US Bank Checking and Savings Interests (4.10% Caveat)

General Discussion Forum
1

I have opened up the Checking and Savings earlier in the Summer, it’s probably almost 3 months now.

I just realized a caveat…or maybe it’s just my lack of viewing the TC.

But I had 50k deposited as cash into the Savings account and leaving the Checking empty. Apparently, I didn’t know that to qualify for the 4.0-4.10% interests, I would need to keep 25K into the checking, and have 25K into the savings.

I remember seeing this chart on the USB site: https://www.usbank.com/dam/documents/pdf/savings/smartly-savings-rate-table-disclosures-deposit-products.pdf

I was under the impression that the “combined” balance should be at least 25K in the savings, even though the checking is zero. Shouldn’t combined mean Savings Balance + Checking Balance?

At first, the interests only noted as 2.71-2.75. I called US Bank, and the rep said that it should just take a month’s cycle and I should see that changed. Well it’s almost 3 months and nothing changed with the interests. I called them back, and they said that per the chart, I need to keep $25K in the savings and $25K in the checking.

I basically moved the $25k into the checking, and the interests tier immediately changed.

Apparently, the 4.0-4.10% interest only apply to what’s in the savings account and not checking.

Spoke to US Bank again about this…and talked to 4 people from corporate. I also called the local branch and spoke to the management team. So basically, long story short, to get the 4% boost, you need at least 50K in the bank, with 25K in checking accruing no interests, and 25K in savings that gets the interests.

Any thoughts? Please correct me if I am wrong or if this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

2

I am a long-time US Bank customer, but not for savings. I’m not even going to bother with this mess even for the Smartly card, it’s just not worth it. It’s always been confusing, and their website gives you ZERO indication of your status for any rewards system - it’s my one biggest gripe with them despite everything else.

If I do get the Smartly card, I am just gonna move $5k in a CD and get the 2.5% and that’s it. My money is better parked elsewhere earning more.

Then again, I also have the Rewards+ so I might just go with a Double Cash for 2.22% and not even deal with any of the Smartly stuff, and stick with the Cash+ and Kroger cards at US Bank.

3

@Grier
Anyone who is or has been a US Bank consumer with their banking products have been preaching about how not great their banking products are. It’s funny to see so many others start to see this headache after raving about how simple the Smartly card was going to be.

4

@Mitchel
I’ve had my checking account there for 22 years, so I have known how jank they can be sometimes. They’re also the biggest pain in the ass to get a loan through as well. I stopped even bothering and go with local banks.

However, they are local to me and their customer service is top-notch, so that’s why I stick around. That and I have my account numbers and routing number memorized and am too lazy to change. Otherwise, I probably would have left eons ago. That, and the Kroger/Cash+ cards are OP.

5

@Grier
Their Smartly cash back offers are also insanely OP.

6

@Grier
For status, there’s a Smart Rewards section in the mobile app that gives relationship balance and tiers. I’m not sure if this is what you were looking for. I’m actually not sure about the website location for this; I feel like I’m back into the 90s way of managing money in many ways with telephone/paper requests for things.

At least the CD is very straightforward with online control. Only complaint (similar to some other banks) is the auto-renewal at practically 0% at maturity. They give a manual option during the grace period for much higher rates… If you are not on top of every CD you own (potentially years into the future with ladders), you can lose out on significant amounts of interest.

7

@Rayne
Thanks for the tip, being an elder millennial I still prefer using the web interface for things. I’ll check the app.

I interact mostly with their rewards sites for the credit cards, so that’s where I get most of my frustration. Granted, it’s better than it used to be for sure, but it’s a far cry from the amount of details that Chase and Citi give you for their rewards earnings. I’ve noticed that sometimes transactions will just not even appear on the rewards site at all, and I have to go to my statement to get the right totals for the cycle.

I’ve never done the CD there, and only will if I do the Smartly card, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for that if/when I get one.

8

@Grier
By 2.22% with the Double Cash, are you including the boost with the Rewards +?

9

Nye said:
@Grier
By 2.22% with the Double Cash, are you including the boost with the Rewards +?

Yes.

Granted, the extra is capped at 10k points ($100 cash value) per calendar year across all my Citi cards whereas the Smartly is uncapped (so far from what we are told).

I was getting sucked up in the hype over the 4% catch-all aspect that didn’t really think about it - I frankly don’t have much I use a catch-all card for anymore. Most of my big spending is funneled through gift cards at Kroger with the Custom Cash cards and Kroger w/ Kroger Pay, restaurants are either Custom Cash or one of my Freedom cards (which isn’t much because the vast majority of restaurants I go to I have gift cards for), gas is at Kroger with my fuel points and Kroger card bonus, utilities, cell phone, and electronic stores are on my Cash+ cards, and everything else that is tap to pay with Google Pay goes on my Kroger card. That just leaves anything that doesn’t use Google Pay for the 2% card to catch - and right now I am using my CFU or QuickSilver cards to deal with that at 1.5% since it’s not many items.

I guess Walmart might be another big place I might spend money at, but so far I can make it work most of the year with a rotating card covering either them directly, Paypal purchases to get gift cards, or warehouse clubs and pick up a gift card at Sam’s to use at Walmart. I have debated either getting the AAA card or the Shopper’s Cash Rewards card for a year to fill that gap, but I feel if I do that, it might make me feel like I need to spend more at Walmart to justify having them.

10

@Grier
Off topic, does Kroger MC really give you 5% on all mobile wallet purchases?

How do you redeem your Kroger MC rewards?

11

Alexander said:
@Grier
Off topic, does Kroger MC really give you 5% on all mobile wallet purchases?

How do you redeem your Kroger MC rewards?

Yep, so far any time I’ve tapped to pay with Google Pay or Google Wallet, it gives me 5%. Some mobile apps will also give you 5% if you use Google Pay in the app, but using it in the web browser doesn’t work though. Usually for the apps, if you get the little pop-up at the bottom to pick the payment method, then you get 5%. Something about it having to use that interface. I’ve tested it for Burger King and verified I got 5% for it.

As for the rewards redemption, I believe they do real-time rewards as an option, or you can cash out to Kroger gift cards. However, I always do the statement credit. It’s 1¢/point, but you have to do it redeem it in even dollar amounts (multiples of 100 points) with a $10 (1000 pt) minimum.

It’s not as nice as the Cash+ options to put the cash right back into my checking account, but money is fungible, so it works for me. I usually just wait until I get 10k points and issue a statement credit.

12

@Grier
Thanks…

But I just found the catch:

Mobile wallet transactions (excluding Kroger Pay) earn 5% on the first $3,000 in purchases each calendar year and 1% on amounts above that.

13

Alexander said:
@Grier
Thanks…

But I just found the catch:

Mobile wallet transactions (excluding Kroger Pay) earn 5% on the first $3,000 in purchases each calendar year and 1% on amounts above that.

Yeah, sorry, there is a cap. I barely hit it every year so I don’t even think about it.

14

@Grier
I’d be more willing to switch if the smartly was a $500/year card with a bunch of credits and most importantly no FTF, and visa infinite with primary rental car insurance.

15

@Grier
Checking account > Manage > View Smart Rewards shows your tier and the associated benefits when you tap it. Not sure if that extends to this particular savings account interest rate, I only have their checking.

They’ve been lousy in everything tech, but seem to be slowly improving. For example, now you can see per-purchase credit card points, though they still don’t break down bonus category earnings well on cash back cards.

16

@Cove
Is that in the web interface or the app. I haven’t checked the app yet, but I don’t see it in the web interface.

Yeah, they at least show the bonus per purchase in their rewards site, however, for the Cash+ and Kroger cards once the statement cuts, they get changed to base spend per transaction and all the bonus points are lumped together. Makes it a pain to audit after-the-fact.

I really wish they’d just show the data on the main transaction page like Chase and Citi do, but I suspect their backend doesn’t have a way to store each transaction’s reward details. I think that’s why when the statement cuts, it just collapses all that data into one entry.

Edit: Found it in the app, but I wasn’t thinking that I don’t have a Smartly checking yet. I have Gold Checking from back in the day. I’ll have to see what’s gonna change if I move over to Smartly. I will be opening a new checking soon for some personal online selling activities, so I’ll qualify for Smartly with that if I go that route.

17

@Grier
I looked at all these hoops and decided to just go ahead with the Robinhood gold card. Much simpler process.

18

@Grier
I thought about doing the same thing for the Smartly. If I do it, that’s the only way I’m doing it. I do love their other products though.

19

That chart makes no damn sense. How can you have a $100,000 Savings balance and Under $5,000 combined balance? I think SpaethCo here has been pointing that the bottom left part of that chart is impossible, but I’d never looked at it myself until just now.

20

@Thecaucasian
It’s because the chart isn’t clear. The ‘combined balance’ is calculated as your average daily balance over the last 3 months. So if you just deposit $100k, but have had a balance of $0 before that, then your ‘combined balance’ is $1,111.11 (100k / 90 days).