Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 2.55% APY
- Minimum Balance: $25,000
- Maximum Balance: $1M
- Availability: Nationwide
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: None
- Insured: FDIC
- Early Termination Fee: $10 closure fee if closed within 120 days
The Offer
- Northpointe Bank is offering a 2.55% savings account on balances between $25k and $1M.
- Rate is guaranteed for at least 3 months.
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them.
- Annual Percentage Yield effective 06/28/19.
- After the three (3) month promotional period, the rate may change based on prevailing market rates.
- Promotional interest rate applies to consumer accounts only with balances between $25,000.00 – $1,000,000.00. Rates are subject to change without notice. Tier 1 $0.00 – $24,999.99: 1.12% APY; Tier 2 $25,000.00 -$1,000,000.00: 2.55% APY; Tier 34 $1,000,000.01+: 1.12% APY.
- The 2.55% APY applies to the full balance if the balance is between $25,000 – $1,000,000.
- Interest is calculated on the daily balance and credited quarterly at quarter-end (March, June, September, December). Accounts closed mid-month will earn all accumulated interest. Contact us prior to withdrawing all funds to ensure proper crediting.
- Fees may reduce earnings on the account.
- All new accounts are subject to Northpointe Bank approval.
- Not valid with any other offers.
Avoiding Fees
There is no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance requirement to avoid a fee. (The minimum balance to earn the 2.55% APY is $25,000 – $1,000,000.) Full fee schedule can be reviewed here: Fee schedule
Just don’t close it within the first 120 days as that is subject to a $10 closure fee. If you want to pull the funds out earlier, just leave $1 in there until 120 is up and close then.
Our Verdict
We don’t know if this is meant to be a long term competitive savings account or just a teaser rate for the first 3 months. My inclination is the former as we saw a similar thing with their Northpointe money market account which offers a 3 month guarantee and it maintained its competitive rate long term, but I don’t know for certain.
If this is a long term rate, it’s certainly a great offer. The only one that tops this is the Wealthfront 2.57% account, but that one is not an ordinary bank, doesn’t have an ordinary routing number, and some people consider it a drop riskier than a standard FDIC insured bank.
The quarterly crediting is a bit of a pain, but they say they’ll credit you mid-cycle if you close the account (might require manual adjustment, as per fine print) so it’s not too bad.
Overall, looks like a nice deal. We’ll add this account to our List of Best High Yield Savings Accounts.
This is to Bill Clancy: I have a slug of funds in my Northpointe account but the interest is not getting added to the account – it just says ‘accrued’ but my balance hasn’t changed in two months. Why?
Thanks.
It’s already down to 2.05%.
Hi Chris, Correct – the 2.55% APY Ultimate Savings promotion ran from July 1 – July 31 and is no longer available. Any Ultimate Savings accounts opened during that time are locked into the 2.55% offer terms. Any applications submitted prior to the promotion end date have until 5pm ET on 08/16/19 to open their account and still obtain the 2.55% APY terms. New applications received as of 12:00am ET on 08/01/19 are eligible for our remaining promotions – either ‘up to 2.05% APY’ on our Ultimate Savings or ‘up to 2.30% APY’ on our Ultimate Money Market. Thank you, Bill C, Northpointe Bank
It was mentioned clear bait and switch, this promo is clearly their goal to bait folks to get in for a few months than drop rates. The hassle alone of this is not worth it clearly. Will steer away from this bank
Hi Al, Interesting take. Any data to support this claim? I have a lot of historical evidence to refute it….
-On our 2.55% APY promo that just ended *all customers that signed up during the promo period* are guaranteed their rate for at least 3 months.* New applications on or after 08/01/19 can choose from other other promotions which are still among the Top 1% of all savings rates in the U.S. So, no one with the 2.55% APY terms are seeing their rate decrease for at least 3 months from account opening.
-Over the past 2-3 years, Northpointe has consistently offered rate guarantees of 3, 12 and up to 24 months with new accounts. Over 90% of other FIs offer no rate guarantee period. Clearly, the former situation prevents the possibility of a ‘bait and switch’ rate drop for a much longer period of time giving the customer much greater certainty and the ability to hedge rates by keeping the account open even if they find a new, better rate elsewhere in an unstable rate environment like we have today. This is very pro-consumer, and again, very rare to find FIs offering it.
-Lastly, with our last five (5) rate promotions over the past couple years the promotional rate *because the permanent rate* once the promo expired. I can’t guarantee that will happen again with our 2.55% APY savings given the Fed just decreased rates. But your claim above directly contradicts our past actions (and not just one; not twice; but something we’ve done five times!!)
Sites like this are invaluable resources for consumers seeking to find the best deals in banking or elsewhere but it’s unfortunate and disappointing when folks post erroneous or simply untrue information. Please do better – this community deserves it.
Respectfully, Bill C, Northpointe Bank
Nothing i posted is inaccurate. Your bank can do better. From 2.55% to 2.05%, you can’t even justify the drop using the Fed 25point cut. This is exactly what I and others stated. This is a bait and switch to get you in the door for a very short promotion to drop the rate significantly. I’m still getting 2.57% from my credit union despite the Fed rate cut. If you want historical information look at what just happened. Now you do better and stop baiting people with short term rates to get them in the door. Other banks dropped rates slightly and there are still plenty of banks around ~2.5% as of today.
I should add this type bait and switch is exactly why consumer lose confidence in banks!
Nothing you say will change my opinion and others. You are so far down the list of banks with your current rate it is not even worth responding. Actions speak louder than words, your rates are horrible and nothing more can be said. Lets see how many of those customers leave.
Bill Clancy, instead of a 3 month Guarantee can you offer a 6 months similar to NASB? 3 month is just too short to switch to. If you make it 6 months you got my business.
Question for Bill Clancy: It looks like there is a daily limit on ACH transactions going in and out, if initiated in Northpointe account. How about ACH transactions initiated from an external account – do you set any daily or other limits? Thanks!
Hi Andre, ACH limits for transfers via our Online Banking are $25k per day and $250k per month. For external transfers from another bank (or PayPal/Venmo/etc) have no limits. Best, Bill C. Northpointe Bank
Great to have answers directly from Northpointe Rep. Thanks, Bill C. Do you have directly links to the above answers?
A lot of cynical people in the comments. I’ve been a Northpointe customer since 2016 with their 5% checking, which I never had a single problem with. I’ve opened ultimate savings and money market accounts, and their reps have always made things super easy and been Midwest nice. I inquired about this new rate with existing ultimate savings accounts, and got a super fast reply saying they could apply the new rate upon request as soon as I had the 25k minimum in it again. This may sound like I’m a plant but honestly, thank you Northpointe and your tireless customer service on these sites. I just saw Bill commenting on the depositaccounts website too. And of course thank you for the most consistently competitive rates out there.
A lot of cynical people in the comments. I’ve been a Northpointe customer since 2016 with their 5% checking, which I never had a single problem with. I’ve opened ultimate savings and money market accounts, and their reps have always made things super easy and been Midwest nice. I inquired about this new rate with existing ultimate savings accounts, and got a super fast reply saying they could apply the new rate upon request as soon as I had the 25k minimum in it again. This may sound like I’m a plant but honestly, thank you Northpointe and your tireless customer service on these sites. I just saw Bill commenting on the depositaccounts website too. And of course thank you for the most consistently competitive rates out there.
Guaranteed for 3 months….clear bait and switch
Hi Sam, While we can’t guarantee what the rate will switch to after this initial promo, we’ve run 4-5 similar promotions over the past two years and in each case the promotional rate become the ‘permanent rate’ after the promo rate expired. So, at a minimum, we have a 100% track record of offering rates among the Top 1% or so of all savings accounts in the country, even if we’re not always #1. Best, Bill C, Northpointe Bank
Since they just dropped it to 2.05% that is clearly their goal to bait folks to get in for a few months than drop rates. The hassle alone of this is not worth it clearly .
Disagree.
See here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/northpointe-bank-2-55-savings-account-guaranteed-3-months/#comment-792765
You can disagree all you want but the facts tell another story. Nothing i posted is inaccurate. Your bank can do better. From 2.55% to 2.05%, you can’t even justify the drop using the Fed 25point cut. This is exactly what I and others stated. This is a bait and switch to get you in the door for a very short promotion to drop the rate significantly after. I’m still getting 2.57% from my credit union despite the Fed rate cut. If you want historical information look at what just happened. Now you do better and stop baiting people with short term rates to get them in the door. Other banks dropped rates slightly and there is still plenty of banks around ~2.5% as of today.
Northern Bank Direct has 2.50% APY guaranteed thru 12/31/19 on all balances–no tiered interest rates.
One caveat, that’s only true up to $250k total now. NBD now drops to a lower interest rate on your entire balance if you exceed $250k.
Based on their history I’m inclined to think anything they provide will be short lived.
Perhaps a reference to our 5% rewards checking that we offered for 2.5 years but then ceased a few years back? If so, I suppose it depends on your definition of “short lived.” 2.5 years seems pretty solid for what was the highest RCA rate in the U.S. during that time period. Since then, we’ve moved to focusing on high interest savings and money market accounts. Over the past two years, we’ve introduced 4-5 different promotions and each one has been among the Top 3 (#, not %) of all bank rates in the U.S. at the time of roll out. That’s pretty solid – and sustained. Of course, YMMV. Best, Bill C, Northpointe Bank
Can anyone confirm if they also raised the rate for existing “Ultimate Savings” accounts? I hate when banks create new tiers for new customers
CO – shoot us an email or give us a call and we’ll get the new rate added to your existing account. No need to open a new account. Thank you. Bill C, Northpointe Bank