Update 11/6/19: Down to 2.00%.
Update 8/16/19: They’ve added the following disclosure to their checking and money market accounts: “Effective 9/16/2019 a Below Balance Fee of $15 will apply if the daily balance is below $1,000 any point during a statement cycle.”
Update 8/13/19: Rate decreased to 2.25%.
Update 3/9/19: Rate increased to 2.45%
Update 1/8/19: Rate has increased to 2.40%.
Update 12/7/18: Rate has increased to 2.3%
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate:Â 2.3% APY
- Minimum Balance:Â None listed
- Maximum Balance:Â $1,000,000
- Availability:Â Nationwide
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding:Â Up to $1,000
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Insured:Â FDIC
The Offer
- MemoryBank is currently offering 2.45% APY on it’s money market account (not to be confused with the 1.6% on the checking account)
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Update 8/16/19: There’s now a $1,000 minimum to avoid $15 monthly fee.
This account has the following fees:
- $3 Monthly Paper Statement Fee (per statement)
- $36 Stop Payment Request
- $0 Cashier’s Check Fee
- $12 Returned Deposited Item
- $0 Overdraft Fee (per Business day)
- $36 Overdraft Fee (per in-person and electronic withdrawal)
- $36 Returned Item Charge (per Item)
- $10 excess transaction fee (for transactions exceeding 6 per month)
Our Verdict
This is now the seventh bank offering 2.25% APY with no requirements. Now it’s just a matter of time until one of them increases rates to above this level. Keep in mind you can get higher rates on rewards checking accounts, but they do have monthly requirements.
Because of the $1000 minimum on the money market, I called the cancel this morning. It was very easy to close the account by phone, and the rep transferred my remaining balance to my Memory Bank checking account that I’ll keep open. I hope to re-open the account with them once the Fed stops printing unlimited money, since the app and service have been great.
“Dear Valued Client,
As you have probably seen, the Federal Reserve announced an unscheduled, emergency rate cut of 0.50% on Tuesday. Due to this, MemoryBank is decreasing the APY* on our Online Money Market Account by 0.50% APY*. Effective 3/4/2020, the rate adjusts to 1.25% APY*”
Received email last night:
“Due to the recent market environment, MemoryBank is decreasing the APY* on our Online Money Market Account by 0.25% APY*. Effective 2/27/2020, the rate will adjust to 1.75% APY*. No action is needed on your part and the new rate will be applied to your account automatically.”
Hey, how great is it that no action is required on our part to help them lower our interest rate?
Has anyone tried paying an Amex credit card (using Amex’s site to pull) from the MemoryBank Money Market? Amex says “You must use a checking or savings account. Money Market, line of credit, credit, and investment accounts as well as balance transfer checks are not accepted” and I’m no sure what that means for MemoryBank’s MM.
Select checking as your account type.Even though it’s called a money market, ACH transactions treat it as checking.
Yeah, for ACH; but have you tried it specifically with payments on Amex’s website? MemoryBank told me that there’s a chance that a payments may be submitted as electronic checks (which their money market doesn’t support) instead of ACH.
If there is a chance of electronic check, then it would not work with the money market. I pay my AmEx credit card bill out of memory bank checking (not money market), and it’s listed as “AMEX EPAYMENT/ACH PMT”.
The interest dropped to 2.00% APY as of yesterday (didn’t notify until today via email) for the MM account and Interest Checking now 0.90% APY.
(Lowered both by 0.25%, equal to the Fed cut).
Doc, they JUST lowered the interest rate to 2%. It is not 2.25% anymore.
Updated, thanks
Applied yesterday evening, mainly due to the $1000 CC funding. Application went into review. Got an email within few minutes that said “If you did not already, please upload a color copy of your valid government issued photo ID, such as a Driver’s License, to assist in the review process.” So uploaded my DL. Got another message this morning that they wanted a Utility Bill as address proof and also wanted me to unlock my TU. Did both and was approved in about an hour or so. I have used my WF Business Plat for funding. It currently shows $1000 as pending so hopefully it should go through fine as purchase.
Also, in case it matters to someone I applied as a Permanent Resident.
I also received the fee notice on my account. $15 if the account balance drops below $1000. Pretty dumb to retroactively add it to the account. The interest rate is also 2.227% now
$15 fee if balance is below $1000!!! Way to screw your customers MemoryBank. I just called and cancelled the account.
They sneaked in this “announcement” in the last statement so if you are an account holder and hence there’s 1% chance you’d check the statement many people will be hit with this fee.
The rep assured me they “sent out an email” but they surely did not.
Applied on 9/23, got an application number and uploaded DL in the application portal. Got a message 2 days later requesting proof of address, uploaded utility bill and the account is opened on the next day 9/26. FYI, I applied as non-permanent resident.
Funded $1k with Citi Premier, posted as purchase.