Discover Bank has extended the bonus again for their online savings account. If you open a new account through this promotion link by 5/11/20 and use the offer code OBE420, you can receive one of the following bonuses:
- Deposit at least $15,000 by 5/25/20 to earn a $150 bonus, or
- Deposit at least $25,000 by 5/25/20 to earn a $200 bonus.
This offer has been around since at least 2017 and is only for new Discover customers, but if you haven’t grabbed it yet it’s a solid bonus. Thanks to reader Geoff for the tip.
Offer not valid for existing or prior Discover savings customers or existing or prior customers with savings accounts that are co-branded or affinity accounts provided by Discover. Account must be open when bonus is credited. Bonus will be credited to the account by 6/8/20. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Offer may be modified/withdrawn without notice.
The Discover Online Savings Account has a current interest rate of 1.50% APY as of 4/10/20, which is a competitive rate although not the highest available. There are no minimum balance requirements and no monthly fees. Interest is compounded daily and paid monthly.
If you deposit the minimum amount of $15k, the $150 bonus is effectively another 1% of your initial deposit. The $200 bonus on $25,000 deposited is a lower percentage, but if you have the extra cash then it may still be a good rate. There is no fixed minimum time period where you have to keep the money there after getting the bonus, so your effective ROI can be quite high. Keep in mind that you must still have an open account for the bonus to post.
I did not experience a hard credit pull when opening my Discover bank account on a previous bonus. Historically, their rates are competitive but not the rate leaders. Their overall feature set is not exceptional, so I only maintain $5 in there with an occasional transfer so they don’t close it for inactivity.
Bottom line. The Discover Savings account is a simple, barebones piggy-back savings account with no minimum balance and no monthly fees. The rates are historically competitive but rarely the highest. With no monthly fees, this is a relatively low-risk bonus if you have the funds available and have never had a Discover bank account before.
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I took advantage of one of these bonuses to open a Discovery savings account that I use to separate money that I will have to pay in taxes in April. So far, I have no complaints, although their app and website are not as good as other online banks. So while maybe I would not use them for a daily-use checking account, it’s a perfectly good bank for high-interest savings, in my experience.
I wonder if I could close out my current savings account with them and open a new one to get the bonus?
Any idea why electronic verification of my current bank account didn’t work? Is it only available for major banks like Chase, BOA, Citi?
Not sure. Do they use routing numbers or username/password?
Username and password. I only experienced this type of verification with Robinhood. But I guess it is becoming more and more mainstream. It’s just not many banks are on board with this electronic verification. Probably only the big national banks and not my local credit union. But the trial deposit verification already came through, so it only delayed me by one day.
Jonathan I was wondering how you interpret the (contradictory?) increase in Money Market rates with the stagnation and even reduction in 3-5 year CD rates since the Fed announcement in December, which I personally didn’t think was particularly dovish.
I think the bank rates are matching the Treasury bill/bond rates pretty closely. A 4-week T-Bill yields 2.36% but a 10-year Treasury is only 2.74%. Curve is flattening.
Thanks Jonathan! Appreciate you sharing these offers. Looks like a nice rate and a quick $200 dollars.
Something is wrong with the site – Got stuck at 3rd step of the new account registration step.
I have tried it twice so far. Wanted to know if anyone else experienced this