Venti is a new fintech that is promising 8% APY. Given that current basic saving rates are 5% APY, there has to be a catch. In this case the catch is that interest is given in the form of points and the points can be used towards travel rewards. Some other information:
- Annual fee of $40 (waived first two years if you join the waitlist by January 1, 2024)
- 1 point = $1 towards travel
- 20 point sign up bonus after first deposit
- Maximum $50,000 deposit
This does have FDIC insurance as well. How useful this is really depends on how good the travel platform is, an extra 2.5%-3% APY could make it worth it. A lot of times these products never actually launch or dramatically change before launch so let’s see what happens.
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officially dead lol
> Closing OperationsWe regret to inform you that Venti will be closing operations on Feb. 25, 2025.
Despite aggressive efforts and partnership negotiations that fell through, we have made the difficult decision to shut down our service. Those with a Points balance will be offered a buyout option in the coming months. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for giving us a shot.
Our support line will remain active during the remainder of the period via admin@venti.co
Closing to end users
I forgot to tell you gie Venti gives away ever month a free drawing for free airfare.
I join Venti and saved some money with the boarding pass. Me and my wife went to brazil and a great time, plus I us some points in my account to help lower the cost and still have 18k left in the bank. That other gie ( fly by something) talk about savings. I don't know.
The biggest thing here is they won’t let you use your points freely. You’re locking up funds and they will allow you to get a bit of a discount on each booking. This would be a home run if we can use any amount of points for booking…. Why restrict users, it’s our points…. which is something HYSA won’t do. Just some food for thought. I signed up for the premium membership for 9.99 for the first year bc of the perks. Will drop if not worth. Let’s seee
Some questionable things looking through the terms...
They also now specifically call out on the site that they were covered by DoC
Talked to the venti help desk on some big red flag issues. First it seems they are not allowed by their legal team to say they are insured. Hence the language you may be insured in the website. Second, points may only be able to be used up to 20% of total trip cost depending on internal algorithms. Basically this means your points function more as discounts rather than actual funds which can be used freely. This is a hard pass for me.
I just received an email stating that you could pay for 99% of the cost of flights using points.
the verbiage used is "Our proprietary algorithm will determine how many points you can use towards a transaction, which can be up to 99%" which... lol
A few points clarified on their site. It’s always subject to change but what isn’t?
The rate is now at 9% APY with a $25k maximum balance.
There is a $10 fee to verify your identity when signing up.
There will be a monthly fee of $6 billed annually so I guess they think that sounds better than a $72 annual fee. That fee is waived for the first year if you join before the end of the year.
They are offering a best price guarantee on the travel redemptions.
The value of points will be taxable when redeemed for travel.
From the terms on venti’s website
> 2. Purchases on our platform cannot be made with soley with points. You must use your own funds to complete a purchase utilizing points.
There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to use a significant portion of points towards a travel purchase. I expect they’ll allow using 10-20% points or something similar.
In the terms it says "Our proprietary algorithm will determine how many points you can use towards a transaction, which can be up to 99%"
lol, lmao, etc.
Any proof that they are actually covered by Veridian NCUA for the deposits? It smells too good to be true...