Update 3/17/24: They are now offering their Novus checking with 6.00% APY for 6 months on up to $50,000. Requires direct deposit of $1200 within 60 days of opening. A monthly $1,200+ direct deposit is required to keep the 6% boost; otherwise you’ll get the base rate of 4%.(ht to reader PaulinTexas)
Update 6/9/23: Seems Primis went and froze everyone’s some peoples accounts, no one really knows what’s going on. Readers suggest filing CFPB, FDIC and BBB complaints against them to spur some action.
Update 2/17/23: They are now sending out an official email confirming that the 5.03% rate will remain (at this time) for those who got the account while that rate was being advertised.
Update 2/16/23: Rate has been cut to 4.35% for both accounts. Find higher APY accounts here. For now the reps are saying that this change only applies to new accounts, and existing customers will continue to get the 5.03% rate.
Contents
The Offer
Primis Checking | Primis Savings
- Primis is offering a 5.03% APY on their fee-free checking account with no minimums and no requirements.
- Primis is also offering a 5.03% APY on their fee-free savings account with no minimums and no requirements.
Primis Bank is FDIC insured.
Our Verdict
The 5.03% savings rate tops all rates on regular savings accounts and even tops all CD rates, at the time of this writing. What I find even more remarkable is the 5.03% rate on a checking account – those rarely offer any interest at all. (See this outdated post from a few years ago.)
I don’t know much about Primis Bank but thought it worth creating a dedicated thread for discussion and reader reviews. Both of these accounts are fairly new to us (though it’s possible they’ve been around for a while and under the radar). Feel free to share your experiences. The biggest question mark is whether they’ll maintain a high rate in the long run, relative to the market.
Hat tip to reader CO
Did a push from Schwab on 3/26: Rate has still stayed at 4%. Wondering if Schwab isn’t working anymore for DD?
3/26 was still the current statement. It closes on 15th of each month. Your rate should convert into 6% on 4/16.
This statement cycle I did also only Schwab, so it should be still 6% after 4/15 for me. Well, if not, then Schwab really is not working any more.
Rate stayed the same for me. Schwab may be dead unless we see more DP
I just applied for an account and during the application process, I was asked if within the last 12 months any FI had “involuntarily” closed my checking account.
I don’t recall ever being asked that question before. If
WGU applied for this same account, they would have to either answer “yes” or commit fraud by answering “no”.
I just wanted to send this as a PSA to everyone to advise you not to go overboard on any activities to give yourself a better chance of keeping all of your accounts in “good standing”.
I didn’t get that question. Do you recall at which step you got that ?
My application went under review by the way.
Did you get instant approval ?
I just reread my comment and can see how you misunderstood it. I meant that I applied for an account with another FI (Blaze) and that question appeared on the application. I ended up being declined for Chex after I wrote that comment or maybe even while I was writing the comment.
I put the comment in this post instead of the Blaze post for 2 reasons. The main reason is because this is where I saw the comment from
WGU. The other reason is I figured that many more people are subscribed to this post than the Blaze post.
It seems that no one really cared about my PSA so I guess I wasted my time.
Thanks for clarifying that.
You got accepted into Primis or declined ?
I got rejected with reason “Your application did not pass our digital banking customer due diligence and has been rejected”.
Not sure if this actually means rejection was due to Chex or is it an identity issue.
I have never applied for a Primis account.
P1-P4 accounts shutdown this morning.
MS heavy first 45-50 days. We got emails on each account that we would be shutdown if we continued. All accounts stopped immediately.
Primis paid out (Twice) after the statement.
I should have just went all out if a shutdown was coming anyway.
On to the next….
Honest curiosity: how do you MS a checking account?
@WGU answered that below. He was essentially automating $0.01 transactions through PayPal to generate income since the Primis Perks account has a debit card that gives you a 50 cent credit per debit card transaction that is not an ATM transaction. The assumption is that @WGU was making hundreds of dollars through these synthetic transactions, and multiplied that by the 4 separate accounts he has to generate a small income stream, but to be shut by the bank for abusing the intent of the program.
How exactly are you MSing these?
I was going to ask the same question earlier when I saw that comment. Before doing so, I scrolled down through several comments and ironically found your comment below, which appears to give a clue into what
WGU probably did.
BTW, good job using a gravatar, making it very easy to find your tag.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/primis-bank-5-03-checking-savings-accounts/#comment-1634582
If I had to venture a guess, the account probably was used to deposit money order types checks that were purchased at Walmart or the like. Given the amount of fraud Primis had to go through just a few months ago, I don’t think they would be tolerant of these types of repetitive check deposits into their accounts.
If your guess is correct, then
WGU greatly mischaracterized what they did by writing that they did “MS heavy” with Primis. Simply depositing MO is not really “MS”.
Purchasing the gc and then buying MO with the gc is the “MS” part of the scheme and none of that had anything to do with Primis.
Also,
WGU wrote “I should have just went all out if a shutdown was coming anyway.”.
Does that really sound like simply depositing MO to you?
Correct!
Debit card is .50 per transaction Cashback.
Used Paypal script thats on the Paypal post on here for automated .01 transactions.
But how many transactions were you doing? Even if you did 100 transactions, that was just $50 of cashback. Was it really worth that hassle? 😛
I am 99% sure that
WGU did a lot more than 100 transactions. BTW, you made almost the exact same comment last year about 100 transactions receiving $50. You greatly underestimate what people are willing to do.
I mean, I would be surprised that PayPal didn’t shut this down faster than the bank itself lol.
It’s automated. Set it and forget it.
I noticed that for their Perks account, they do not report the Cashback on the 1099-INT, and that the amount is treated like cashback similar to a credit card and hence it is not taxed.
Even if the bank itself was not concerned about the activity itself, they probably might be concerned about running afoul of IRS rules since now the “cashback” is more than your actual cost basis, which would necessitate the bank to report the cashback as actual income.
Not sure how much you got per se, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up sending you a 1099-MISC or tacking it on your 1099-INT as interest/income received.
can the debit card be used for MS?
is there a direct link to the account type that is offering the 6%? when i search ‘novus’ on their site, their direct deposit page comes up and they mention primus novus, but i don’t see the novus account type available anywhere and their checking/savings are only showing up as 5.07% apy
google did have this one https://primisbank.com/primis-novus-checking/ but the account type doesn’t seem to be promoted/linked to on their site and the effective date of the rate offer is from november 2023. i’m a bit wary the offer’s still going :/
It’s still going as I opened my Novus account and the rate was 4% APY. I made DD/deposits and now after statement closing date (which is on 15th of each month) the rate shows 6% APY.
I’d just go with Poppy at 5.5% and not have the hassle.
Comparatively, isn’t the Upgrade Savings offer better than this for the same $50k deposit? You could even do their Checking bonus first to further maximize the return. Looking out for depositors that have fewer resources to move around that want less requirements with referral opportunity.
I hope folks appreciate you looking out for them :).
Shoot you’re right that is a better offer at the same $50k
Avoid this bad bank.
what’s bad about it/what was your experience with them?
You wrote in the update that the account “Requires deposit of $1200 within 60 days of opening. A monthly $1,200+ DD“. Is it “deposit” or “DD” as that makes a big difference?
That’s what I figured. I think I recall seeing you make a comment either here or in another post that Schwab worked for you, correct? I’m wondering if basically anything works like with what used to work for Laurel.
BTW, I noticed that
Chuck wrote “keep the 6% boost” in the update also. Is this “boost” only for a certain amount of time? If so, it might not even be worth the Chex inquiry.
This is a 6-month only promotion, starting after your 1st DD is validated. No Chex inquiry for existing customers, but I did get a Chex inquiry when I opened up my savings account on 2/1/2023.
My DPs for opening the account are below: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/primis-bank-5-03-checking-savings-accounts/#comment-1814990
I’m not a Primis customer so there would be a Chex inquiry for me. I’ll probably pass for now as it’s basically a 6% 6 month CD. I passed on Securityplus (a few times) for a similar reason. Thank you for the details though.
Fixed now, thanks
Not worth the hassle. Can get similar rate for a t-bill without having to deal with a shit bank.
That’s strong language with an equally bold assertion,
I’ve been monitoring and reporting on weekly T-bill rates for almost two years.
Please specifically note the issue date and term for the one you claim pays 6%.
In which post do you report the weekly rates? I’d like to subscribe to it.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/auctions/announcements-data-results/
I am aware of that site that lists the rates. You wrote “I’ve been monitoring and reporting on weekly T-bill rates for almost two years.”
Reporting where?
If you live in a high state tax state then the T bill is equivalent to near 6% due to no state tax.