PurePoint Financial Unveils 13-Month No-Penalty CD, 2.60% APY
PurePoint Financial (PurePoint) is the newest member of the “short-term no-penalty CD club”, with the addition of its 13-month No-Penalty CD, earning 2.60% APY. Like all of Purepoint’s CD, the 13-month No-Penalty CD requires a $10k minimum deposit and has no stated balance cap.
PurePoint is also offering two other No-Penalty CDs: 11-month (2.15% APY) and 14-month (2.25% APY). Based on current rates, I’m not sure why anyone would consider opening either the 11- or 14-month.
PurePoint’s No-Penalty CDs appear to be structured the same as other no-penalty CDs that are available from other internet banks. The no-penalty feature applies only to a withdrawal of the entire balance and there are no time restrictions (except for an initial 7-day delay that is actually required by Regulation D). The PurePoint FAQ answer to the question, “How do I withdraw my money without a penalty?,” does seem to imply that partial withdrawals are allowed with penalty. However, PurePoint’s No-Penalty CD Guide states the following:
- You may withdraw your total balance beginning seven days after the day you fund your new CD without being charged a penalty. All other withdrawals will be subject to an Early Withdrawal Penalty, which may reduce account earnings.
- Partial withdrawals are not allowed.
The second part of the above FAQ provided a few details on how a customer would make an early withdrawal from the No-Penalty CD:
You can close your account and make a full withdrawal prior to maturity by logging into Online Banking and accessing your No-Penalty account details page. By expanding the Show More Details section, you will see an option to close your account.
The last quote indicates that closing a No-Penalty CD appears to be easy, with no call to CSR required. However, there's no mention on how long it takes.
PurePoint’s “Best Rate Commitment” applies to the No-Penalty CD.
When you fund your new CD within 10 days of a completed application, you will
receive our best rate offered during that 10-day period for the same product and term
Thanks to DA reader, solarado, for breaking the news of the No-Penalty CD in the Forum. All the thoughtful comments by a variety of other DA readers are greatly appreciated.
Availability
As an online division of Union Bank, PurePoint Financial is headquartered in New York City and offers its product line to all U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents. Union Bank, which is headquartered in San Francisco, is a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corporation, a bank holding company formed by the merger of The Bank of California and Union Bank in the late 1990s.
Opening a No-Penalty CD at PurePoint Financial can be done online or by phone (855.488.7873). While a No-Penalty CD can be opened at any of 22 Financial Centers listed below, the “Important Information” states,
Other rates may be available if account is opened in person at Financial Center.
Florida – Aventura, Boca Raton, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Harbor, St. Petersburg, and Tampa
Illinois – Chicago, Glendale Heights, La Grange, and Skokie.
New York – Brooklyn Heights, New York City, and Scarsdale
Texas – Dallas, Houston (2), Plano, Southlake, Sugar Land, and The Woodlands.
PurePoint is a unique type of internet bank, almost a hybrid between a brick-and-mortar institution and a pure internet bank. The Financial Centers are not bank branches, and as such, do not accept cash deposits. Staff members just assist customers in opening accounts and answering questions. The intent appears to be helping clients who are worried or uncertain about internet banks by providing a tangible resource, i.e., a building filled with people who will interact with them face-to-face.
Bank Overview
As the online division of Union Bank, PurePoint Financial operates under Union Bank’s FDIC Certificate and shares its financial history.
Union Bank/PurePoint Financial has an overall health rating of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 2.35% (excellent), based on September 30, 2019 data. The Bank has an excellent capitalization level (13.96%), the result of holding $123.98 billion in assets with $17.31 billion in equity. Please refer to our financial overview of Union Bank/PurePoint Financial (FDIC Certificate # 22826) for more details.
We designed PurePoint™ Financial to empower our clients to save more. And while we're a new brand, we’re not new to banking. As a division of MUFG Union Bank, N.A., we share in the rich 150-year history of serving clients in the United States. Our global parent company, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), is the 5th largest financial group in the world with total assets of over $2.7 trillion.
How the 13-month No-Penalty CD Compares
As I pointed out in last week’s blog post about the no-penalty CD offered by Dime Community Bank, no-penalty CDs are not that common, and the longer the term, the more competitive the CD. When compared to other nationally available no-penalty CD, PurePoint Financial's 13-month No-Penalty CD APY offers the highest APY, the longest term length, but a higher minimum deposit.
To look for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.
The above rates are accurate as of 2/25/2019.
I also have liquid funds at NBD, and that is a horse of a different color. The rate guarantee at NBD only lasts until mid year this year. So I will use those funds, and not the AgFed funds, to open my PurePoint NPCD accounts. Of course if you have liquid funds with no rate guarantee at all, those funds are the ones to move over to PurePoint's NPCD.
Depending on how you set your PurePoint NPCD granularity, watch out for Regulation D as you pull funds for your new PurePoint accounts. I'm not rich enough to where my account sizes can be very, very large. This will require me to make more individual fetches of funds from both inside and outside PurePoint. Dear heaven Regulation D is a major PITA!!
Ken makes clear the similarities between this new PurePoint NPCD offering and others. Notable in that latter category is Ally Bank's unfortunate NPCD at only 2.3% APY with only an eleven month lock-in. To make matters even worse at Ally, you have to invest $25,000 to garner the paltry 2.3%!! Do you think smart liquid money will be moving apace out of Ally and over to PurePoint? I do too.
So keep an eye on Ally Bank. This new PurePoint NPCD thing is right in their grill. They need to react and they should react . . . . . they should compete. Whether or not they will is anyone's guess.
I just opened one new account, and unless something better pops up I plan to move my three maturing 6-month cd's into the Purepoint 13-month NPCD. I've been with Purepoint for awhile; it's been smooth sailing. Very good customer service , and a simple & easy account management page.
As Ken and others have mentioned, why would anyone buy the 11-month or the 14-month at a lower yield? 13 is the sweet spot. :-)
Two different PurePoint reps have told me that when you are funding from within Purepoint (there are other funding options, of course) only available funds, in a PurePoint savings account, can be used to open new PurePoint NPCDs.
That's it. Everyone knows at PurePoint there is a four day hold placed on funds incoming into savings via ACH before they become available. This when the ACH funds transfer is initiated at the PurePoint website. It's something to bear in mind.
What I'm doing is different and (at least superficially) I think a tad bit nuts! I'm actually moving funds out of PurePoint savings entirely, and to Alliant checking, in order to facilitate opening of multiple PurePoint NPCDs when those same funds are moved straightaway back into PurePoint! This because of the hated Regulation D. I can move a lot of money out of PurePoint, and into Alliant, with just a single Regulation D hit. When moving the money back into PurePoint, to open my multiple NPCDs, the account opener offers my full list of linked external accounts for funding purposes. This of course includes Alliant checking. Doing it that way PurePoint savings is bypassed, along with the Regulation D headache it presents.
Incidentally, I did explore the option of having a PurePoint telephone rep open my NPCD accounts. They can do this. But they must open one account at a time, with each withdrawal from PurePoint savings counting against your Regulation D tally. Hence, there is no benefit to this approach over just doing it yourself online, where the dreaded Regulation D problem surfaces far too quickly.
With all the advantages mentioned above that PurePoint has over Ally, this is one aspect where Ally shines and PurePoint falls short. At Ally you can move funds into your Ally checking, then open your Ally NPCDs from there, bypassing Regulation D concerns. This is not possible at PurePoint because PurePoint does not offer a free checking account.
A couple of questions -
1) You say " When moving the money back into PurePoint, to open my multiple NPCDs, the account opener offers my full list of linked external accounts for funding purposes. This of course includes Alliant checking. Doing it that way PurePoint savings is bypassed, along with the Regulation D headache it presents." Are you CERTAIN about that? When you use that online tool to fund the CDs, are you certain you're not, even very temporarily, first loading the funds into a liquid PurePoint account of some kind that might be subject to Regulation D, before it goes to the CD?
Not being a PurePoint customer I'm of course not in a position to say (only to speculate - LOL!). But, have you explicitly asked a PurePoint CSR whether this procedure will completely avoid Reg. D issues? Just a thought.
2) Would another option be to have PurePoint open up for you some number (say, 2) of additional Online Savings Accounts? Or perhaps this can even be done by you, on their website? Then split up the funds from your original savings account among all 3, roughly into thirds. Now you have 4 debits left for your original account, and 6 for each of the two new ones. Since Reg. D is per account, not per customer, you now have 16 debits available for CDs. Of course, this option depends on whether or not PurePoint agrees to open up additional savings accounts for you.
I really am unable to respond regarding opening multiple PurePoint savings accounts as that is not an option I personally would consider. Surely for those who like that possible solution a call to the bank might be the next step.
In that case, you might be better off maximizing your flexibility by creating more CDs with each having a smaller dollar amount, as opposed to fewer CDs with each having a larger dollar amount. Depending on how many CDs you need and how you fund them, Regulation D might come into play here.
Does PurePoint use a consumer reporting agency?
We do. During our application process, we use a consumer reporting agency to verify your identity.
It also says you may open as many savings and CD accounts as you wish. My account openings were very fast.
Every time I've had the occasion to call their customer service, they have been very good. And secure messages are replied to very promptly, usually within an hour or two during business hours. I also just discovered that I can close an account right from my management page, never having to call a CSR. Change beneficiaries, redirect interest, make new purchases, everyrhing. And most or all transactions are immediately acknowledged by an email. It's been a pleasure so far. Probably the best of all the financial companies I've dealt with. If they would let us add to those no-penalty CDs it would be just about perfect for my situation.
clarification. We can assure you we do not complete hard credit pulls when
opening an account at PurePoint®. We’d like to research this in more detail for
you. Please give us a call at 855-485-7873, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:00 pm
Eastern Time (except Federal holidays) to speak with one of our Client Support
Specialists. Best, ^MD
I have had a long standing SA with them and ran into the previously described glitches when attempting to open a NPCD this weekend. Following a phone call Monday the CD account showed up this afternoon and I was able to fund it by internal transfer. The problem however of opening another NPCD persisted as I received an "unsuccessful" message when trying to set up the second account. So it will take another phone call and likely another couple of days until I will be able to fund it. I have no idea why I am encountering this hassle while others report much smoother transactions.
The Purepoint online glitch did seem to be intermittent last Saturday. I received an apology via secure message from their customer service dept. I have had no issues since last Saturday evening, but a phone call should have your new account up & running in a few minutes.
- Denying external transfers to a verified external account.
- Transfers out could be denied by them for any reason they deem appropriate.
- Too many threatening email notices regarding Regulation D – (If you exceed this limitation, we may refuse to honor the excessive transactions, remove your transfer privileges, or close the account without prior notice).
- Too many phone calls from their fraud department for transfers out more than $50K (which often result in delays in transfers).
- Account opening denials with no clear reason given.
I would appreciate comments from existing PurePoint account holders regarding the ease/difficulty of transferring large amounts to/from other banks. Are the above points valid?
The best part of PP is their high ACH transfer limits.
I've done several new account openings, including 3 of the new no-penalry CDs. No questions. Never denied. Not sure if they ever did a credit check.
Have only done one large withdrawl / transfer from savings. Was not denied.
Closed a CD early by phone. Not denied. He asked a few questions to verify ID. No problem. You can also close a CD right from your account page.
Outgoing ACH times usually take 2 business days.
Inbound ACH deposits are available after the standard 4 or 5 business day wait.
Can add, change, or delete beneficiary info right from your account page.
You can change or re-direct monthly interest from your account page.
Apparently there was a temporary online slow-down last Saturday, when they were overwhelmed with new account openings for the no-penalty CD? Or maybe it was just routine maintenance. I received an apology via secure message.
So far, I am very pleased with Purepoint / MUFG. 2.7 trillion in assets? Fifth largest bank in the world? I feel pretty secure with them. But it reminds me of that movie: "Too Big To Fail." LOL.
including closing a CD early, and never denied. You can close right from your acct page.
My savings account at Purepoint is for longer term savings, so I doubt I would ever violate the D rule. I did do twowithdrawls ofHave not had any issues so farI use my Purepoint
Thank you for your comments. I will take a chance with PurePoint and open a savings account and a NPCD but I do not expect my online banking experience with PP will be nearly as good as what I've had with Ally. I hope I will be proved wrong!
I've read good things about Ally too.
I still went ahead and opened my CD, but held back from other accounts. I think it is one of those situations where most of the time it doesnt come in to play, but if they decide to play their cards (such as with the comments about the fraud reps), they have some strong language behind them. Most people click through the terms, but it is a good read and usually shows where you stand as a customer. I wouldnt lock up a ton of my money behind those terms.
I already have seven of these accounts out there working hard for me. And let me tell you, if I did not have a Grow Promo MM account paying 2.75% APY (no longer available I think), this is where I would put funds I wished to keep liquid in an insured account, if I had more such funds to invest.
God bless PurePoint. I have no clue how they are doing this given all that is going on today. But you gotta love 'em for continuing to make this NPCD available at 2.6% APY. Remarkable stuff for 100% FDIC insured money!
ETA
Oh, and I very nearly forgot to mention the sought-after thirteen month rate lock this account offers!!!!!! Where else you gonna find that??