Fierce Finance App Review: 5.25% APY + New Deposit/Referral/Trade Bonuses

Update January 2024: If you opened an account with Fierce previously, keep a lookout for e-mails with new promotions. In addition to the new account bonuses detailed below, I have received the following promos: a $25 bonus for setting up recurring $100+ deposits for 90 days (doesn’t have to be “direct deposit”), and another $25 bonus for making 10 stock purchase orders of $10+ before the end of the quarter. (Note: The roundtrip cost of an SGOV buy/sell trade of a single share has been only a penny in my experience during the trading day.)

Here is the fine print from my e-mail. I am not sure if they are targeted.

*To qualify for the $25 Bonus, you are required to set up Direct Deposit or Recurring Deposits to your Fierce Cash account with a value of $100 or greater per deposit for a minimum of 90 days from your first deposit. After your first successful Direct Deposit or Recurring Deposit transaction, the $25 Bonus will be credited to your Fierce Cash account at the end of the following month. Normal account service charges and miscellaneous charges may apply to the Fierce account, which may reduce earnings.

*To qualify for the $25 Bonus, you are required to execute 10 or more stock purchase orders of $10 or greater before 11:59pm ET on March 31st, 2024. The $25 Bonus will be credited to your Fierce Cash account at the end of the following month. Normal account service charges and miscellaneous charges may apply to the Fierce account, which may reduce earnings. The $25 Bonus offer cannot be used in combination with any other Fierce promotional offer.

Original post with new account bonuses:

Fierce Finance is another new fintech with big ambitions. Currently available as an iPhone app (Android “coming soon”), it combines a checking account, stock trading, and crypto. Notably, the checking account pays 5.25% APY and offers a few different bonus opportunities, which they say don’t stack but I’ve still been offered them one after another. Additional details below.

Banking

• 5.25% APY (as of 1/3/24) on the Fierce Checking Account.
• No monthly fees, no minimum balance requirement.
• Banking services provided by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC.
• Uses the Allpoint ATM network of 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs worldwide.
• “Live Support via phone, email, or live chat.”

Investing

• It says “zero management fees”, I can only guess they also have zero stock commissions like nearly everyone else.
• Brokerage services provided by FIN2, member FINRA and SIPC.
• “Earn yield on your stocks” – I’m guessing this is also just fully paid securities lending.
• Regulated Crypto Trading in all 50 states.

Deposit Bonus details (EXPIRED). If you open a new Fierce account and reach one of the deposit tiers below within 30 days of account opening, keep it there for 180 days, and keep your account open for 210 days, you can receive the following bonus amount:

• $25 for deposits of $1,000+
• $100 for deposits of $10,000+
• $200 for deposits of $30,000+
• $500 for deposits of $100,000+

If everything goes perfectly, the $100 for $10,000 deposit tier would add about 2% to your APY over that period (in reality probably a little less). As long as they maintain their currently competitive interest rate, it’s not a bad combined total return for 6-7 months.

Fine print from their website:

The Deposit Bonus offer is only available to new customers that meet all current account opening requirements. To qualify for the Deposit Bonus, you are required to open a new Fierce account and initiate cumulative new money deposits, according to the table below, within 30 days of account opening. The cumulative value or greater must remain in your Fierce account for a minimum of 180 days. The Deposit Bonus will be credited to your Fierce Cash account at the end of the following month. Accounts must be kept open for 210 days from the time of qualifying. Normal account service charges and miscellaneous charges may apply to the Fierce account, which may reduce earnings.

Deposit Bonus:
$25 for deposits of $1k+
$100 for deposits of $10k+
$200 for deposits of $30k+
$500 for deposits of $100k+

The Deposit Bonus offer cannot be used in combination with any other Fierce promotional offer. For tax purposes, the value of the bonus will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT. Fierce reserves the right to limit an individual to one account-related gift incentive per rolling 12-month period. Accounts closed at the time of bonus payment are not eligible. Offer is subject to cancellation without notice and cannot be combined with any other bonus offer. Fierce is not responsible for, and will not honor, promotional offers that appear on third-party websites that are not authorized by Fierce.

$25 Referral Bonus details. If you open via a referral link (opening on iPhone recommended, my link), you will get a $25 bonus if you open a new account and deposit $250. The terms suggest you can’t combine this with the deposit bonus below, so I would just do this bonus if you don’t want to deposit $10,000+ for the deposit bonus. Swagbucks also has their own bonus (currently I see 3,000 SB for a $25 deposit).

Fine print from their website:

The $25 Referral Bonus offer is only available to customers that meet all current account opening requirements. To qualify for the $25 Referral Bonus, the referrer is required to have a Fierce account in good standing with a balance of $250 or more. The referred customer must initiate cumulative new money deposits totaling $250 or more into their Fierce Cash Account within 30 days of account opening. A cumulative value of $250 or more must remain in their Fierce account for a minimum of 30 days. The $25 bonus will be credited to the referrer’s Fierce Cash account at the end of the following month. Accounts must be kept open for 90 days from the time of qualifying. Normal account service charges and miscellaneous charges may apply to the Fierce account, which may reduce earnings. Limited to 10 Referral Bonuses payments or $250 in bonus payments per customer.

The $25 Referral Bonus offer cannot be used in combination with any other Fierce promotional offer. For tax purposes, the value of the bonus will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT. Fierce reserves the right to limit an individual to one account-related gift incentive per rolling 12-month period. Accounts closed at the time of bonus payment are not eligible. Offer is subject to cancellation without notice and cannot be combined with any other bonus offer. Fierce is not responsible for, and will not honor, promotional offers that appear on third-party websites that are not authorized by Fierce.

Trading bonus details. This appears to be their advertised bonus on their front page at the moment (January 2024), but it was sent to me via email after opening up my account so I feel they should be stackable in my situation. I would open up using the deposit or referral bonus above, and then keep a lookout. $10 bonus for your first $10+ stock purchase, and a separate $10 bonus for your first $10+ crypto purchase. Total $20.

Fine print from website:

The Trading Bonus offer is only available to customers that meet all current account opening requirements and have not previously purchased stock or crypto on Fierce.

To qualify for the Trading Bonus, you are required to have a Fierce account in good standing that has not previously purchased stock or crypto. The customer must initiate cumulative new stock or crypto orders, according to the Trading Bonus table below, between the time the offer is received and 11:59 pm ET on October 31st 2023. The cumulative value or greater must remain in your Fierce Stock or Fierce Crypto account for a minimum of 30 days. The Trading Bonus will be credited directly to your Fierce Cash account at the end of the following month. Accounts must be kept open for 90 days from the time of qualifying. Normal account service charges and miscellaneous charges may apply to the Fierce account, which may reduce earnings. Limited to 1 Stock Trading Bonus payment per customer and 1 Crypto Trading Bonus payment per customer, or a total of $20 in bonus payment per customer.
Trading Bonus:
$10 cash bonus for stock purchases equalling $10 or greater.
$10 cash bonus for crypto purchases equalling $10 or greater.

The Trading Bonus offer cannot be used in combination with any other Fierce promotional offer. For tax purposes, the value of the bonus will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT. Fierce reserves the right to limit an individual to one account-related gift incentive per rolling 12-month period. Accounts closed at or prior to the time of bonus payment are not eligible. Offer is subject to cancellation without notice and cannot be combined with any other bonus offer. Fierce is not responsible for, and will not honor, promotional offers that appear on third-party websites that are not authorized by Fierce.