Updated; bonus still available in 2022. Discover Bank has an ongoing deposit bonus for new customers for their online savings account. If you open a new account through either this link by 12/15/22, you can receive one of the following bonuses:
- Deposit at least $15,000 within 30 days of opening to earn a $150 bonus, or
- Deposit at least $25,000 within 30 days of opening to earn a $200 bonus.
This offer has been available off and on for over 5 years and is always only for first-time Discover Savings account customers, but if you haven’t grabbed it yet it’s a solid bonus.
*To get your $150 or $200 Bonus: What to do: Apply for your first Discover Online Savings Account, online, in the Discover App or by phone. Enter Offer Code WH922 when applying. Deposit into your account a total of at least $15,000 to earn a $150 Bonus or deposit a total of at least $25,000 to earn a $200 Bonus. Deposit must be posted to account within 30 days of account open date. Maximum bonus eligibility is $200.
What to know: 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. Eligibility is based on primary account owner. Account must be open when bonus is credited. Bonus will be credited to the account within 30 days of the account qualifying for the bonus. Bonus is interest and subject to reporting on Form 1099-INT. Offer ends 12/15/22, 11:59 PM ET. Offer may be modified or withdrawn without notice.
The Discover Online Savings Account has a current interest rate of 2.00% APY as of 9/21/22, 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 since the bonus should post shortly after you complete the required deposits. 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 (average speed transfers), so it is not my primary savings account at this time. Maybe it is convenient if your primary card is the Discover It credit card?
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 solid 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