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
Received all three bonuses, 200×3=600 total.
Any DP’s on REAL DD awarding bonus or updating the deposit match tracker for the month of August? If legit DD is mirror wise data points then maybe there is still hope. I have moved my work DD to Varo as a contingency although being a partial pay, I’m barely going to get half the bonus if wise doesn’t work.
Any updates on Wise? Trying to think what I’ll use if it doesn’t work anymore.
Fantasy 
Casey 
Casey 
Tom 
Tom 
Chris 
Varochurn
Yes, Wise still works.
How do you know?
Data points on my 6-month targeted bonus offer so far:
7/02: $2,852 real payroll DD
7/03: $28.52 bonus awarded
7/08: $7,148 Wise deposit
8/07: $5,000 Wise deposit
8/14: $71.48 bonus awarded
Did you mean 8/08 for your $7,148 Wise deposit? Did it ever show up in your Perks tab?
No, the $7,148 Wise deposit took place in July. As you can see, I receive a total bonus of $100 for the month of July ($28.52 + $71.48) which is as it should be. I don’t know if it ever showed up in my Perks tab because I did not know about the Perks tab until somebody here mentioned it, but they mentioned it on August 2nd. There doesn’t seem to be away to click on the July circle to open it up. Actually, in my case there is a “Jun” circle with a check mark on it in front of the “Aug” circle. July is totally missing. Perhaps it’s just a typo? Incidentally, my $5000 Wise deposit for August 8th does not show up in the Perks tab.
Someone from the other Varo thread said that they chatted with a rep who told them that the bonus is awarded the month following the month of your deposit. For people who experienced receiving a bonus 1 or 2 days after their deposit (including myself), that was an error on their part. You can see his comment here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/targeted-varo-bank-up-to-300-bonus-for-direct-deposits/#comment-1892995
Just got the bonus this morning for my second direct deposit last month.
Does anyone know what still triggers a DD for Varo? It seems that Wise and Chase Business do not trigger it anymore, despite it working recently.
Hopefully it’s not dead. I don’t know what else I’ll use otherwise.
Brain malfunction. I meant Wise.
Did Varo change anything in their backend for Direct Deposits? I made a direct deposit with Wise and I see that it tracked on a couple of their tabs, however, not the imporant one where it says “My Perks”.
Has anyone received their bonus money for August yet? How about for their second DD in July?
They told me august will be in sept
Never got credit for my second direct deposit…still hoping it’ll post in a couple of days.
Same here.
I just noticed that this bonus is tracked under the “Perks” tab. There’s a “Your rewards” section which shows your progress for this offer. Unfortunately I didn’t see it last month, but I’ll have to keep an eye on that as deposits hit this month.
The Terms and Conditions say that we should expect it around the 4th – 7th of this month. We could definitely make multiple deposits and still get the bonus. There is nothing that says you only need to make one DD.
I agree there is nothing in their terms saying you can’t make multiple direct deposits but it looks like they are only counting the first one. I made a wise transfer in the middle of the month and got credit the very next day. My legit employer dd posted at the end of the month and the direct deposit tracker went up to reflect the amount but I never got credit and now it’s the 7th.
Hopefully Wise still works because I do not see any updates on the “My Perks” tab for my DD. Is anyone else having a similar issue with Wise?
I’m having the same issue with my Wise transfers. However, to be fair, I also had a genuine paycheck DD post on July 16th but I still haven’t seen the 1% bonus from that yet.
My legit direct deposits from my employer don’t count on Varo, so that’s why I was forced to try to use Wise. Worked last month, got the $200 bonus. Transferred $2000 from Wise this month, but no 10% bonus. I’ll do another DD from my employer, but since it didn’t trigger last month, it will probably won’t trigger this month. Not sure what else to do in order to qualify for this month.
Could the direct deposit be cumulative or does it have to be one direct deposit? For instance, if I have a direct deposit of 5k, will I only get $50? What happens if I have two direct deposits of 5k?