Bask Bank Interest Savings Account Soars To Rate Leader Level
Customers of Bask Bank received a cheerful email yesterday.
Good news! You're earning a new, higher rate.
Effective today, the annual percentage yield you are earning on your
Bask Interest Savings Account has been increased from 0.80% to 1.25% APY.
For the last couple of years, Bask Bank (internet division of Texas Capital Bank) was offering only one savings account, the Bask Mileage Savings Account, which earns a single American Airlines AAdvantage® mile for every dollar saved annually. In October 2021, the Bask Interest Savings Account was launched with a 0.60% APY, but could only be opened by existing Bask Mileage Savings Account holders. In January 2022, the Bask Interest Savings Account was made available to new customers on a nationwide basis.
The nationally available Bask Interest Savings Account earned 0.70% APY on all balances in January, with an additional 10 bps added in the beginning of April. (For several weeks in January and February, Bask Interest Savings Account had the highest rate offered on a nationally available savings account not limited by a small balance cap.) Yesterday’s substantial increase of 45 bps has made the Bask Interest Savings Account a rate leader again. The Bask Interest Savings Account has no minimum opening deposit or stated balance cap.
Thanks to DA reader, evol97, for the Forum post announcing yesterday’s Bask Interest Savings Account rate increase.
The FAQs and the Terms and Disclosures document on Bask Bank’s website are quite good and well worth the read. The following is a portion of the information available.
FAQs
How can I fund my account?
You have several options to fund your account:
- You can initiate a transfer from the Bask Bank website or mobile app. This will process as an ACH that withdraws money from your account at another bank and deposits it to your Bask Bank account.
- You can initiate a Wire Transfer from your account at another bank.
- You can deposit a check using the Mobile Deposit feature of our mobile app. The check must be made payable to you and must be properly endorsed.
What are my online transfer limits?
For new customers, online transfers are limited to a maximum of $100,000 per day. New customers can make up to three online transfers per month for a maximum total of $100,000. If you need assistance with transferring larger amounts, please contact Customer Support.
How long does it take for a transfer to process?
It may take 1 to 3 business days for a transfer to process.
Are there any transfer fees?
There are no account fees associated with your account with Bask Bank, including transfers to and from.
Beneficiaries
There is little detailed information on the Bask Bank’s website concerning beneficiaries; the following is from a conversation with CSR.
Adding and/or deleting beneficiaries can be done through the Secure Message Center (part of the online banking platform). If adding a beneficiary, you need to provide the beneficiary’s full legal name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and physical address. A Social Security number is not required. Any changes you make will be confirmed by a follow-up email from Bask Bank.
Terms and Disclosures
Compounding and Crediting Frequency – Interest is compounded daily and is credited to the Account on the last day of the statement cycle.
Effect of Closing an Account – If the Account is closed before or on the last day of a statement cycle, accrued interest for that period will not be paid.
Minimum Balance to Open the Account – There is no minimum balance required in order to open a Bask Interest Savings; however, accounts that do not receive an initial deposit within sixty (60) days may be closed.
Transaction Limitations – Transfers from a Bask Interest Savings Account to another Account or to Third Parties by preauthorized, automatic, telephone, or computer transfer are limited to 6 (six) per month. No transfers by Check, draft, debit card, or similar order to Third Parties are permitted.
Outgoing Wire Transfers – $35.00 (may be subject to receiving bank charges).
Fund availability: Readers have complained about the time it takes for funds to become available. According to the Terms and Disclosures:
For ACH Entries originating from Bask Bank through your linked external account, funds will be made available no later than five (5) Business Days after the Settlement Date of such items.
Availability
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Bask Bank is the newest online division of Texas Capital Bank. U.S. citizens/resident aliens, 18 years or older, with a valid Social Security number and a government issued ID are eligible to apply for a Bask Interest Savings Account. Bask Bank currently does not offer joint-ownership accounts.
Opening an account must be done online, with an “Open An Account” button located on every page of Bask Bank’s website.
Bank Overview
Bask Bank is a division of Texas Capital Bank and operates under Texas Capital Bank’s FDIC Certificate. As stated on Bask Bank’s website, ”Bask Bank and BankDirect are divisions of Texas Capital Bank. The sum of your total deposits with (i) Bask Bank, (ii) BankDirect, and (iii) Texas Capital Bank are insured up to $250,000. Additional coverage may be available depending on how your assets are held.”
Bask Bank/Texas Capital Bank has an overall health grade of "B+" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 2.26% (excellent) based on December 31, 2021 data. The Bank has an above average capitalization level (9.66%), the result of holding $34.73 billion in assets with $3.35 billion in equity. Please refer to our financial overview of Bask Bank/Texas Capital Bank (FDIC Certificate # 34383) for more details.
Texas Capital Bank was established in late 1997 as Resource Bank, N.A. Less than two years later, the bank’s first internet division, BankDirect, made its debut in May 1999. Bask Bank was launched in January 2020, offering a savings account that uniquely awarded AAdvantage® miles instead of interest. Texas Capital Bank is currently the sixth largest bank headquartered in Texas and the 65th largest bank in the country, with more than $36.3 billion in assets.
My first blog post about BankDirect was published in 2011 and was a review of its Mileage Checking Account. To quote myself, “BankDirect has been around for a while, but I haven't reviewed it since I've never been a fan of airline miles. I thought it might now be a good deal since interest rates are so low.”
How Bask Interest Savings Compares
When compared to nationally available Savings Accounts tracked by DepositAccounts.com, which do not require direct deposit and are not limited by a small balance cap, Bask Bank’s Bask Interest Savings Account’s APY currently ranks first.
| APY | Account Name | Credit Union/Bank |
|---|---|---|
| 1.25% | Bask Interest Savings Account (no min/no max) | Bask Bank |
| 1.00% | Online Savings Account (no min/$5m max) | First Foundation Bank |
| 1.00% | Bread High-Yield Savings ($100 min/no max) | Bread Financial |
| 0.80% | Bo Savings (no min/no max) | Bank Onward |
The above information and rates are accurate as of 5/6/2022.
To search for the best rates, either nationwide or state-specific, please refer to DA’s Savings Account Rates page.
I know since I did both at the same time and observed that difference. I only push/pull from external now.
Very steep and rigid rule. So this means the interest earned for the entire months is forfeited if the account is closed towards the end of the month.
This is the first to offer 1.25% but it wont be the last. Many more to follow soon, no need to rush.
That rule used to be fairly common years ago but now is extremely rare. It's one of the unexpected ****y traps you have to look out for.
I developed a template with lists of questions to ask for various account management activities, like opening and account, closing an account, adding beneficiaries, etc. Over time I added questions to cover an incredible number of usually unanticipated potential pitfalls that might be encountered such as this one. But by the time I finished asking all the questions to the CSRs I think they flagged me as a troublemaker and I found it pretty much unworkable. To be honest even my own eyes would glaze over by the time I got halfway through the list. And the CSRs got so exasperated that the answers were not reliable anyway.
Bottom line, read everything you can before doing business with an FI, but realize that in the end there is still some risk that something buried in their disclosure will bite you.
I view non-industry-standard rules that are as severe as this one as a red flag. But that doesn't mean the FI is ruled out for a particular purpose that might be useful.
I don't know the length of this bank's statement cycle, so I don't know the number of months of interest you are referring to. Or, I just realized, you may simply have omitted an apostrophe, and mistakenly written "months" as a plural.
In any case, I don't see why you find the bank's policy to be so onerous.
I saw nothing in Ken Tumin's article about needing to maintain a minimum balance, other than the statement that there is "no minimum opening deposit" (but I have lousy vision.) _If_ there is no required minimum balance to maintain the account or avoid fees, I think the whole thing might be a non-issue. If a depositor withdrew all but one dollar near the end of the statement cycle, and then closed out the account with a one dollar balance at the start of the next cycle, what's the big deal? I don't see it. But I may have missed something that you caught. And I see nothing about this policy that deserves the appellation "severe", much less constituting a "red flag", as stated by a subsequent writer in Comment #6.
enduser -- I'd be interested in your thinking on this. I acknowledge that I just might not be understanding something of importance.
Kudos to Ken for pointing it out.
The reason why policies like this concern me is that the FI has to know that many of their depositors are going to take a loss on this because they are unaware of it. Yet they still keep the policy in place. Makes you wonder what other landmines might be there that you are unaware of.
My experience is certainly different, but that is of no significance, statistical or otherwise.
From the website of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
I closed my interest-bearing account, but the bank/credit union did not pay me interest up until the day I withdrew the money. Why?
If you closed the account before the bank or credit union credited the interest, generally the bank or credit union won’t pay that interest. This is known as “forfeiture of interest.”
However, the bank or credit union must disclose this policy in the account agreement you received when you opened the account. To find out your bank or credit union's policy, review your account agreement or ask your bank or credit union.
(italics added)
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/i-closed-my-interest-bearing-account-but-the-bankcredit-uni...
I don't know whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's statement is correct. It happens to be congruent with my experience, but so what?
You assert that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's statement is incorrect. Source(s), please.
As you also stated I did not see a minimum balance requirement. Leaving a $1 if allowed would stop the loss of interest for the entire month and keep the account open.