Bank Deals Blog: Internet Banks

For the first time in about three years, Massachusetts-based Salem Five Direct has increased the rate on its eOne Savings account. The eOne Savings account now earns 1.01% APY on all balances up to $1 million (balances over $1 million will be transferred to a Statement Savings Account that earns 0.01% APY). The addition of 61 bps has put the eOne Savings account near...

In the last six weeks, I’ve been reviewing the latest competitive money market and CD deals from the deposit platform, SaveBetter (SaveBetter.com). Last week, one of SaveBetter’s partner banks, Liberty Savings Bank, FSB, increased the rate of its High Yield Savings Account (HYSA) by 50 bps to 1.06% APY. This is now the highest liquid account rate at SaveBetter, and it’s one of the highest online savings account rates in the nation.

This has been a busy week at Ally Bank. On Wednesday, Ally Bank finally increased the rate of its Online Savings Account. It was just a 10-bp rate hike that increased the rate to 0.60%, but it finally moved the rate above the rate bottom that the account had been stuck at since December 2020. Ally Bank’s Money Market also...

As today’s April CPI numbers show, inflation continues to run hot. The numbers today exceeded forecasts, and adds to the concerns that the Fed won’t be able to pull inflation back to normal levels. The Fed’s rate hikes have been impacting CD rates, but CD rates are still well below the inflation rate. Also, with many more Fed rate hikes likely, it’s hard to find CDs attractive. For balances under $10k, the Series I Savings Bond is clearly superior since it’s indexed with inflation. The May I bond interest rate...

I first reviewed New York-based My Banking Direct in 2005 when it was offering competitive rates on its money market account. During its history, the My Banking Direct Money Market had periods when it was competitive, but that ended in March 2020 when the top-tier rate fell to 0.25%. The Money Market rates haven’t changed, but in early February, My Banking Direct launched the High Yield Savings account with rates that...

Customers of Bask Bank received a cheerful email yesterday.

For the last couple of years, Bask Bank (internet division of Texas Capital Bank) was offering only one savings account, the Bask Mileage Savings Account, which earns a single American Airlines AAdvantage® mile for every dollar saved annually. In October 2021, the Bask Interest Savings Account was launched with a 0.60% APY, but could only be opened by existing Bask Mileage Savings Account holders....

Three weeks ago, North Carolina-based Live Oak Bank (Live Oak) had substantial across-the-board CD rate increases, making its shorter-term CDs near-rate leaders or rate leaders. Following yesterday’s rate increases of 50-75 bps, Live Oak has again secured a position at the head of the rates peloton. Of the seven CDs in the product line, the 6-month (1.25% APY), 18-month (2.00% APY), and 5-year...

The pace of online savings account rate hikes has gone up in the last two weeks. Banks have likely been planning for today’s expected 50-bp Fed rate hike. With another large Fed rate hike expected in June, I expect May to be an active month for online savings account rate hikes.

Several of the large online banks have hiked their savings account rates. Most were 10-bp rate hikes, but a couple were larger.

Capital One increased its 360 Performance Savings rate from 0.40% to 0.60%. The 0.40% rate had been the bottom,...

While CD rates have been changing rapidly with large increases for the past two months, the same cannot be said about savings account rates. Case in point - Utah-based TAB Bank has been slowly increasing the rate on its High Yield Savings (HYS) account. After maintaining a 0.50% APY for about a year, a total of 25 bps were added in the last ten weeks,...

Earlier this year the financial technology (fintech) company SoFi Technologies (SoFi) acquired a bank charter, SoFi Bank, N.A. Before the bank charter, SoFi had been offering a checking-like account called SoFi Money via its partner bank, The Bancorp Bank. SoFi Money has been discontinued, and now SoFi Bank, N.A. is offering a product called “SoFi Checking and Savings.” This new account combo has two appealing features for...