Update 11/17/22: Starting 12/1/11, Varo’s standard rate will increase to 3%. You will earn 5% on your balance up to $5000, and 3% APY on any balance above $5000.
Update 9/4/22: They just sent out an update: Starting in October qualification will be the previous calendar month (instead of the current). Also, a positive change: if your balance goes above $5000, you still get 5% on all the money up to $5000, and then 2% (current rate) on any amount above $5k. (ht Jonathan and Jamie)
Update 3/1/22: On April 1, 2022, the savings rate will increase from 3% APY to 5% APY. Qualifications to be eligible for the rate remain the same. (ht Davis)
Update 10/10/21: Starting October 1, 2021, standard savings rate will increase to 0.50% APY, up from 0.20% APY.
Update 6/1/21: Starting 7/1, you will no longer need 5 debit transactions to get 3% APY. Must also keep a balance of $5,000 or less. Hat tip to reader Davis
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 3% APY
- Minimum Balance: $0.01
- Maximum Balance: $5,000
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $1,000+
- Additional requirements: 5 debit card purchases
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Insured: FDIC
The Offer
- Varo Money is now offering a tiered savings account:
- Account earns 0.2% APY as long as the balance is $0.01 or more
- Account earns 3% on balances up to $5,000 if the following requirements are met:
- Receive payroll or government direct deposits totaling at least $1,000 each month into the Varo Bank Account
- Use the Varo Visa® Debit Card to authorize at least 5 purchases each month (excluding ATM or Over-the-Counter Cash Withdrawals and P2P transfers)
Avoiding Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about.
Our Verdict
A lot of people have Varo Money accounts from the $100 sign up bonus they previously offered. I don’t think this savings account is particularly useful, other accounts earn at a rate of 2.5% APY with no requirements (beating out the 2.12% APY offered here) and HeritageBank offers 3.33% APY with similar requirements (direct deposit not required, any ACH will work). I hope Varo Money offers another referral bonus again soon.
Hat tip to reader Francesco
Varo locked my account for a week after receiving my direct deposit. Tried contacting them by email and phone after it happened but it “had to go through the security team and will reach out to you in 24-72 hours”. They never contacted me. Most of their support is through their chat which of course is locked only in app.
I never got a reason or explanation. I assume it was because I was moving my money elsewhere a few days after the DD arrived but I’ve been doing that for a year. Guess I will be moving my money elsewhere.
Varo Bank closed hubbie and my bank accounts. Any ideas what’s up?
Did you figure out why they were closed?
None of these things counted as DD for me to trigger the 5% APY (I tried them in Feb 2023): Discover Savings, SoFi, Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Wells Fargo brokerage (WellsTrade)
But 5% isn’t that exciting now, so I guess I’ll stop using Varo.
I am upset. I thought my savings account will show 5% APY from today. I did real DD in January and it shows on tracker as requirements for 5% APY met. But when I log in, go to Varo Savings Account – it shows 3% APY. Maybe it doesn’t actually change, because 3% is standard rate on everything above $5K? Please someone answer soon, I am getting the urge to just move all my money out of Varo right now. I need to relax.
Ok everything is good – it shows 5% now!!!! Hooray!
Did you do 5 Amazon reloads for the purchases ?
P1 received a real DD of $1000 – savings tracker for 5% updated after the midnight!
(Tracker is not showing on mobile app, only on desktop, iphone se)
P2 received fake DD of $1000 from Elements bill pay of P1 – didn’t work, “p2p transfer”. Also received small testing deposit from Amex Business checking bill pay – it codes very very badly with sender full name and “transfer “, so it clearly won’t work.
Applying was quick and easy. Instant approval and online access given. Savings account already there earning 3% APY.
Debit card funding up to $100 was available upon signing up. I guess it’s only one time thing?
I am very pleased with Varo opening process, unlike with Juno where I was declined due to their glitchy software, ridiculous selfies and security codes are not coming. Varo seems like a very nice bank 🙂
I thought Astra was dead? Just found out the 1000 astra transfer pending this morning on Jan 4.
Astra pushed back their discontinuation date a little bit. An email from them 12/23/2022 said “as of January 4th, 2023, we will no longer support the creation of any new transfers or routines on the Astra mobile application … on January 18th, 2023 the remaining functionality will cease and you will no longer be able to log in to the mobile application”.
Got it. Thanks.
Today is Feb 6, 2023. The monthly 1000 astra transfer still works.
Are you still able to create new transfers in the Astra app? Or was that a recurring transfer you had previously set up?
Someone said their recurring transfer still happened this month, but when they try to stop future transfers, the app gave an error.
The recurring transfer was a old one I set up when I opened the varo account. The Jan and Feb transfer went out this year. I got the 5% rate for my saving. The March transfer seems dead since I saw the message “This Routine is Pending Authorization”.
How long does the DD tracker take to update? I faked some DDs ($1k on 12/21 and $1k on 12/26) and the tracker updated today showing I met the requirements ($1k out of $1k), but I’m unsure which one triggered it. I’m leaning towards just 2 days lag time instead of 1 week lag?
I haven’t paid attention to it lately, but I remember it takes only 1 to 3 days for the tracker to update. So I would bet on the 12/26 one. I will have a DP for you early next month.
mothman69
Awesome, thanks. For anyone following, my first DD was from Novo and the 2nd was from Bluevine.
It took one day (or one business day) for the tracker to update for this month’s DD.
mothman69
That confirms Bluevine worked for DD. Thanks!
Has anyone successfully triggered DD this month? Astra does not work this month
Not that it matters much now, but Astra still worked for me in Varo in December & January. The tracker in the Varo app seems to update around 8pm PT on the day after the deposit posts.
Anyone who opened this recently, were you able to stack a referral with SB/MP? thanks
I haven’t opened it yet. I’ve been crossing my fingers for at least one of the bonuses to go up, since all of them were higher in the past and SB/MP have been touting fintech like Acorns, Stash, etc with increased rewards lately. (See my comment of Oct 21 below.) If nothing happens, I may bite anyway next month.
So looking at your old post, looks likes SB has gone up form $30 to $60 now (but it was as high as $120 in the past). The referral is $30 but I see some old posts saying $50 or $75 for referral.
I searched but didn’t see anything detailed that said referral and SB can be combined.
I was waiting for Chime to go up for months but it didnt so I gave in and did that.
I was waiting for Sofi SB to come back in Sept but then opened an account as they had that deposit xxx and get a bonus promotion. Literally a week later, Sofi $175 SB offer showed up and was stackable with everything.
Trying to time them never works out for me 🙂
I will just follow your lead as I am new to all this. Please post whenever you decide to open 🙂