SoFi Savings 4.50% APY w/ No Cap, $250 Direct Deposit Bonus, $25 Opening Bonus

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Savings rate increased to 4.50% APY w/ any DD, $275 promo extended through 12/31/2023. SoFi is one of those apps that I tried out for the bonus, but have kept a relationship because it has maintained competitive rates and easy-to-use products. SoFi has added an excellent deposit bonus worth up to $250 to the new member referral offer on their SoFi Money checking account:

  • $25 bonus if you open a new SoFi Checking & Savings account and deposit at least $10.
  • $250 additional bonus if you deposit at least $5,000 in total Qualifying Direct Deposits within 25 days from the date of your first Qualifying Direct Deposit. Promo ends 12/31/2023. (Alternatively, $50 for $1,000+ deposit. )
  • 4.50% APY on Savings with monthly direct deposit (of any amount). You may wish to transfer funds from Checking to Savings now that the rates are different.
  • Overdraft coverage of up to $50 on on debit card purchases available to customers with monthly direct deposits of $1,000 or more.

Not a bad deal if only for the $25 easy bonus and 4.20% APY with any direct deposit amount. Even a $1 direct deposit works to get the higher APY. On top of that, $250 is a very high bonus for only having to commit $5,000 for less than a month.

What makes it harder is that it must be “qualifying direct deposits” as described below (emphasis mine). You should still be eligible for this promo if you are an existing SoFi Money account before today and have yet to complete your first direct deposit.

Eligible Participants: All new and existing members without a history of direct deposit transactions into their SoFi Checking and Savings account are eligible for the Program.
Members who previously enrolled in direct deposit into either SoFi Money or SoFi Checking and Savings do not qualify for this promotion. Bonuses are limited to one per SoFi Checking & Savings account. In the case of a joint account, only the primary account holder (the member who signed up first) is eligible for a bonus.

Promotion Period: The Program will be available through 12/31/23 11:59PM ET.

Bonus Terms: In order to qualify for eligibility for a bonus, SoFi must receive at least one Qualifying Direct Deposit (as defined below) from an Eligible Participant before the end of the Promotion Period. Qualifying Direct Deposits are defined as deposits from an enrolled member’s employer, payroll, or benefits provider via ACH deposit. Deposits that are not from an employer (such as check deposits; P2P transfers such as from PayPal or Venmo, etc.; merchant transactions such as from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.; and bank ACH transfers not from employers) do not qualify for this promotion. The amount of the bonus, if any, is described below. No bonuses shall be paid for Qualifying Direct Deposits of less than $1,000 during the Evaluation Period (defined below).

Evaluation Period: The Evaluation Period begins when SoFi receives a Qualifying Direct Deposit (within the Promotion Period) and ends 25 days later (the “Evaluation Period”). The bonus amount will vary based on the total amount of Qualifying Direct Deposits received during the Evaluation Period. Once the Evaluation Period has elapsed, we will determine if you have met the offer requirements and will deposit any earned bonus into your checking account within 7 business days. For example, if SoFi receives between $1,000.00 and $4,999.99 in Qualifying Direct Deposits during the Evaluation Period, you will receive a cash bonus of $50. A member may only qualify for one bonus tier and will not be eligible for future bonus payments if inflows subsequently increase after the Evaluation Period.

Total Qualifying Direct Deposit amount in 25-day Evaluation Period
Cash Bonus
$1,000.00 – $4,999.99 $50
$5,000.00 or more $250

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Comments

  1. Jonathan — correct me if I’m wrong, but this is not quite as easy as you make it out to be — you need an EMPLOYER direct deposit of $5,000+ (It’s in the terms that things like PayPal, Venmo, and bank ACH do not count towards this)

    • You are correct, it needs to be a direct deposit. But if you make $50,000 a year, that should be enough to create $2,000 in direct deposits within 30 days. There may be other types of transactions that qualify, but I will not speculate here as it is up to SoFi to decide.

      • Also, the evaluation period starts after the first direct deposit.. the first direct deposit is not counted.. so basically you now need to get two direct deposits in 30 days.. if it happens in 31 days which could in some folks case, you’ll be eligible for the lower tier.

        • Jason Boxman says

          True, I’m still trying to determine how to pull that off. Some employers pay weekly, or bi-weekly, or twice monthly. Makes it challenging. Need to look at a calendar and mark it up.

        • Lily Melendez says

          Hi Vivek!

          Thanks for taking the time to write to us. Vivek did you get to confirm with Sofi Bank if the first Direct Deposit does not count?

        • It says the first direct deposit is a “QUALIFYING Direct Deposit.” “Qualifying” means it QUALIFIES as one of the direct deposits in the 30 day evaluation period. My interpretation is that yes, it gets counted. That means you can have 3 Direct Deposits in a 30-day period if you get paid biweekly.

          • I stand corrected. I just got the bonus and it looks my first dd was counted as part of the 30 day period

          • Jennifer says

            Can confirm that the first direct deposit does count as well.

      • Royale Purvis says

        Do I need direct deposits on both checking and savings accounts to get the higher apy? Or can I get dd on just the checking and move money into savings from there?

        • You just need direct deposit of any amount (even $1) into the checking. No direct deposit needs to go into the savings, but the savings will have the higher APY.

  2. Jason Boxman says

    Sign-up with the link was quick and easy. There’s no indication regarding promotion status, unlike say at HMBradley where it tracks your progress for tiers, or Wells Fargo where I was given a paper statement showing the bonus was applied. So you need to make sure you keep track of the requirements and follow them, starting with the $10+ initial deposit when you link a bank account at sign-up. (Doesn’t state if this goes into checking or savings, so I did checking.) If you miss that, the game might be up already?

    The routing and account numbers for DD are prominently displayed, so getting that going is easy. Then just wait for this to ripen and harvest the bonus.

    Thanks!

  3. Does the money need to be held in the account after direct deposit?

  4. Graham Weedon says

    Jonathan, I’m a big fan of your blog and have had a lot of success with your bonus checking links (and 0% arbitrage back in the day). That said, I’ve had a ridiculously difficult time with SoFi. Admittedly, I made one up-front error in the application process: I thought I was creating a profile when they wanted a legal first name. It has been two full weeks trying to get the first name changed. There is no one to speak with. A text links you to a special page. I did get a secure message quickly with the promise of a rapid turnaround if I sent a front/back of my ID. (not so much). Zero indications of receiving ID or working on solution. Subsequent failed ‘applications’ lock me out for a week. I’ve not given up, but Man am I disappointed and frustrated.

  5. Jennifer says

    This can also be stacked with a Swagbucks deal, worth about $175. I think that one is also still live.

  6. I created the account towards the end of the promotion period and it takes a couple of weeks until I can get the direct deposit request processed. The first direct deposit will be made after the promotion period ends. Will I still be eligible for the bonus since I created the account within the promo period?

    • Does anyone know the answer to this? Right now, the promo period is up to 7/31/2022 only. If I sign up now, thens etup direct deposit after couple of weeks, hopefully my 7/31 paycheck and 8/15 paycheck gets direct-deposited, does the 8/15 direct deposit still qualify?

      • Based on my reading of the terms, yes. Your first would be during the “promotion period” and the second would occur within the “evaluation period”. Of course 7/31 is a Sunday so I would check when it actually arrives.

        Promotion Period: The Program will be available from 4/5/22 12:01AM ET to 7/31/22 11:59PM ET.
        Bonus Terms: In order to qualify for eligibility for a bonus, SoFi must receive at least one Qualifying Direct Deposit from an Eligible Participant during the Promotion Period. Qualifying Direct Deposits are defined as deposits from enrolled member’s employer, payroll, or benefits provider via ACH deposit. Deposits that are not from an employer (such as check deposits; P2P transfers such as from PayPal or Venmo, etc.; merchant transactions such as from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.; and bank ACH transfers not from employers) do not qualify for this promotion. The amount of the bonus, if any, is described below. No bonuses shall be paid for qualifying Direct Deposits of less than $1,000 during the Evaluation Period (defined below).
        Evaluation Period: The bonus amount will vary based on the total amount of Qualifying Direct Deposits received during the Evaluation Period. The Evaluation Period is defined as 30 days from the date your first Qualifying Direct Deposit is received. For example, if you receive $1,000-$1,999 in Qualifying Direct Deposits in the Evaluation Period, you will receive a cash bonus of $50. A member may only qualify for one bonus tier and will not be eligible for future bonus payments if inflows subsequently increase beyond the Evaluation Period.

  7. If I setup direct deposit into the checking account, do I just have 1.25% in the checking, and the savings stays at 0.7%? What is the purpose of having the two accounts? Is there a limit to how much can be stored in checking? Limits to how much can be transferred into/out of each?

  8. Jonathan, the referral link is broken.

    • Thanks for the heads up, I’m not sure if they are updating the promo or what. I updated to the most recent referral link I can generate, but the landing page is still different.

      • Yes, the new link does work. I saw on their home page that the referral is now $15 for both parties.

  9. Hi Jonathan,

    I have one doubt about the evaluation period. So I open the checking account and get the account details. I direct deposit $3000 on July 20 and then my evaluation period starts. Now, I again direct deposit $2500 on Day 15 (Aug 5) so my total deposit is $5500. I believe if I do this, I will be getting $300 deposit as it says first direct deposit should be received before July 31 and I am sending another direct deposit within 30 days of my first direct deposit.

  10. This bite you? Will it bite us?

    Each person referred should be someone you have a direct, personal relationship with. You may not distribute a Referral Link or otherwise solicit anyone through mass email, any form of commercial advertising or other similar means.
    SoFi reserves the right to review, investigate, and disqualify anyone from participation in the SoFi Referral Program at any time, and reserves the right to not honor any referral which in our sole discretion was solicited in a manner inconsistent with the spirit or terms and conditions of the SoFi Referral Program.

    • This is my personal blog, I am the sole owner of this domain and website, and my name is Jonathan Ping. I am a longtime SoFi customer and have been referring my readers for years now. I’m not spamming forums, Reddit, or any other public website. The advertising budget for this blog is… zero. 🙂 I don’t publicize in any other sort of way.

  11. Hi Jonathan, I used your link to sign up, but for some reason, my account does not note you as being a referrer. SoFi said that you need to call to let them know of my name and email for both of us to get the bonus. Let me know if you’re interested in doing this.

  12. Though your post reflects this info, I think it’s worth emphasizing that they’ve been offering their high (currently 2.00% APY) interest rate on the CHECKING account, which is a pretty big deal for me if they’ll keep that up.

    It’s so much nicer to be able to keep all my cash in one account with a solid APY, instead of having to maintain a portion in an essentially-no-return checking account, and/or deal with the weird 6-withdrawals-per-month limitation of savings accounts.

    • That is a good point!

      Even at Ally, I have multiple (no fee) savings accounts to avoid issues with the 6 withdrawal limit (even though they also reimburse the overage fees now, I feel like I shouldn’t push it in case they are required by law to close my accounts or something(.

  13. So the 30 day evaluation period begins the first day after my direct deposit hits. Do you think that I am allowed to delay my first deposit for a month as I am working on a US Bank promotion? From my understanding, my first direct deposit check would hit on September 30, which would start the evaluation period. Do you think that is correct?

  14. Do you know how long it takes for the system to realize you have direct deposit set up? Direct deposit is set up through my employer and they don’t have the company listed under the “Help Me Set Up Direct Deposit”. I had my first direct deposit go through and it still says my APY is 1.2%.

    • I assume it’s not until after you’ve received the deposit. Mine comes on the 15th, so hopefully I’ll know then.. and then transfer $5,000 over.

  15. FYI, I just got this email:

    Starting Thursday, 11/3 you’ll start earning 3.00% APY (annual percentage yield) on your savings and Vault balances. (You’ll still earn 2.50% on your checking balances, which is 62x the national average.)

    So I’ll move my funds from HMBradley over, and put them in Savings instead of Checking, apparently.

  16. Jonathon,

    My experience so far with SOFI has been a complete debacle. I do not blame you, but simply want to let your other reader’s know what they might be up against when banking with them.

    My initial account opening bonus processed properly. Unfortunately, my Direct Deposit bonus and supposed resulting interest increase did not. I am on my 2nd attempt at getting it fixed. I was first told they would fix it 15 days ago. When I followed up today since it still did not process, (my first direct deposit from my employer went through October 5th and second one processed October 19th) I was told it should have once again and that they again will fix it. I asked about the backdating on the interest rate increase and they said this was not possible. This is a bit ludicrous as the error is 100% their responsibility. When I asked when I would at least receive my bonus, they said they couldn’t tell me. What kind of bank is this? I’ve already wasted enough time on this. I told them if the bonus is not in my account by next week, I will be closing the account. I can’t work with an incompetent bank.

    • I agree with this; their customer service is terrible. Their security measures are arbitrary and sloppy; their rate increases are always behind the curve; they stubbornly create virtual numbers as labels for your external accounts for no good reason, which creates confusion as to where you’re transferring to/from; and on and on.

      The best liquid play right now is https://www.mynycb.com at 3.5%, and they don’t even have the ambiguous direct deposit requirement. One of the reasons you won’t hear about it as a headlining offer here, is because they don’t dish out referral bonuses…

    • Jason Boxman says

      After having made this my primary account, I can confirm they do have issues at times. There was a recent login debacle where the site wasn’t accessible. Today, I can login, but I’m told there’s an error when trying to access my bank accounts. Oops.

      On the other hand, savings is up to 3.25% and they’ll draft from checking automatically without any fees, so I leave my balance in savings. There’s no transaction limit for the savings account and the daily transfer limit is 1 million. (Some banks have stupid small daily limits.)

      So ymmv I guess. Maybe they get this sorted. If not, I guess back to LFCU or Alliant. Ally won’t do SMS authentication with Google Voice, which is incredibly annoying (Most banks will; they claim it isn’t secure LOL) so I’m not thrilled about having any money there anymore.

  17. Received this via email 12/2/2022 regarding deposit bonus of September 2022:

    Thank you for participating in our Balance Rewards Promotion!¹
    We’re currently calculating payouts for members that meet eligibility requirements.
    All eligible participants will receive rewards by December 14.
    Thank you!
    The SoFi Team

  18. Can someone confirm that their checking and saving do not offer beneficiaries?

  19. Well, except this bonus doesn’t work when your only qualifying deposit comes from Social Security. I just tried this, and there is no way SS can make this happen in less than about 45 days. At least that’s what the SS site quoted me. That is far beyond the 25-day evaluation period SoFi gives you to make the deposit, not just set it up; the deposit must actually be made during that period. This appears discriminatory in my mind because anyone who depends completely on the Social Security distribution to satisfy the qualifications, just won’t. I’m still staying with SoFi, but admittedly, this doesn’t get the relationship off on good footing.

  20. Just discovered they add the credit card points when they are earned to your 1099-INT. So even if you never redeem them for anything, you are taxed as though you redeemed them for cash the moment they were added to your account.

    I didn’t redeem any in 2022, but was told when I inquired about my 2022 1099, that, in addition to about $1k in interest and the $300 opening bonus, $500 in “rewards” were included in the total. I double checked my account history and verified my first redemption was in mid feb 2023, for about $700. Logic would dictate that all of that $700 would count toward my 2023 1099. But no, the points that generated that are counted when they are added to your account.

    So the first lesson is, make sure you redeem all of those.
    The second lesson is, go back to you citi double for 2x points on everything, because I don’t get taxed on those, even when I redeem them for a statement credit. The 2x points from the sofi card are most like 1x after they’re taxed.

  21. What would count for them as ““qualifying direct deposits” if you are doing other than the employer? Did anyone have luck/experience?

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