Update on SaveBetter - Liberty Savings Bank Offers Top Savings Account Rate
In the last six weeks, I’ve been reviewing the latest competitive money market and CD deals from the deposit platform, SaveBetter (SaveBetter.com). Last week, one of SaveBetter’s partner banks, Liberty Savings Bank, FSB, increased the rate of its High Yield Savings Account (HYSA) by 50 bps to 1.06% APY. This is now the highest liquid account rate at SaveBetter, and it’s one of the highest online savings account rates in the nation.
When I first reviewed SaveBetter in 2021, it lacked any compelling deposit products, but that has changed. SaveBetter platform is managed by Deposit Solutions LLC, a New York based company that is part of the large German financial technology company, Raisin GmbH. The SaveBetter platform allows savers to open deposit products at several partner banks under just one account. When I first reviewed SaveBetter in early 2021, there were only three partner banks. Now there are seven partner banks, and a few are now offering competitive rates.
You can read the details about the SaveBetter platform and the company in this updated version of my original SaveBetter review. In my opinion, SaveBetter’s main issue now is that you don’t actually hold individual deposit accounts at a partner bank. Instead, you hold a piece of a large deposit account, what’s called an “omnibus custodial deposit account.” You still have FDIC deposit coverage, but you don’t have an account number and routing number that you can use to access the account from outside the SaveBetter platform. Thus, if you have an Ally Bank account, you won’t be able to log into Ally and link your SaveBetter account. To deposit and withdraw money into and out of your SaveBetter accounts, you have to completely depend on the SaveBetter platform and its ACH transfer service.
Thanks to DA reader IvoryMale who posted on this new rate in the DA Forum.
Liberty Savings Bank HYSA Features
The Liberty Savings Bank HYSA has the same features as all the other available liquid account products from SaveBetter. Each liquid account, either HYSA or Money Market Deposit Account (MMDA), has its own Product Terms page with account details. Except for the rate and offering bank, there are essentially no differences in the product terms between the MMDAs and HYSAs that are currently listed at SaveBetter. Sometimes money market accounts have check writing capabilities, but that is not the case with the SaveBetter MMDAs. Check writing is not allowed for both SaveBetter MMDAs and HYSAs.
Currently, all the SaveBetter MMDAs and HYSAs have a minimum opening deposit of only $1, and the listed APYs apply to all balances. There are no monthly service fees. There’s also no fee for excessive withdrawals. According to the Products Terms documents, the accounts would normally be limited to six withdrawals during a monthly statement cycle. However, enforcement of this limit is suspended until further notice (The Federal Reserve allowed banks and credit unions to do this starting in 2020).
As I described above, ACH transfers to and from your other bank accounts can only be done inside the SaveBetter platform. Based on my CSR conversations, SaveBetter’s ACH service has no dollar limits on transfers. Only one link can be established. They don’t allow multiple links to multiple banks.
For more account account details, please refer to my updated review of SaveBetter.
Availability
To be eligible to open an account through SaveBetter, you must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien with a U.S. social security number, who resides in the U.S. Also, you must have an existing deposit account that you maintain at a bank or credit union in the U.S. That deposit account will be used to fund your SaveBetter account and to receive the funds from a SaveBetter account. In the online application, you’ll need to provide the routing and account number of the funding deposit account.
The SaveBetter online application for Liberty Savings Bank HYSA is available via the “Open an Account” button at the top of the DA profile page for Liberty Savings Bank.
SaveBetter and Liberty Savings Bank Overview
The first SaveBetter FAQ has the best overview of SaveBetter. The following is an excerpt:
SaveBetter is not a bank. It’s a New York-based financial technology company (“Fintech” for short) that provides the digital “storefront” where banks can promote their deposit products.
SaveBetter.com is operated by SaveBetter LLC, a 100% subsidiary of Deposit Solutions LLC (Deposit Solutions). Headquartered in New York, Deposit Solutions provides a proprietary open architecture platform for deposits products. Deposit Solutions helps banks improve their deposit funding by offering national reach for their retail deposit products, and provides savers with better access, more choice and higher convenience when evaluating savings products from FDIC insured banks.
Deposit Solutions LLC is a 100% subsidiary of Raisin GmbH, a trailblazer for open banking in the deposits and investments space.
When I reviewed SaveBetter last year, they were part of Deposit Solutions. A few months after my review, Deposit Solutions and Raisin announced a merger. According to this June 2021 Reuters article:
Under the name Raisin DS, the merged company will work with around 400 banks and have a deposit volume of around 20 billion euros ($24 billion).
The deposits are held at the partner banks, and thus, the financial health of a partner bank should be considered when deciding to open an account via SaveBetter.
Liberty Savings Bank, FSB has an overall health grade of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 9.68% (excellent) based on December 31, 2021 data. In the past year, Liberty Savings Bank has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $108.9 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 19.29%. Please refer to our financial overview of Liberty Savings Bank, FSB (FDIC Certificate # 32242) for more details.
I first wrote about Liberty Savings Bank in 2009 when they had offered a competitive reward checking account. During that time, the Bank has exited the Colorado market by selling branches in 2010 to Solera National Bank and in 2020 to Blue Federal Credit Union. Even though the Bank is headquartered in Ohio, the Bank’s only retail locations are now in Southwest Florida. The press release related to the branch sale to Blue FCU provided a few more details about the Bank:
Founded in 1889, Liberty Savings Bank is a Federal Savings Bank headquartered in Wilmington, Ohio. After this transaction Liberty will have five branches serving the Florida communities of Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice. In addition to our retail locations, Liberty has a nationwide Health Savings Account and Wholesale Mortgage business.
Liberty Savings Bank also has an app-based bank, called mph.bank. According to the about page at mph.bank:
In 2018, Liberty Savings Bank created a team to launch mph.bank to offer value to a national audience vs just the communities located near our Florida branch network.
mph.bank (as a brand of Liberty Savings Bank) also lists products at SaveBetter.
How the High Yield Savings Account Compares
When compared to nationally available Money Market Accounts and Savings Accounts tracked by DepositAccounts.com, that do not require large balances or direct deposit and do not have small balance caps, Liberty Savings Bank HYSA’s rate currently ranks second.
The above information and rates are accurate as of 5/16/2022.
To look for the best rates on liquid bank accounts, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our Money Market Accounts Table and Savings Accounts Table.
