Northpointe No Longer Earning 5% APY – How To Transfer Your Funds Out

Update 01/03/18: This account no longer earns 5% APY so you’ll want to transfer your funds out. Reader Jody has an easy way to do so:

  • Click the “Bill Pay” tab, and then click bottom right “what else can I do?”
  • Then you’ll see the option to transfer money between your own bank accounts.

There is no point keeping funds in this account as plenty of banks offer accounts earning well above 1% APY with no requirements and up to 5% with requirements. More alternatives can be viewed below.

Original post: Northpointe offers the UltimeAccount, this earns 5% APY on balances up to $10,000 when the following requirements are met:

  • Must enroll in e-statements.
  • Must make 15 debit card purchases. (The 15 transactions must post and settle during the statement period to qualify.) More details on this below.
  • Must set up an automatic withdrawal or direct deposit of $100 each month

This account has undergone a number of changes over time (full history here) and on 11/21/17 it became no longer available for new sign ups. Existing account holders are starting to receive letters regarding a major negative change to this account. Important sections of the letter are as follows:

  • Effective March 1st you’ll earn 1% APY when requirements are met (down from 5% APY)
  • Effective March 1st the requirements will be as follows:
    • Make $1,000 or more in debit card purchases
    • Be enrolled in eStatements
  • They will make closing your account easy by visiting northpointe.com/goodbye. This currently doesn’t work and won’t work until February 5th, 2018

Alternatives

Given that basic savings accounts rates are currently offering 1.7% APY, I don’t think Northpointe seriously thinks people will continue to keep using this account. I suspect a lot of readers will be looking for alternative places to stash their funds. The obvious choice for most people will be getting an Insight card (or two) that offers 5% APY on balances up to $5,000. Other options include Consumers Credit Union 4.59% APY account on balances up to $20,000 and Mango Prepaid’s 6% APY account. A full list of high interest accounts can be found here (this page is kept up to date, so might be worth bookmarking and sharing with friends).

Hat tip to reader Steve

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

67 Comments
newest
oldest most voted

JP
JP (@guest_569820)
March 13, 2018 22:06

any idea how long it takes for them to close the account. I went though the goodbye link.

K
K (@guest_566968)
March 5, 2018 18:47

I loved this account. I used it as one of my main two checking accounts and easily hit the 15 card transactions with my normal card use. No problem getting the account set up. They were always extra cautious with suspicious transactions or international travel. Great customer service. I really appreciated the opportunity to earn money with the bank and am grateful to DoC for highlighting the account. Sorry to hear it is going away and that others here ended up so cynical.

Robin
Robin (@guest_566098)
March 2, 2018 16:06

I did a transfer from another bank, in my case my credit union. All the money came out in one swoop. I left about $10 in there in case they change the requirements to be more favorable in the future.

borntobehermit
borntobehermit (@guest_566029)
March 2, 2018 13:55

I just added my external bank account with the purpose of transferring the money out. I noticed that I have limits on the transfer amount:

“First-Time Limit $2,000.00
Your next transfer could have a higher limit.”

Phil
Phil (@guest_566041)
March 2, 2018 14:09

Why aren’t you just pulling it from your normal bank account?

borntobehermit
borntobehermit (@guest_567420)
March 7, 2018 11:10

Good point. Thank you. 🙂

banananon
banananon (@guest_565897)
March 2, 2018 04:08

Might as well keep it open for MO deposits.

Jason
Jason (@guest_565841)
March 1, 2018 23:50

$5 check fee to close account. That’s crazy.

juanbeny
juanbeny (@guest_565850)
March 2, 2018 00:08

Where did you see the $5 fee?

borntobehermit
borntobehermit (@guest_566032)
March 2, 2018 14:01

What do you mean by $5 check fee?

The outgoing ACH is free.
And the early closure fee is $10, if the account is closed within 120 days of account opening.

See: https://www.northpointe.com/wp-content/uploads/Northpointe-Bank-Fee-Schedule-October-2017.pdf

Dan
Dan (@guest_565805)
March 1, 2018 22:37

Considering Discover/Ally/etc will be paying ~2.5% by end of the year, the value of these accounts will diminish. At the same time the cost of deposits for these banks will also go up – just as we start pulling money out.

Jody
Jody (@guest_565420)
March 1, 2018 13:09

PSA: You can transfer money out of Northpointe by doing this:

Click the “Bill Pay” tab, and then click bottom right “what else can I do?”

Then you’ll see the option to transfer money between your own bank accounts.

Tom
Tom (@guest_564107)
February 25, 2018 21:21

Don’t know about the rest of you, but I am just a little worried about getting a cashier’s check mailed to me, at least if it’s about $10K.
So I am thinking about bleeding out cash from the account by cash withdrawal at another bank’s ATM. I have an account that won’t charge for this.
But Northpointe might have a limit on the number of cash WD per month — anybody know this? If not I can look it up …

Jeremy
Jeremy (@guest_565284)
February 28, 2018 23:19

Why not just ACH it to another account, then once your account is at $0, request it be closed.

Tom
Tom (@guest_565363)
March 1, 2018 09:47

No ACH out from Northpoint!

There is a Northpointe branch in my twon but I think they only do mortgage lending — no non-lending retail banking.

So probably I will just have them mail the cashier’s check, and watch the mailbox carefully.

Jenn
Jenn (@guest_565369)
March 1, 2018 10:06

ACH pull from another bank. I used Ally to pull the money out

Wyle
Wyle (@guest_565404)
March 1, 2018 12:20

+1

Robin
Robin (@guest_566100)
March 2, 2018 16:08

My credit union worked also.

Wong
Wong (@guest_566106)
March 2, 2018 16:30

You can transfer $2,000 out a week. Or you can ACH pull the entire $10k out in one go

Kaztrator
Kaztrator (@guest_557879)
February 5, 2018 23:09

Just to be clear, will I still get 5% on my February balance on March 1st if I meet the 15 debit requirements?

Eric
Eric (@guest_558066)
February 6, 2018 15:09

Yes, assuming you meet the other requirements too (ie $100 deposit).