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SaveBetter.com

Kaight
  |     |   1,192 posts since 2011

The SaveBetter.com platform obviously provides a route to some high yielding opportunities. I have just spent about 30 minutes looking into that outfit. This post contains my opinions and biases with which you surely might disagree.

At first I was encouraged in that SaveBetter.com, which is a fintech, started in Europe and has been operating there for rather a long while. But the key question for me was:

What is the location of SaveBetter.com's USA HQ?

I was not able with certainty to answer that question. However it appears likely their USA HQ is in San Francisco. As such, and until/unless I have a great deal more to go on, I will be remaining clear of SaveBetter.com. Straight up, San Francisco fintechs are unattractive to me as a place to invest my money.  And European roots cannot, for me, apply lipstick to that pig.

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GH1
  |     |   1,058 posts since 2017
yes i agree
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bobmiller
  |     |   1 posts since 2022
Save better is located in New York. I will tell you DO NOT open an account with them. First and foremost they are not a bank but they are offering you brokered deposits which are NOT FDIC insured. If you read their terms and conditions they tell you that the deposits are pass through a bank in Oregon and that bank holds the funds for the bank that is FDIC insured, however if your deposits are passed through a custodiary process are the FDIC insured? Why don't you call them and ask them about their pending investigation with the FDIC? You do know that they are brokering their deposits and they are not an institution. Brokered deposits are not FDIC insured that is why in 2020 the FDIC posted an article about unsound banking practices of Deposit Solutions (a.k.a. Save better) here is the article: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/regulations/federal-register-publications/2020/2020-unsafe-unsound-banking-practices-brokered-deposits-3064-ae94-c-087.pdf

Also, have you opened an account with them ? If yes, I would ask that you call them and see what how easy it is for you to get your money out. Also, why don't the statements that they sent their customers have a FDIC logo on them? That is. a requirement and every bank has a FDIC logo on them. Also, their rates are not as attractive and they change very frequently because pretty much it's a marketplace and those banks are competing with themselves on a small platform. Their customer service is two people, and I am not joking when I say you get the same people, and they are both clueless and they will literally leave you with no answer. Also, the phone number on their statements is literally a guys phone that goes straight to voicemail and he never answers. Also, have you wondered they don't have you go through the same process as most banks but instead it feels like you are opening a retail store online account with some very basic information, not even a picture of your identification? I would not trust save better, despite having decent rates and a good online portal platform which makes it easy and convenient. Do your research and it's not worth the risk.
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Hippie
  |     |   48 posts since 2022
I opened 2 accounts the other day with Savebetter and BOTH are FDIC insured so I do not know what you are looking at. I can screenshot if needed.
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RYP
  |     |   36 posts since 2022
Kaight...On Youtube, in the search box, type Rob Berger Save Better. He gives an excellent explanation of Save Better, plus the pros and cons of using it.
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racecar
  |     |   631 posts since 2014
I think their Cust Serv at least is NY-area based... at least the times I called just to ask questions they had heavy NY-area accents, and if I remember right, their Cust Serv hours are listed as "EST", indicating an east-coast location at least for their cust service agents.

I have yet to jump because I don't like both the middleman idea, and if there are any problems, not being able to have FDIC insurance past the 1-person amount. I think I saw someone post that as a married person with a living spouse, they were able to assign 1 beneficiary (not sure if that's true or not)... but you basically have either 0 beneficiaries or 1 at most (if it's true, if you're married). If you went through their partner FIs directly, you could have 3, 4, 5 beneficiaries, etc. I'd never put a large amount of money at an bank/cu unless it was fully insured (with PODs/beneficiaries if over $250k).

I looked into them, but so far haven't bitten because I don't like the idea of yet another fintech sucking up all the info about me and being a middleman, when (at least up to now) I've been able to find similar (or even better) terms through an FI directly. If SaveBetter came out with a 10% CD tomorrow or something like that I might change my mind -- but only if it were wildly better than anything I could find elsewhere, and only if it were under $250k due to the FDIC/NCUA limits. So then you'd have to decide (for a smaller amount) if it's worth giving another 3rd party tech company access to your financial information. Just like with Plaid, I declined to use them or sign up, and while no one can ever say for sure, I don't see that changing with me in the forseeable future. Especially as history over the last 10 years has shown that tech companies from Facebook to Google have completely given a middle finger to privacy to the point of (once caught) having to pay multi-billion dollar settlements. People's personal info is at least a part of the business model of companies like this.
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Rickny
  |     |   1,298 posts since 2017
My only concern is if a failure happens or Savebetter has problems. It my be difficult for the FDIC to sort out.

Custodial accounts are involved in how SaveBetter directs the money transfers from customers to the banks and credit unions holding their savings. When a customer makes a deposit through their SaveBetter account into a savings product offered by a given financial institution, the funds move from the customer’s external bank account (also referred to as the reference account) to an omnibus custodial account held by Lewis and Clark Bank (functioning in the role as a custodian bank) at the financial institution offering the savings product.
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Kaight
  |     |   1,192 posts since 2011
I think their Cust Serv at least is NY-area based... at least the times I called just to ask questions they had heavy NY-area accents, and if I remember right, their Cust Serv hours are listed as "EST", indicating an east-coast location at least for their cust service agents.

Thanks, racecar. After further review I now believe I was wrong about their San Francisco location. I think you are correct that their USA HQ is in New York. That is certainly preferable to San Francisco; but of course a place like Charlotte would be even better.

In addition Lewis & Clark Bank is located in Oregon City, OR, a location just south of Portland, an unstable city in which none of my money will ever find a home.  That bank is rated only "B+" here on depositaccounts.com, not a ringing endorsement given all the other questionable aspects of SaveBetter.com's offering.
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