customer service *cough* Robinhood *cough*. It’s truly refreshing whenever I speak to a knowledgeable, caring customer service rep these days. I hope they pull it off, a la Zappos.

If you have the ability to move over some direct deposit and save part of it, you should compare with the structure of HM Bradley. It’s easier to earn 3% APY on a big balance with HM Bradley (and with a smaller direct deposit), but it may be harder to maintain the top rate over the long run as you can’t take out net money without hurting your savings rate. One Finance appears better at encouraging steady savings over the long-run, even if your spending varies. Their higher interest rates may also be more sustainable as a result.

Bottom line. One Finance is a new fintech app that offers up to 3% APY that incentivizes savings from your paycheck and rounding up your debit card purchases. This might be a good fit for people that want a simple, high-interest savings system.

Capital One is running a $400 bonus for new 360 Checking accountholders. Note that if you have or had an open 360 Checking product on or after January 1, 2018, you’re ineligible for the bonus. Here are the details:

• Open a 360 Checking account by January 26, 2021, using promo code BONUS400.
• Receive at least 2 direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more within 60 days of account opening.
• Capital One will deposit the bonus depending on your opening month. If you open in November 2020 and complete the direct deposit requirement within 60 days, and you’ll get your bonus by the end of March 2021. Opening a month later pushes the bonus date a month back, etc.

Selected fine print:

If you have or had an open 360 Checking account as a primary or secondary account holder with Capital One on or after January 1, 2018, you will be ineligible for the bonus. If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus.

(I should probably close my idle account now, so I can pick up another one of these bonuses in a couple years.)

Their definition of direct deposit sounds broad, but I don’t know what exactly will work. I would try a transfer from a brokerage account if possible, as opposed to another online bank.

A qualifying direct deposit is an Automated Clearing House (ACH) credit, which may include payroll, pension or government payments (such as Social Security) by your employer or an outside institution.

The 360 Checking account is similar to many other online checking options, solid but nothing extraordinary. Highlights:

• No monthly fees, no minimum balance required.
• 0.10% APY on all balance tiers, as of 11/15/2020.
• Remote check deposit via app.
• In addition to their own ATMs, Capital One uses the Allpoint ATM network for fee-free ATM access.
• You can use your 360 Savings as the overdraft backup source of funds.

Bottom line. Capital One 360 Bank has a pretty solid promo for new checking accounts, but you’ll have to switch over your direct deposit at least temporarily, or at least simulate it with a transfer.