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.
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.
Transfers Limit
Moving money between accounts with T-Mobile Money has always been inconvenient because of the account's $3,000/day transfer limit. However, the past two days, my daily transfer limit has been limited to $300/day which, for me, is a deal breaker. I contacted customer service and received the following reply:
hank you for contacting T-Mobile MONEY, we are happy to assist you.
"BM Technologies, Inc. places limits on the dollar amounts of both outgoing and incoming external transfers that you originate through the Service. While not generally the case, internal and external transfers may be limited to as little as $300 in aggregate under certain circumstances. Certain limits also may be imposed on the frequency of outgoing and incoming external transfers or they may be altogether prohibited. These limits may change at our discretion, may be implemented without prior notice, and are not disclosed in detail for security reasons. Limits are based on the aggregate amount of both checking and savings.
We appreciate your business and thank you for being a valued customer. If you need additional assistance, T-Mobile MONEY Specialists are available 365 days/year from 8AM - 12AM ET. Please dial **MONEY from your T-Mobile phone or call 866-686-9358. If you’re calling from outside of the United States, dial 414-751-6700."
This makes the account virtually unuseable. I wonder what is really going on. I will be moving my money out ASAP.
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 Q4 2021
Health Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 34444 |
| Year Established | 1997 |
| Employees | 641 |
| Primary Regulator | FED |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.68% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 23.84% |
| Annual Interest Income | $780.9MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $19.56B$18.43B |
| Loans | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $14.43B$15.69B |
| Deposits | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $16.95B$11.42B |
| Equity Capital | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $1.46B$1.20B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $137.8MM$144.2MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $50.2MM$71.3MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q4 2021vs Q4 2020 | $35.00K$57.00K |