(Update May 2024: Tax Day has come and gone, and thus this IRA match is back down to 1%. The recurring deposit promo still works, but is now only 50 points per transfer.)
Original post, with some outdated info:
SoFi has a new 2% IRA match promotion (previously only 1%), where they will add an extra 2% bonus towards your annual IRA contributions to a SoFi IRA (active or automated). You must contribute by April 15, 2024 (“Tax Day”). Both Traditional and Roth IRAs are eligible (no SEP). The bonus does not count toward your contribution limits. ACH transfers only (no ACATs, wires, or rollovers).
The IRA contribution limits for 2024 are $7,000 for people under age 50, which means they can earn up to a $140 bonus. For people age 50 and over, the limit is $8,000 which means they can earn up to a $160 bonus on top of their contributions. You must keep the contribution at SoFi for two years (until 4/15/2026).
New SoFI Invest customers can also either get a guaranteed $25 new user bonus or a lottery-style prize with an average expected value of under $10 (85% will only get $5, but you get approximately a 1 in 3,500 chance of getting $1,000).
The SoFi Active IRA is basically a normal brokerage account where you can buy whatever you want, including low-cost index ETFs with no trade commissions. The Automated IRA is a robo-advisor account where they will manage a portfolio for you (no advisory fees).
Robinhood announced a similar 1% IRA match earlier, although Robinhood seems to suggest that will be more of a recurring feature, and I’m not sure if SoFi will continue this every year. Keep in mind that if you want to move your IRA to another broker later, SoFi charges a $75 outgoing ACAT fee.
Here are the full terms.
Recurring deposit bonus. Here’s a lesser-known way to earn even more rewards if you commit to automatic, recurring investments. SoFi Points is their loyalty rewards program where you earn points for doing various activities like logging into the SoFi app for 7 days in a row, activating your debit card, linking external accounts, or paying a bill. SoFi Plus is a premium tier that activates if you have a SoFi checking or savings account and maintain a direct deposit of any amount (even $1), and allows you to earn extra points.
Right now, one of the bonus perks is 100 now only 50 points each time you make a recurring scheduled transfer of $50+ into a SoFi Invest brokerage account, valid up to 3 times per week. $150 a week times 52 weeks = $7,800, which is above the IRA contribution limits. 100 SoFi points = $1, so $0.50 bonus on a $50 transfer works out to an additional 1% bonus/match.
They could always cut this (even more) in the future, but for now it’s a pretty good deal. I’ve been doing the transfer into a regular taxable SoFi brokerage account, but I imagine it should work for IRAs as well.
SoFi new customer bonuses. New users can receive a separate opening bonus for each separate part of SoFi (Money, Invest, Crypto, etc):
- SoFi Checking Referral Offer: Up to $325 new user bonus. Open a new SoFi Money account and add at least $10 to your account within 5 days, and get $25. Then get up to $300 additional bonus with qualifying direct deposit. Plus up to 4.60% APY.
- SoFi Invest Referral Offer: $25 new user bonus. Brokerage account. Open an Active Investing account with $10 or more, and you’ll get $25 in stock.
- SoFi Invest Alternate Offer: Claw Game. Feeling lucky? Compare a guaranteed $25 above against having a 0.028% chance of a $1,000 bonus. (That is less than 1 in 1000 odds.)
- SoFi Invest Asset Transfer Offer: Up to $5,000 Bonus. Transfer over your existing assets from another broker and SoFi will pay you a bonus. From $50 bonus for transferring $5,000 in assets all the way up to $5,000 bonus for $2 million in assets.
- SoFi Student Loan Refi: $300 bonus. Warning: Do your research before refinancing your Federal student loans to a private lender.
- SoFi Doctors and Dentists Student Loan Refi: $1,000 bonus. Special low rates just for doctors and dentists.
- SoFi Private Student Loan: $100 bonus.
- SoFi Personal Loans Referral Offer: Fixed $300 bonus. Fixed $300 bonus, 90 days after successful funding. The loan has no fees and you can pay it back in full after 90 days (you can pay it down to $50 before then to accrue minimal interest).
Thank you for the secret match tip! It looks like contributions made after 4/15 won’t receive the 2% match though:
“only ACH deposits made during the offer period (Jan 4, 2024 – Apr 15, 2024 11:59 PM ET) are eligible for the 2% match.”
I think my big question for the IRA match is that the terms say it has to stay in for two years, otherwise the match will be rescinded. Will a backdoor Roth IRA process count at “staying in”?
Just came across this article. I’m taking advantage of this as well. Currently I use Sofi Banking with direct deposit which provided a strong $250 bonus a few years back for setting up direct deposit and now provides 4.6% interest on Savings, which is pretty strong compared to other Fintechs (I used to bank primarily with Ally). I transfer $50 3x per week into investment accounts by setting up bi-weekly transfers. of the 6 transfers I have setup Bi-Weekly, 5 of them go into my Roth IRA and 1 goes into a taxable investment account. This allows me to take advantage of the 100 points ($1, or 2% of the $50 transferred) and currently this is on top of the 2% match into the IRA Sofi is offering before tax day. I am glad Sofi added this match, because although the secret 2% was good, Robinhood’s 3% match into the IRA (Sofi Points are only redeemable into cash accounts) sounded very tempting to me, and although you need to have Robinhood Gold to take advantage of this, they also offer 5% interest on uninvested cash in a brokerage account, which beats Sofi’s 4.6% interest on savings. Sure, losing the secret 2% would be bad, but I could simply increase my $50 transfer frequency into my taxable brokerage account to still take full advantage. It’s difficult to say whether or not I’ll make the switch if Sofi gets rid of the IRA match because I like Sofi, but my loyalty to banks is non-existent, and I’m eventually going to make the smartest decision based on the best offer.