Poppy Bank Adds Nationally Available Premier Online Savings Account
California-based Poppy Bank is ending the year with a new and rate-leading savings account. The recently unveiled Premier Online Savings earns 5.50% APY that is “guaranteed for ninety (90) days from the date the account is opened.” A Premier Online Savings can be opened with a $1k minimum deposit and a minimum $1k balance must be maintained to earn the 5.50% APY.
| APY | MIN | MAX | INSTITUTION | PRODUCT | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.50% | $1k | - | Poppy Bank | Premier Online Savings - Rate guaranteed for 3 Months |
Premier Online Savings Ins and Outs
While the Poppy Bank website has an FAQs section, it’s not comprehensive. There is a Terms and Conditions disclosure for the Premier Online Savings that is only available when you open an account, which is not very helpful for doing due diligence. The following information was obtained from an email and a conversation with a couple of bank branch officials. (FYI – the Call Center personnel only had access to information available on the website.)
- Premier Online Savings can be opened as an individual or joint account, but not as a business or trust account.
- $1k minimum daily balance required to earned stated APY.
- Initial funding can only be done through Plaid and is limited to $10 million.
- No debit or ATM card is available. Up to six fee-free monthly withdrawals can be made using the Poppy Bank online banking platform. There is a $5 fee per withdrawal in excess of the six monthly withdrawals.
- There is no monthly maintenance fee, but there is a $5 monthly paper statement fee if you choose not to receive electronic statements.
- ACH deposits and withdrawals can be initiated from an external bank account.
- ACH transfers initiated from Poppy Bank are limited to $10k per day and $30k per rolling 30 days (no limit as to the number of external accounts that can be linked.)
- Hold times for ACH transfers are 1-2 business days.
Availability and Account Opening
Headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, Poppy Bank has a brick-and-mortar presence in Northern and Southern California, but currently offers the Premier Online Savings on a nationwide basis to U.S. citizens and residents aliens (18 years or older) who have a valid Social Security number.
Opening a Premier Online Savings can only be opened online. Although Poppy Bank has 16 Northern California and four Southern California branches, the 5.50% APY is only available when opening a Premier Online Savings online.
Bank Overview
Poppy Bank has an overall health rating of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 5.21% (excellent), based on September 30, 2023 data. In the past year, the Bank has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $242.31 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 7.19%. Please refer to our financial overview of Poppy Bank (FDIC Certificate # 57903) for more details.
Originally known as First Community Bank, Poppy Bank was founded in 2005 by nine prominent San Francisco area business leaders. The Bank re-branded as Poppy Bank in November 2017 to avoid marketplace confusion, although the parent company name (First Bank Community Holdings) has not changed. According to Poppy Bank CEO, Khalid Acheckzai,
There are thirteen banks named “First Community Bank” in the United States with 157 branch locations. As we expanded, we wanted to distinguish our excellent products and services from our competitors. Changing our name to “Poppy Bank” is unique and an exciting step forward on our road to continued success.
The Bank’s brick-and mortar presence expanded into Southern California with the 2018 acquisition of Blue Gate Bank (Costa Mesa). Currently the 20th largest bank headquartered in California, Poppy Bank has assets in excess of $5.7 billion and nearly 30,000 customer accounts.
How the Premier Online Savings Compare
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, no bank or credit union have a higher rate than currently offered on the Poppy Bank Premier Online Savings.
The above information and rates are accurate as of 12/28/2023.
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.
I was advised when I 1st called the account was created. I was able to set up on line banking and started linking external accounts
Frustrating that Poppycock Bank has such a low $30,000 monthly ACH transfer limit when transfers are initiated at Poppy, even though it is mitigated by the fact a high-limit external bank can be used to do all the transfers. And frustrating that Poopy Bank is still enforcing only 6 withdrawals per month and will charge $5 for every transaction over 6 withdrawals monthly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Aqpk-avec
Coincidentally, in the "Poppycock" adult movie, Poppie also leaves stains on sofa cushions.
In an interview, when Poppie was asked about his former restaurant business, Poppie replied that he doesn't ever want to talk about it since he has washed his hands of the whole debacle.
Incidentally, I wonder if Powell has completely "washed his hands" of the rate hikes by now? Hard to know.
Poppy is a little sloppy with new accounts !
You might want to test it by using your external, out of state finanical institution to set up the link between that one and Poppy -- it should make one or two deposits and withdrawals to establish the link. If that works, then clearly they do take out of state transfers. And no problem for you testing like that. If it works, try a larger amount of your own to transfer to Poppy.
Oh, wait, I see your msg below, they said walk-ins only. I know that is not so, I have an account there, I don't have to walk in. And now I remember, I have my account there linked to a CU out of state, based in Chicago. I don't recall if I've actually made an ACH transfer other than the set-up process.
Because I went there to get answers as to why my 6 banks could not be set up to transfer in and out of Poppy. All I know is I do not trust them based on what I was told. Rate is great but having no control of moving money in or out is unacceptable.
ACH transfers initiated from Poppy Bank are limited to $10k per day and $30k per rolling 30 days (no limit as to the number of external accounts that can be linked.) Hold times for ACH transfers are 1-2 business days
The worst online banking experience ever!
It might have something to do with Plaid not working then they switched to the 2 trial deposits.
Also, for you folks wondering about why initiating an external transfer from my banks is important:
1. One of my Banks has free same day ACH with no transfer limits and no holds, this is superior to most banks.
2. No $10K a day/$30K per mo. transfer limit baloney
I did a pull from Poppy from Chase for $500. The money was posted in Poppy within hours.
My guess is that @fp indeed has no hold time and same-day ACH, but the monetary amount might not be unlimited. It might be a very high monetary transfer amount, so for him personally, that might be same as unlimited. (Of course, I could be wrong, and if @fp does indeed have a bank offering all 3 things combined, I will apologize in advance.)
I'm going to wire funds from newtek (5.25% APY) to poopy (5.50% APY) since that is the fastest way for me to fully fund poopy. Newtek offers free wires as long as they are over $25k, and have an existing link to the external F.I. funds are going to.
Poopy uses the exact same user interface that bask bank does. Make sure you sign up for and activate paperless statements or you will be hit with a monthly $5 fee. Paperless does not appear to be automatic or the default option. I'm treating poopy as a 6 month CD. I don't expect them to be rate leaders after this offer guarantee is over in 180 days.
During the app, it said someone will contact you. Of course, no contact. When I chased them for a few days, they said that someting froze during my app. I said maybe my Chex is frozen and she said no their own internet froze and they just need to do the check again. But after a while, thinking about it, it didnt make much sense. So next day I checked my Chex and it was indeed frozen. So I thawed it on Friday. Today I chased them again and this time they admitted yes the report was frozen and not their "internet". Then she runs it again and says that it is still frozen. Other than Chex , my Experian was frozen too but I had thawed it just before she ran. They won't tell me (or they themselves dont know) which ones they run.
Any clues as to what might be going on? She said she will try once again in the morning and if she gets the same result, then deny it. What a pain this is..