Update #3 (6/1/18): Email went out today confirming it’ll die on July 1, 2018.
Update #2: Insight 5% is dead for new applicants – they removed mention of 5% from the site. Other high-yield options can be found here.
Update: Somebody is stating they called in and were told that new accounts are no longer eligible for the 5% APY and existing accounts will be shut down on July 1st. Terrible news IF true.
Original post: Insight offers a prepaid card, you can also open a connected savings account that earns 5% APY on balances up to $5,000. Unfortunately there are two troubling datapoints indicating that Insight might no longer be offering this 5% option despite it still being mentioned on the website here. First datapoint comes from reader Bryan stating the following:
I planned on activating the card this afternoon and got a random call from Insight cust service to tell me the details on the card, ask if i’m employed and if I will use DD. Say yes and let them know I plan to use the savings 5% – rep asks for last 4 of social again and puts me on hold. Then comes back and say that is done with. I say what, ask when and she says yesterday and they do not know anymore. I say it’s still advertised on their site and they say they just found out but I will not be able to access the savings account for the 5%
The other datapoint comes from reddit and can be read in full here. Generally speaking shutting down new applications is only a first step and eventually grandfathered accounts are shut down as well. That being said given that the 5% APY rate is still being advertised on the website and they aren’t officially not accepting new applications I wouldn’t go too far with the doomsday scenarios just yet either. As always we keep a list of the best high APY accounts here.
Anybody not able to log into their Insight account? Mine says Invalid Credentials even though I saved my passwords using Lastpass. Tried to reset password but it says No account with that information. I haven’t logged in since July of this year.
interest now down to 1% per terms on their site
Crap. What’s the cheapest way to transfer money out? Is there a point leaving small balance there in case 5% ever comes back?
I’m keeping mine open because the way interest rates are dropping the highest yielding MMA may soon be .5% and 1% will look good.
If you can’t finish your balance with billpay ($0 fee), mailing a check (up to $2500?) to someone works – tested this with a $20 check to my sig. other, now increasing $ amount to drain. Bye bye insight.
What’s wrong with ACH?
I just completed an ACH pull from my bank for a small amount and there were no fees on my Insight account. Seems to be the best option.
I just checked the terms and you are right! Worst possible time with interest rates tanking everywhere. No heads up, no email, no letter either. Maybe this is only for new accounts opened after 7/1/20? I think I will wait and see before taking any drastic action because everything liquid is around 1% now anyway so no big hurry.
I’ve had my account for years and it says 1% for me. Looking at opening a 3 year fixed annuity @3%. Not FDIC insured but apparently is by various state insurance boards. Anybody know any reason why I shouldn’t?
I was going to look into annuities myself in the near future. What are the links you are looking at?
I just happened to get an email from Iberia Bank (I have an account with them due to recent bonus offered) about the above mentioned 3%/3 year annuity, which is from Oceanview/Harborview
https://www.iberiabank.com/personal/investment-services/
https://oceanviewlife.com/products/harbourview-annuity-series/
I didn’t see rates on their site just now but it was in the email I got from Iberia.
I’ll look into it. Thanks.
I have some add-on CD’s at 3.5% but I’m still waiting for my Insight statement for July. My June statement still said 5%. I have had some annuities in the past watch out for front end loads(fees), back end loads and surrender charges. Fixed rate CD type annuities or MYGA are the best.
Logged in to move money from Savings to card and use Bill Pay, but it seems that option is no longer present.
In case you didn’t figure this out there is a work around for this. When you are logged into your account just click on this link: https://www.insightvisa.com/savings/transfer
Then bookmark it for future reference. This link seems to come and go on certain accounts. Hope this helps 😉
Help! I had $5k in savings account. I just tried to log on and it says invalid. Neither of the two phone numbers above are working nor the one on the insight website. My card does not have the savings balance on it and I didn’t receive a check…. What do I do???
Hmm, might be your phone or internet device — I just got through the 855 number after one ring. Logged on without issue, also…
Thanks so much! I called from a different phone and it worked
Datapoint: As of July 1st, I could no longer log into insight, like others had mentioned. I dug up my cards and called the number. I was able to get the balance on the card for free through the automated phone system, and it seemed the entire $5000 + one quarter of interest had accrued and transferred to my card balance. I didn’t bother talking to a person (assume had to pay $1) or getting my account re-activated. I did an ACH pull from Ally where I already had the card account linked. So far looks like entire amount for both wife and I pulled into Ally no problem.
Any fees I should worry about for Insight card sitting with zero balance?
There are inactivity fees, but they haven’t been hitting empty cards with a negative balance. If you ever put money on the card again, though, those fees will have been held in reserve waiting to pounce, and immediately subtracted from your deposit. So you might as well close it. Call one of the two free phone numbers at the top of this blog post https://www.doctorofcredit.com/insight-5-apy-account-will-officially-end-on-july-1st-your-best-alternatives/ , should take less than 5 minutes.
I wanted to share a data point. My savings account balance was transferred to my prepaid balance on July 1st, and the savings was closed. I used my Schwab Checking account to pull the money out through an ACH transfer through Schwab’s website, and it pulled the money out. So I didn’t need to use the Bill Pay feature to withdraw the money.
Yes, that’s what most people are doing (ACH). The only reason to use bill pay is if you can’t get ACH linking working between Insight and one of your other banks, but Insight’s instructions focused on bill pay because they don’t have any ACH feature on their own website, and many of their customers won’t have another bank account to link anyway.
So is it possible to ACH out the entire $5000 in one transaction?
Yes, it is. I ACH $5316 using Discover.
I can only logon to one of my accounts, the others show (“invalid logon attempt”).
I see the that the interest is credited on the account to which I could logon. However, the balance has not been transferred to the card.
I hope that they transfer the full Savings balance today as an ACH is already in process to a locked account, and it will hit the card on Monday.
I’m checking the accounts that I can still login, but they haven’t been transferred
OK, just checked again and the savings accounts have been closed, Savings tab only has e-statements available
Correction: only 1 of my account has the savings account closed, those that remain open will continue to accrue 5% interest according to the rep I called
I was also locked out, clicked to reset password, reset successful, please log in now…then got the security lock-out out message. Called to reset, wait 20 minutes on hold, and did get a person to activate my account, and have now gotten in, but with $1 deducted. I guess that is their way of saying goodbye!
You can call and get your exact balance for free via automation. If this amt jives with the amount you should have with recently posted 2nd quarter interest, then maybe you can ACH all of your money out without calling for reset and losing the $1???
It’s now telling my I’m locked out and to call a number to unlock it.