@Larkin
Good point. But even with this, OP should have gotten a higher rate after one month.
@Larkin
Ah, interesting.
@Thecaucasian
I agree, and I raised this with the local branch manager, who of course also couldn’t make sense of it. In the original chart, those impossible positions in the grid were grayed out.
Wow, this would mean that ‘Combined Qualifying Balances’ excludes the Smartly savings account. I read all the fine print on the PDF and that really is not stated clearly IMO. Needing to keep $25k in the checking account to reach a decent savings rate suddenly makes the savings account basically useless to a lot of people.
@Olen
It doesn’t. See my data point above. The chart does indeed make no sense, but it’s the total that counts, per my experience.
Thanks for the data point. I was thinking of possibly swapping over to them as my main bank with the Smartly card but I won’t now.
I had the same thought as you when I visited their website and used the calculator they have on the Smartly Savings page. [put in 25k into their calc, check the smartly checking, and then select 25k for Estimate your average total monthly balances in your savings, checking and other qualifying accounts.] = 4.1 APY… right? I see what you mean. After all what is smartly savings but a savings account…
But from what I could tell from the PDF, US Bank is correct. On their math. They just show something nice on their main page and keep the real math in the pdf.
Eligibility for an interest rate bump: The interest rate bump is applicable for U.S. Bank Smartly® Savings when at least one account owner maintains an open and in good standing eligible product (Bank Smartly® Checking or Safe Debit account). Bank Smartly Savings accounts without an eligible product will earn the standard variable interest rate shown above. Smart Rewards® enrollment is not required to qualify for this benefit. The interest rate bump is determined by the combined qualifying balances, as shown above.
They can’t say in good faith that people aren’t going to assume the Smartly Saving account in the phrase “Estimate your average total monthly balances in your savings, checking and other qualifying accounts.” doesn’t include Smartly Savings account when using their calc. But since it’s not part of the PDFs and paperwork with the account I guess they can get away misleading people.
@Benaiah
From the PDF OP linked:
“How is the combined qualifying balance calculated: Consumer deposits, U.S. Bancorp investments and personal trust accounts, where the account is open and you are an account owner, are included in the combined qualifying balance.”
U.S. Bank Smartly® Savings is clearly a consumer deposit account. So it must count towards the combined qualifying balance.
U.S. Bank Smartly® Savings is clearly a consumer deposit account. So it must count towards the combined qualifying balance.
It should would appear that US Bank may be purposely misleading its customers. Anything excluded from the combined balance should be explicitly stated as such. Failure to do so is underhanded at best.
EDIT: My savings account with just a couple hundred does appear to have the correct rate from the table, based on having $5k in a CD.
This shit is exactly why I’m sitting on the fence for now.
- I did get the $450 DD checking bonus
- $5k of that money went into a 4% CD, keeping just over $1500 in checking for this statement cycle to be safe.
- Opened a savings account with the remaining funds (few hundred).
In my book my combined balance is ~$7k, but I haven’t got a savings statement yet.
Edit: Finally found the interest rate under my savings balance (in the app). It is listed as 2.86% which is what I would expect if I was given credit for the $5k in the CD.
This might change things for a lot of people.
So for those that are planning on putting 100k in a brokerage account, they also must have 25k in checking or savings?
Charlie said:
This might change things for a lot of people.
So for those that are planning on putting 100k in a brokerage account, they also must have 25k in checking or savings?
I am interested in an answer to the same question. EDIT: I think I answered this question for myself. The answer based on the chart is not in checking but yes in savings, you would need $25K in savings to get to 4.10%, otherwise you would be in the lower tiers.
Interesting, I just checked mine and I have 4% with $27k in savings and $900 in checkings. Just made the switch last weekend from the elite money market. I was told the new savings rate started in September.
So the chart isn’t very clear, but here is how it works:
For the ‘Daily Balance’ rows, this is the minimum balance that you MUST have in your savings account EVERY DAY in order to be eligible for the given interest rate. The interest is calculated and compounded daily, but only credited to your account monthly.
For the ‘Combined Qualifying Balances’ columns, this is the average combined daily balance you need across US Bank accounts/investments to get the listed interest rate. This is calculated as a running daily average from the last 3 months. So if you have 6 weeks with $0 in your accounts and then 6 weeks of $100k in your accounts, then your ‘Combined Qualifying Balances’ will be $50k. And if you keep the money parked in their accounts, eventually that moving 3 month windows will phase out your $0 balance days and your ‘Combined Qualifying Balances’ will go up. Note that this is only calculated once a month.
The interest rate shown is for the savings accounts only, so you won’t collect interest on whatever is in your checking account. For the ‘Combined Qualifying Balances’ calculation however, it doesn’t matter if the cash is in your checking, savings, or investment accounts.
Also, finally, you must SIGN UP for Smartly rewards and select your savings account when you do it! If you don’t, then it won’t count and your interest rate will be shit.
@Larkin
Agreed. But this is not what OP experienced (and what they are telling them [of course the CSRs often have no clue]).
usbank sucks.
Vere said:
usbank sucks.
Do they though, unless your money is in a HYSA, major bank & affiliate savings interest is just 0.01%.
Vere said:
usbank sucks.
Do they though, unless your money is in a HYSA, major bank & affiliate savings interest is just 0.01%.
There are other HYSA options that don’t have such ridiculous conditions like SoFi, Amex, Marcus or Apple.
Like 6 months ago I was shopping around for CDs, and US Bank had the highest rate at the time. I opened a couple of them for 750. As I was doing that the teller was telling me that if I was interested in a HYSA all I needed was 25k. Did you just call the company or did you actually go into one of the banks? Cuz I went into one of the banks.
This is terrible. You’re only earning 4.1% on half of your money.
Honestly this might be worth escalating to management and the CFPB (or OCC). $50k losing 1.35% over 3 months is $168.75.
The website wording is very unclear but a reasonable reading of “With a Bank Smartly® Checking or Safe Debit account and combined qualifying balances and Bank Smartly® Savings balances of at least $25,000” would be that the savings balance would be included in the $25000.
It makes no sense to put half your money in a checking account and half in savings for an effective yield of 2.05%.
I hope the Smartly card isn’t as sketchy. I already signed up for USBank checking and savings accounts.
Don’t know what to tell you, apparently US Bank can’t even read its own published chart.