SoFi recently made a major negative change which will affect new SoFi Money customers who sign up now or who have signed up since June 9, 2020. These changes will not affect existing customers who signed up before June 9th.
SoFi now classifies new customers into the following two tiers there are two tiers of accounts:
- Tier 1: Customers who deposit $500 into their SoFi Money account each month – these customers get cashback deals and a higher interest rate.
- Tier 2: Customers who do not have such a deposit – these customers do not get cashback deals and get a low interest rate (near zero).
All customers who signed up June 8, 2020 or prior are considered Tier 1 customers and get all benefits, even if they do not get any monthly deposit.
SoFi officially state in the fine print that their higher interest rate is only for Tier 1 customers (currently: .25% for Tier 1 and .01% for Tier 2). I don’t believe they’ve officially announced that all cashback deals are only for Tier 1 customers, but in the most recent deal the fine print did state as such, and presumably that will be the standard going forward.
Lots of our readers like the SoFi Money account for offering a nice interest rate and cashback deals, along with other perks and some nice referral bonuses. It’s not difficult to automate a $500 transfer to the account, but for some people the added mental hurdle will make these deals not worthwhile. Convincing friends to sign up with your SoFi referral definitely got much more difficult now.
Two other negative changes that transpired recently:
- They removed the ATM reimbursement program for accountholders who sign up after June 9, 2020 (even Tier 1 members). Those who signed up before June 9th are grandfathered in with free ATM reimbursements.
- SoFi Money’s interest rate went way down lately, and even the Tier 1 rate is only .25%; there are many better options.)
Thanks to many readers for pointing this out, and to Milestalk as well who brought it to my attention.
