[Update 4/21/20: Betterment Checking is now live, I believe it’s available for anyone to open without waitlist.]
The high-yield Betterment savings account is soon launching an accompanying checking account as well with a linked Visa debit card. They’ve just announced that all foreign transaction fees will be reimbursed on the account, including the 1% fee from Visa.
They also waive making ATM fees, even international, making all foreign swipes entirely fee-free.
They sent out an email:
We’re excited to share that, with Betterment Everyday™ Checking, you can now travel the world without paying to access your own money.
That’s right—not only do we reimburse ATM fees worldwide, but every foreign transaction fee is now reimbursed. Nice.
It IS nice. There are various banks/accounts who will waive ATM fees, perhaps even foreign ATM fees, but Schwab was one of the only banks who did not charge any foreign transaction fees, meaning that even the 1% Visa cost will is reimbursed. That’s in addition to waiving ATM fees worldwide. Betterment now joins Schwab as another bank who reimburses both of these fees, a useful account to have for travelers.
Advantages of Betterment over Schwab:
- No hard pull to open.
- Accompanying savings account earns a high APY savings rate, and could be a nice savings account to use, regardless.
We’ll add Betterment to our list of Best Debit Cards For International ATM Cash Withdrawals.
Hat tip to readers Ryan Goldstein and Ian
I LOVE Betterment. Their ATM reimbursement is very fast, often in <24 hours. The deposit time can be a barrier to some, so I use Chime’s “pay anyone” feature to move money immediately.
i just signed up with them.. i just want to point out there interbank ach transfer times are horrible. the worst of any bank ive ever used. watching my money leave my account. they definitely are sitting on deposits for a couple days after they have recieved them from the other bank. alliant for instance.. takes 48 hrs. betterment says 5-6 business days.. and means it.
They have offer for using the debit card. The system is the same as Drop (e.g. 10% back on Walmart+ subscriptions).
There doesn’t appear to be any special referral offers, but thought it might be useful to readers:
https://www.rakuten.com/betterment.com?query=betterment&position=1&type=suggest&store=19190
Full T&C:
Exclusions: Cash Back is only earned for a funded Betterment Checking, Cash Reserve or Investing account of at least $1.00 for checking products and $10.00 for Cash Reserve and investing products, and is not available for other Betterment products or current Betterment customers.
Special Terms: Checking accounts and the Betterment Visa Debit Card provided and issued by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. Funds deposited into Checking will be eligible for up to $250,000 of FDIC insurance. Betterment Checking made available through Betterment Financial LLC. Neither Betterment Financial LLC, nor any of their affiliates, is a bank. Betterment Financial LLC reimburses ATM fees and the Visa 1% foreign transaction fee worldwide, everywhere Visa is accepted. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Cash Reserve is only available to clients of Betterment LLC, which is not a bank, and cash transfers to program banks are conducted through the clients’ brokerage accounts at Betterment Securities. Investing involves risk and performance not guaranteed.
Posting Time: Cash Back will be automatically added to your Rakuten account tomorrow.
I’ve scheduled a post, thanks
Great! I’ll post an update if Rakuten posts.
At the moment I just show the shopping trip date/time stamp and no cash back tracked, but I think that’s to be expected since my $1 funding is still pending.
I’ve commented on the and tagged you, but just to close the loop on this side if anyone stumbles on it. The 7500 MR posted today, see full DP here:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rakuten-75-or-7500-signup-bonus-for-opening-betterment-checking-or-savings-account-no-requirements/#comment-1143818
Is there any CC funding option while opening?
Although it takes some time to transfer funds back and forth but the fact that they even reimburse 1% Visa fee is very nice. I bet US expats now will use this instead of going through middle man like Transferwise
I’m confused.. how would one use this account like Transferwise? Transferwise is for transferring money between two different people. I’m genuinely curious because my partner and I sometimes use Transferwise.
Transferwise you can transfer to yourself of course. But with 1% Visa reimbursement from Betterment this is effectively spot price exchange without fee. However ATM limit is small though.
hmm how would you transfer to yourself? You mean I can transfer from my local bank account in a foreign country to my U.S bank account? Never even thought of that before. Usually I just ask my girlfriend to transfer. I thought it was only for people sending money to different people.
TransferWise is not the best service out there in my opinion. The best is Remitly. They give the best exchange rates. Second best is Wells Fargo ExpressPay (you need to be a WF member to signup). ExpressPay is great because WF has connections with so many banks that the transfer is immediate, whereas other services require a couple days. Problem with ExpressPay is that 1) you need to be a WF member (I have just a savings account with them), 2) the first transfer needs to be done in branch with no fee (and the signup process is a bit invasive), 3) every subsequent transfer has a $4 fee (Remitly is no fee with bank transfer), 4) the limits are much much lower (only $1500).
You can send money to yourself using these services, absolutely. My wife has done it plenty of times between her US based bank account (e.g. M&T) and her Colombian one using services like Remitly, WorldRemit, and Xoom. It actually makes it easier when the receiving country sees the same name on the transfer as on the receiving account. When I send money from my name, she sometimes gets a friendly phonecall to confirm the details.
I think the no international fees thing is bunk if you are looking for doing remittances. If you take your ATM card to an ATM in a foreign country you are subject to the exchange rate they give you at the machine. In Colombia, for example, the exchange rate at ATM’s is horribly low when compared to a service like Remitly (or even TransferWise). Yes there is a fee, but what good is no fees when the exchange rate is so low? I have Ally and they reimburse $10 in ATM fees per month, and I can see that it covers international fees too (Colombia charges like 15.400 COP fee per transaction at an ATM, and in my statement I see a reimbursement of $4 and change at the end of the statement period). But sending via Remitly to my wife’s account is just easier in many ways – exchange rate for one, security (money is digitally deposited vs my wife having to carry cash in hand), and higher limits (ATM limits in Colombia, for example, are 600.000 COP, ~$170, per transaction, 3 transactions max, whereas Remitly is quite a bit higher).
Now if are just looking for casual ATM usage for leisure travel, ok, sure, no ATM fees are nice, but like I mentioned, Ally and many other banks already offer this.
Let me know if you would like a referral to Remitly.
“If you take your ATM card to an ATM in a foreign country you are subject to the exchange rate they give you at the machine.”
Isn’t that only true if you select USD withdrawal as an option on the ATM rather than local currency (on the screen, not as output)? Doesn’t your bank set the exchange rate if you withdraw local currency? I’m seeing a COP exchange rate of about 75 COP less than commonly traded rates, but that appears to only be a promotional first time offer. Checking back on my SoFi ATM withdrawals, it looks like I got the commonly traded exchange rate when withdrawing from ATMs, though that was Thailand, not Colombia. It appears remitly takes a vig from Thailand’s transfer, too, though: 29.54 vs. 30.22
So what do you make of this in the small print of the checking account: Funds deposited into Checking will be eligible for up to $250,000 of FDIC insurance. Betterment Checking made available through Betterment Financial LLC. Neither Betterment Financial LLC, nor any of their affiliates, is a bank.
Of it, I make that funds deposited will be eligible for up to 250k of FDIC insurance and that Betterment Financial LLC is not a bank.
Do you make it a hat or a brooch?
From my experience using scwabb they didnt refund me atm fees…( i never saw any at end of statement) nd everytime i withdrew foreign currency it seemed like i was losing alot of money in the transaction rates. I must be missing something.
I’ve had Schwab for almost 8 years and never had the issue of them not refunding ATM fees at the end of the statement. Likewise with international ATM withdrawals, I’ve always had good forex exchange rates while traveling abroad in Vietnam and Cambodia. I recommend reaching out to their customer service, seems like there might be something going on with your account.
Same here. Atm fees were always refunded and great exchange rate as well.
What’s the interest rate?
I don’t think there’s interest on the checking. It should link easily to the Betterment savings account which has a competitive interest rate.
It’s not an interest bearing account.
The accompanied “Cash Reserve” account (practically a savings acct) has 0.3% interest.
Beware – transfers between the cash reserve and checking are not yet instant.
Well who cares, 0.3% is worse than any random MMF available at Schwab.
Really? MMF rates have become pretty abysmal lately too. Honestly, I’m using T-Mobile money as my checking account now after using Fidelity CMA for the last 2 years.
So isn’t this the best option so far for free ATMs anywhere in the world?
Other than Fidelity, does anyone have a better option? (Fidelity MAY be better because of the auto-sweep to get a higher interest rate.)
But in terms of a free ATM withdrawal, this might be the best. The best part is that the ATM fee is reimbursed instantly unlike Schwab.