Reposting on July 1, 2018. If you need to call in, this number is probably best: 1-888-796-1516 or 855-355-8117.
Last month Insight removed mention of the linked savings account that offers a 5% APY on balances up to $5,000. We had also heard rumors that existing account holders would be shut down on July 1st and unfortunately this has now been confirmed with all account holders receiving the following e-mail:
What You Should Do
Most banks can’t successfully ACH pull from Insight so you’d need to do their ridiculous Bill Pay method they mention above. That being said, some do work (Chase, Ally, Discover, Wells Fargo, Alliant, USAA, share more in the comments). They are paying the 5% APY until July 1st so I’d wait until June 30th and then do an ACH pull from one of the working banks if you can. Otherwise you’ll need to do the bill pay mentioned in their e-mail.
Alternatives
I know a lot of readers have taken advantage of this account and this will be a blow. That being said there are lots of other high interest APY accounts out there, none as good as Insight but there are some that offer 5% APY or higher balance maximums as well. We always maintain a list of the best savings accounts here. If this Insight shut down will affect you, I’d recommend having a read through that list and working out a plan on where you will move your money. RIP Insight, you will be missed.
did anyone able to reopen the closed account ? I called them requesting to reopen the account but they declined over phone and online system wont let me get new one. no nearby retail locations carry that black insight card.
i tried the same they said had to go to retail location.
Per the new blog post, nobody has found a way to reactivate accounts you requested they close. CSRs refuse, fraud claims don’t work, etc.
I called and mailed Insight to close my account a long time ago. I can still log in. I transferred $100 in there and opened the savings back up. Won’t know how much interest it earns until the end of the month.
so were you able to get any interest ?
Yep, I can confirm it earned roughly 5% interest. Excellent deal if you can still login to your “closed” accounts!
Just saw today. Seems Insight reopened their Savings account again. It shows up and allow people to enroll. The term is still the old one from 1/29/2018.
Interesting, mind sharing a link? I’m looking at https://www.insightcards.com/prepaid-card.html but don’t quite see anything
Just tried calling them, but their system appears to be down.
Finally got through on the phone, rep said no savings account available, or anything that earns interest, unfortunately.
Also confirmed can still open new cards in store/online
then why does their savings account option show up online? bugged?
Got a link?
Its just on my online account under savings, lets me enroll. I dont have funds currently to do it (need at least $10). I’ll be doing it within 3 business days and will let you know if it worked. Hopefully they dont bamboozle us and let us enroll to “savings” and earn 0% lol.
Interesting. Do let us know how it works out.
I’ve already closed my non-savings accounts, but would gladly reopen.
any luck?
Savings account is now 1% APY instead of 5%
for all or just for new accounts ?
as per Cardholder Agreement from the website, If your Card is active and was opened through a Retail Location, you may open an interest-bearing Savings Account through Online Banking. The current interest on your Savings Account is 4.879% with an annual percentage yield of 5.000% as of 01/01/2019
If you kept your old cards open as I did you can reopen the savings and still earn 5% APY. New accounts only get the stated 1%.
Sorry this is for new prepaid accounts
Sorry this is for new prepaid accounts
1%… that’s horrible. Thanks for the info.
Right after they shutdown the 5% savings for the online opened accounts, I tried to open a 3rd locally acquired Insight and couldn’t even get the option to start a savings.
Where can I see the terms for the 1% APY? I looked on their site but didn’t see that.
under the prepaid card I think
It’s under the Mobile Banking product. Reloadable cards opened online have no savings account associated at all, as far as the cardholder agreement says.
https://www.insightcards.com/legal/RPLQ_eDDA_Accountholder_Agreement.pdf
Tried sending a check to myself as per the email instructions. When I did not receive a check I logged in and the bill pay status shows “error”. Anyone encountered this?
That happened to me twice. I finally decided to pull the money from my other bank account and that worked fine.
As for alternatives there is GM right notes currently paying 2.28% APY on the $50,000 tier. This is not FDIC insured though but does bump up the rate with FED hikes. Also the Netspend and clones are still paying 5% APY on $1,000. There is also a 2.75% 9 month CD at Andrews Federal credit union with easy and free membership requirements. Just use the code “andrews” to get a free ACC(American Consumer Council) membership and you can join andrews.
For those ACHing out, be sure the amount entered is as intended. I was off by a few dollars and, rightly so, got charged a return deposit fee of $5. Unfortunately, Alliant re-attempted the withdrawal the following day, so Insight tacked on another $5.
Had to plead my way with an Insight supervisor to get one of those waived; but when I called some hours later, they had left notations to not rescind the second fee…
HEADS UP WHEN CLOSING ACCOUNTS. I called in today to close 2 accounts. The CSR said she closed them and the call ended. I then logged into my online account and noticed the last 4 of the card number changed and my accounts still looked the same. Called again and a different CSR said the first CSR only cancelled the cards but not the accounts. I’m not sure if this was an honest mistake or Insight being sketchy. 2nd CSR said accounts are only closed when you can no longer log in to your account online and can take up to 24hours. Just FYI.
Wow that sounds like a nightmare. Can we just not close the accounts and leave them with 0 balance? Will they actually go into negative balance?
Like you, I called to cancel the card but still had logon access. I messaged them this morning (instead of calling back) from the account that I canceled the card on and now cannot logon, gives me Invalid Logon Attempt.
Looks like a message will also be sufficient to close the account after the card has been canceled by phone call should you still have access online.
nice! thanks for the tip. will try this instead of having to call in 2x to close since some members stated the reps didn’t properly close accounts.
You may still have to call in to have the card canceled, they may not be able to do that by message. This is a DP for those many (including me on my first card) who called in to cancel the card thinking that the account would also be closed.
When I cancel my second card, I’ll know to ask them to close the account along with the cancellation of the card. Might message online to see if they can do both but if they can’t, will have to call.
Let us know if they do close and cancel both by message.
I’ve called a few different times to close my accounts and each time I received different responses. One CSR told me my account was closed and I will receive a letter in the mail confirming closure. I was still able to log into my account. Second CSR said my card was cancelled but my account was still open. On the last call, the CSR seemed to be more knowledgeable. He told me in order officially close the account the rep has to send an email to their supervisor who notifies the department that closes the account. I’ll know the account is officially closed when I am unable to log into my account. As of this morning, I’m unable to log into the account. He also stated Insight never mails out any letters confirming account closure.
When I was closing out all of our accounts the CSR said their backing bank (presumably Republic) requested to close all savings accounts. He called it “an issue with the savings accounts” and said they weren’t told why the bank requested to close the savings accounts.
Wonder why that wouldn’t also be true of the accounts that were opened in person or by phone and the saving accounts are still active?
I’ll tell you why because they were earning 5% APY! lol This bank is stingy with their rates. The Republic bank of Chicago website lists their savings accounts at a pathetic .10% APY. They probably didn’t expect so many deposits.
They charged me $1 for the phone call to fix their screw up. Awesome people.
I’m going to MS the hell out of OVs at Family Dollar on this card now that there’s nothing to lose in a shutdown.
Alliant worked very quickly for me. ACH pull worked in one day.