Sallie Mae Bank is a financial institution affiliated with Sallie Mae, the company widely known for its student loan business. The SLM Corporation (the formal name for Sallie Mae) is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: SLM) education finance corporation with a plethora of divisions and subsidiaries that offer an array of debt management services and business products. Sallie Mae Bank is a recent venture by the company into the retail banking space.
The bank offers three different types of savings products on its personal banking side, including Money Market and savings accounts, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs). DepositAccounts.com has featured Sallie Mae’s Money Market account in the past for its competitive rate offering, and it is still usually one of the top offerings in the country. The MMA comes with check writing capabilities and has no minimum balance requirement, no monthly fees, and no tiered interest rates. The savings account offering is very similar, having no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, as well as a comparable interest rate. The main difference between Sallie Mae’s Money Market and savings account is that the savings account offers a 10% annual match on Upromise rewards, whereas the Money Market account comes with check writing but no rewards. The bank’s CDs are available in 12-, 36-, and 60-month term lengths and come with fixed rates and minimum initial deposit requirements. Sallie Mae Bank also makes undergraduate and graduate student loans available, as well as family loans for kids in K-12 grades.
Sallie Mae Bank online banking provides the only way for customers to access their deposit accounts, as the bank has no physical branches. The web-based platform gives account holders the ability to perform functions like direct deposit, bill pay, and funds transfers, but because the bank doesn’t offer a checking account to the public, customers should be careful to avoid going over the six transactions per month limit.
Sallie Mae Bank is a subsidiary of the SLM Corporation, which was created in 1972 as a government-partnered mutual loan entity. In 2004, the company permanent severed ties with the U.S. government and became a private sector company. A year later, in 2005, the bank was started in order to complement its loan business. In the summer of 2013, Sallie Mae announced that it was going to divide its education loan management business from its banking business in order to offer more consumer lending products on its banking side. Sallie Mae Bank is currently headquartered in Murray, Utah, and maintains it customers’ deposit accounts through its online banking system.
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4/21 - Sallie Mae Bank Continues Rate Cutting Process.
3/17 - Sallie Mae Bank Drops All Deposit Rates
11/15 - Sallie Mae Drops Rates
11/8 - Sallie Mae Pays Interest From Day Of CD Application
11/7 - SallieMae Bank 12-Month CD Earns 2.35% APY
10/29 - Sallie Mae Bank Cuts Savings Rates
9/24 - Sallie Mae Bank Drops Deposit Rates.
7/8 - Sallie Mae Bank Cuts Money Market And 12 & 18 Month CD Rates
6/21 - Sallie Mae Bank Ups 18-Month CD To 2.80% APY
6/14 - Sallie Mae Increases Some CD Rates
6/12 - Sallie Mae CD Rate Changes
4/15 - Sallie Mae Bank Drops Most CD Rates
3/13 - Sallie Mae Bank Increases 24-Month CD Rate To 3.00%
3/5 - Sallie Mae Bank Money Market Rate Increases To 2.30% APY
3/4 - Sallie Mae Bank Increases Rate On Money Market Account To 2.30%
11/17/18 - SallieMae Bank Money Market APY Increased
11/16/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Raises Savings And CD Rates.
10/22/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Rate Increase On Money Market And High Yield Savings
10/6/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Ups Money Market Rate
10/5/18 - Sallie Mae Money Market Reaches 2.00%
7/4/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Money Market Rate Raised
7/2/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Money Market Account Now Yields 1.90%
6/8/18 - Sallie Mae Bank's 24-Month CD APY Raised
6/8/18 - Sallie Mae Bank 24 Month CD 2.75%
6/5/18 - Sallie Mae Bank -- 5-Yr. Brokered CD, 3.30%
5/25/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Ups Money Market Account Rate
5/25/18 - Sallie Mae Bumps Money Market & High Yield Savings Rates
5/2/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Brokered CD: 5 Yrs., 3.20%
4/18/18 - Sallie Mae Bank New Issue Brokered CD: 5Yrs., 3.05%
4/7/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Money Market Rate Raised
4/6/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Rate Increases
3/16/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Ups Money Market Acct Rate
2/9/18 - Sallie Mae Gives Money Market Account A Rate Bump
1/27/18 - Sallie Mae Bank's 24-Month CD Rates Jumps Up
1/26/18 - Big CD Rate Increases At Sallie Mae Bank
1/5/18 - Sallie Mae Bank Boosts Money Market Account
12/22/17 - Small .02% Increase In APY For Their Money Market - Now 1.32%
7/12/17 - SallieMae Bank Raises Money Market And 60-Month CD Rates
7/12/17 - Money Market Account And CD Rate Increases
6/16/17 - SallieMae Bank Ups Money Market Account Rate
6/16/17 - Rate Increase On Money Market And 36 Month CD
6/16/17 - Money Market Account Rate Increase
4/12/17 - Sallie Mae Bank Increases 12-Month CD APY To 1.35%
1/27/17 - SallieMae Bank Adds 15 Basis Points To Money Market Account
6/21/16 - SallieMae Bank Adds New Upromise GoalSaver Account
5/2/16 - Sallie Mae Bank Offers Money Market Promo Rate
10/14/15 - Sallie Mae Bank Has Money Market Promotional Rate
10/11/15 - 1.24% Interest Rate For The First 6 Months
7/4/15 - Sallie Mae Bank Raises Rates On 12-month and 36-month CDs
11/3/14 - Sallie Mae Bank's 12-month CD Rate Raised To Attractive Level - National
5/13/14 - FDIC Announces Settlement With Sallie Mae For Unfair And Deceptive Practices And Violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
5/9/14 - New Longer Term CD Rates At Sallie Mae Bank
3/22/13 - Sallie Mae CD Requirement Change
8/31/12 - Another Money Market Rate Increase at Sallie Mae Bank
7/20/12 - Sallie Mae Bank Raises Yield On Money Market And Savings Accounts.
9/30/11 - Sallie Mae Rate Drop On Online Savings And Money Market Accounts
9/7/11 - Sallie Mae Bank Adds Mobile Banking With Remote Deposit Capture
3/26/11 - Sallie Mae To Launch Student Checking Accounts
3/8/11 - Sallie Mae Bank Cuts Savings Account Rate To 1.10%
2/1/11 - Sallie Mae Bank Cuts Savings Account Yield To 1.25%
11/5/10 - CD Rates Fall At Sallie Mae Bank
11/5/10 - Sallie Mae Bank Cuts Savings Account Yield To 1.30%
9/15/10 - Sallie Mae Bank Lowers CD Rates
9/3/10 - Update on Sallie Mae Bank's Internet Savings Account and CDs
7/5/10 - Sallie Mae Bank's Internet CD Rates - Available Nationwide
5/11/10 - Update on Sallie Mae Bank
5/1/10 - Sallie Mae Bank Raises Its Online Savings Account Rate
3/9/10 - Sallie Mae Online Savings Account Yield Falls to 1.25% APY
3/2/10 - Review of the New Sallie Mae Internet Bank and Its Link to Upromise Rewards
2/15/10 - Anyone Know Anything About Sallie Mae's Online High Yield Savings Account With An Interest Rate Of 1
Funds Transfer From Sallie To Another Bank Worked Fine For Me
I was concerned about the transfer from Sallie Mae to my linked account at another bank after reading some reviews that people had trouble with this.
It worked fine for me. My CD matured on 1/2. I had given them instructions beforehand to transfer balance to the account that was used to transfer the original funds in.
I called on 1/4 (Monday) to check and they had the instructions. The funds were no longer in Sallie Mae on 1/5 and showed up in the other bank on 1/6.
Works For Me. UPDATED
Was hesitant after reading all the negative reviews, but they had the current best CD rate. Opening a CD and money market online was simple and fast. Did not need to unlock my credit reports. After completing application I called customer support with some questions and was told there was a 20min+ hold time. Left my info for a callback and they called me back within 10 minutes. Customer service was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. I had no problems and everything went smoothly. The website is different from others, but each bank website has their own nuances. I have worked with well over a dozen online banks and counting so I am not new to this.I will update this review if anything changes.
UPDATE
So I opened my accounts a few days ago. Today I get multiple calls and emails from Sallie Mae that they need to talk to me about an urgent matter regarding my account. When I finally get a hold of them they tell me that they can not verify my external account and that I need to participate in a 3-way call with the external bank to verify ownership. I agree and it happens. After which the Sallie Mae CS says this is a new fraud prevention procedure and every time a external account is added they need to call the external bank and verify ownership. Some banks will not provide any information unless the account owner is on the call. Needless to say this is a total pain, especially in these times when banks are working with limited staff and hold times are long. Regardless, my accounts are open but I will think twice before adding any external accounts to my Sallie May unless they are absolutely necessary. I am taking away one star for the hassle.
Wire Transfer Policy Misguide
Been with Sallie Mae for over 15 years, and their Money Market Account (with limited checkwriting) has usually been the best rate out there and pretty convenient to access via free ACH transfers.
They have changed recently, however. Not crazy about their new website and some policy changes, however. For example, without notice, their money market account is now considered a savings account for ACH purposes when it used to be a checking account. They gave no notice of the policy change and simply removed the ACH guidance on this entirely from their FAQ's. I also can't get prior year 1099's anymore.
Today, I also had a very big disappointment with them worth bringing to everyone's attention. Although the bank offers same-day domestic wire transfers for a $20 fee and accompanied by photo ID, and even has a special wire transfer request form to specify the destination party and account, etc., somebody at this bank has seriously misinterpreted their own Deposit Agreement to mean that all wire transfer requests are "preauthorized transfers" and can only be made to one of your linked accounts for online ACH transfers. That means no wire transfers may be sent to third parties, and even no same day transfers to a new external account of your own (as to be an eligible linked account, it also must be ACH verified via trial deposits first).
I tried arguing with their representatives that a wire transfer request is not a preauthorized transfer, and the section of the Terms and Conditions Agreement which describes the wire transfer service makes no mention that a wire can only be sent to a verified linked account, but of course they won't budge. I'm likely going to submit a dispute claim with their compliance team on the matter for the money that I have now lost due to their refusal to execute the wire request, but who knows where that'll go...
Honestly, somebody there seems to have lost their mind by limiting wire transfers to only external accounts for which 2-day ACH transfers can already be performed by the customer (up to $500,000). And the information collected on their wire transfer form and photo ID requirement is totally unnecessary and ridiculous if they still only allow wire transfers into previously linked accounts, which they already know about and have verified that you own!
Do Not Trust Them With Your Money
Sallie Mae closed my account for (what they call) "suspicious activity" three weeks ago. They won't tell me what this "suspicious activity" was supposed to be, they won't tell me when I will get my money back... they won't even tell me what the closing balance of my account was (so I can figure out whether my account was hacked). I've been in a constant state of panic for three weeks because I don't know if I'll ever see my money again.
To be clear, I'm a college professor, excellent credit, above-average financial wealth, I haven't even had a traffic ticket in 15 years. I'm not some shady character. The only thing I ever did with my Sallie Mae account was put money in it, and they won't give me any answers about where my money is or when I'll get it back. So if you think "Oh, this couldn't happen to me," IT COULD EASILY HAPPEN TO YOU. Do not run the risk, it isn't worth it.
Data as of Q4 2020
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 58177 |
| Year Established | 2005 |
| Employees | 1688 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 2.97% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 37.87% |
| Annual Interest Income | $2.03B |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $30.81B$32.60B |
| Loans | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $22.09B$24.68B |
| Deposits | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $23.20B$24.62B |
| Equity Capital | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $2.65B$3.25B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $1.36B$441.9MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $100.9MM$95.4MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q4 2020vs Q4 2019 | $0$0 |