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9/22 - Rate Up To 2.25%
7/12 - T-Mobile Rate Increase To 1.50% Effective 7/15/22
1/26 - New Savings Account Offering?
Great Overall
An obvious no brainer choice, if you use T-Mobile. Some of the comments in other reviews are not correct. For example, I often have an ACH over 3000 with no problem.
The interest is real, although they have added a provision that you must use the account for regular purchases 10x/mo to get the 4%.
Great deal overall and with few drawbacks.
The Service Has Been Inconsistent At Best.
I started banking with T-Mobile money when it first became available. At first I loved it! At first I could tell if I kept at least $200 a month in my account I did get (slightly lower than) 4%. And things seemed pretty smooth sailing even though I could not connect basically any service that connected my bank account online and very few places would accept the routing and account number at first. So it was basically just an ATM card I didn't even have any "starter checks". It basically 100% depended on you going into a CVS or somewhere (that not all of them actually participated as advertised or listed on the map) that used Green Dot I believe? Or you could buy checks, download deposit slips/tax forms, and send things through postal mail. No way! Honestly, doing things electronically with T-Mobile money takes a lot longer than 5 to 10 business days and they don't process anything over the weekends so Monday you get slammed with a whole bunch of craziness that did not come through and you can't even see until Monday and sometimes not even Monday! They changed the 4% qualifications to now you have to have 10 qualifying purchases. Plus don't expect that that percent is just going to be off of your balance BECAUSE they do some gymnastics that makes it never quite 4%. The supposed 24-hour support is severely lacking these individuals are not only unintelligent... But also usually unwilling to help. Your account is not completely detailed heaven forbid anything happens like a fraudulent charge! It stinks because I really did like this bank account now I have to look into not only possibly finding another one but also taking legal action now?!?! Because they're holding my documents hostage!? What kind of Bank does that? And then the access to online banking is severely limited they just now started making it so we could get online using a web browser it was limited completely to the app previously! I will add the online interface is more detailed and easier to navigate. But this entire T-Mobile "experience" banking and otherwise has really made me consider leaving the company all together through every platform. Of course years of LIMITED Banking options... Years of waiting on empty promises, ONLY to not see it get better... ONLY to not be able to complete simple tasks like receiving proper requested documentation when my account details are stolen by the hospital staff while I'm under anesthesia!?!? Definitely, worrisome. And then they act like while I'm sitting there with my jaw resected that I didn't get on the phone with them quick enough! I was 4 hours out of anesthesia when I got on the phone with and recorded the conversation! With this girl who you can barely understand from the fraud department that honestly I did not trust BECAUSE it sounded more like a Spam call! But I went through the charges one of them was actually on my account (over a week after the phone call) I have a screenshot! And I called up because it was still on my account AFTER I verified all the fraudulent charges, changed my bank card, and EVERYTHING! Plus I revoked and have verification that it was revoked both from the company and from T-Mobile money and automated clearing House auto pay withdrawal... Not only did T-Mobile money allow it AGAIN in May! But it's still on my account even though the company verified it was sent back and cleared on the 19th! I've been through this before I won't get it until the 1st so it doesn't need to be included in the 4%! So my bills are being held up for no reason! This is not the first time they did it before on a check that was pending for over 10 business days just to push it past the end of the month! They actually said it to me on the phone yesterday I have it recorded. Now I STILL don't have access to my money I was promised I would get back "because the charge would immediately be reversed, since they were unable to stop the transaction" which it was. T-Mobile money is just holding on to it. I just did not get ANYTHING yet and it's been about seven business days? Every time I call up the specialist told me to wait AND if I do what they tell me and be patient... And wait some more. Then I'll get the same thing I got today about the fraudulent activity... Because they called 7:00 p.m. on Memorial Day today... That "by the time I called this is all they had from the fraud department". No information on the charge that was there and then disappeared from my account (that I have screenshots of and recordings of me on the phone with them regarding)! No list ONLY one of the four charges that were listed out to me... Only two of the multiple charges I had to verify multiple times in order to re-access my account. All mysteriously missing in the documents I had to beg for over a month to get! And she was so condescending in basically telling me "it was my fault" and I don't have access to my own banking records I guess? I guess I have to go through all of the legal terms and look into arbitration or something? I don't know what my options are here, yet. BUT this service has become dismal at best! They never had good customer service, ever. I personally referred so many people! I promoted this through my social media platforms! I adored this until they basically made it go from... New and slightly inconvenient to basically a pain in the neck! And I'm pretty sure not completely legal the way it's being handled. They make it sound real good "on paper" when the reality is something completely different all together.
Decent But Worrying
Let me start by saying that I have thankfully not had an issue w/ T-Mobile Money so far. I'm able to easily move money into and out of the account from various external banks and brokerages that I connected via ACH deposits.
The large number of problematic reviews had me worried as I've started to use this account more in the recent month. Again, no problems yet but I remain much more concerned than with more traditional banks.
Banks are highly regulated and have many avenues in place to address problems. These problems have plenty of additional places to hide when your "bank" is actually being run by three separate companies: T-Mobile, BM Technologies, and whichever FDIC Insured actual bank is handling the funds.
Additionally, these pseudo-banks have annoyingly arbitrary "rules" that I'm sure a traditional bank could impose but typically don't. For example, I use external accounts to move money in and out of T-Mobile because they have some goofy $3,000 limit with worse fund settlement timing (i.e. if I push the money in it's available and earning interest the next day, if I pull via T-Mobile it'll be 3-5 days before this happens). A different bank in this category has the audacity to impose this limit on funds from external institutions and actually rejected the transfer when I tried to deposit too much. T-Mobile doesn't do this yet but any limits, internal or external, vastly decrease the value and trust one can have w/ their bank.
In general customer service is a joke in this country. You will _never_ be called back and your issue will dangle until you put in the time (taken out of your life/work because of course those are the only hours they're available) to resolve it. My highest marks are reserved for banks where I never have to use customer service or in the rare case where I do and they're actually helpful and competent.
SO Hard To Get Your Money Out After It Is Deposited
If you are thinking of using a TMobile bank account just be aware that they make it VERY hard to get your money out once it is deposited. There is a $3,000 limit to ACH transfers, going into or out of their bank. When I saw this account offer I thought "this is great, I can fund the account with the FDIC insurance limit and earn 1% on it, safely. One percent is nearly twice what the "real" online banks are now offering. But then I find that online transfers are limited to $3,000 per day, and you can only do a small number of transfers in each month. And unlike most banks, the limits are in force even if you initiate a transfer from one of your linked banks instead of through TMobile. And they accept ONLY incoming wire transfers, not outgoing. So if you put your money in, forget about transferring it out. Imagine putting in $250,000 and then only being able to get it back out by transferring $3,000 a day, and being limited to just a handful of monthly transactions. They get your money deposited, then make it too darn hard to get it out. I soooooo regret starting the account. I just made the assumption that like most online banks, TMobile would NOT limit the dollar amount of transfers that were initiated through the websites of linked banks. Do yourself a favor and don't get lured in by the 1% rate.
Data as of Q2 2022
Health Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 34444 |
| Year Established | 1997 |
| Employees | 692 |
| Primary Regulator | FED |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.44% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 19.3% |
| Annual Interest Income | $379.2MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $20.24B$19.66B |
| Loans | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $15.51B$16.84B |
| Deposits | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $17.03B$13.96B |
| Equity Capital | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $1.47B$1.35B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $156.5MM$125.4MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $28.7MM$47.1MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q2 2022vs Q2 2021 | $35.00K$35.00K |