SoFi recently made a major negative change which will affect new SoFi Money customers who sign up now or who have signed up since June 9, 2020. These changes will not affect existing customers who signed up before June 9th.
SoFi now classifies new customers into the following two tiers there are two tiers of accounts:
- Tier 1: Customers who deposit $500 into their SoFi Money account each month – these customers get cashback deals and a higher interest rate.
- Tier 2: Customers who do not have such a deposit – these customers do not get cashback deals and get a low interest rate (near zero).
All customers who signed up June 8, 2020 or prior are considered Tier 1 customers and get all benefits, even if they do not get any monthly deposit.
SoFi officially state in the fine print that their higher interest rate is only for Tier 1 customers (currently: .25% for Tier 1 and .01% for Tier 2). I don’t believe they’ve officially announced that all cashback deals are only for Tier 1 customers, but in the most recent deal the fine print did state as such, and presumably that will be the standard going forward.
Lots of our readers like the SoFi Money account for offering a nice interest rate and cashback deals, along with other perks and some nice referral bonuses. It’s not difficult to automate a $500 transfer to the account, but for some people the added mental hurdle will make these deals not worthwhile. Convincing friends to sign up with your SoFi referral definitely got much more difficult now.
Two other negative changes that transpired recently:
- They removed the ATM reimbursement program for accountholders who sign up after June 9, 2020 (even Tier 1 members). Those who signed up before June 9th are grandfathered in with free ATM reimbursements.
- SoFi Money’s interest rate went way down lately, and even the Tier 1 rate is only .25%; there are many better options.)
Thanks to many readers for pointing this out, and to Milestalk as well who brought it to my attention.
I closed my SoFi account last week (I signed up before 2020). They used to offer $0.10 rewards (10 diamonds) for every direct deposit you did. I would get $0.10 on $1 direct deposit. Easy money. They nixed that benefit. The rest of the rewards benefits are pretty piss poor.
Their customer support is pretty good, and they provide the EASIEST means for closing an account (you literally just 0-balance the account, go into settings and click “close account”. Super easy, which I really appreciate. I hate having to go through CSR’s to close my accounts). But that’s about it. I dislike the app sign-in process (its not built-in with the app, it redirects to a website or something). I dislike needing a DD to get the high savings rate. SoFi generally has issues with services that connect with the account (e.g. Quicken Mint).
Does the qualifying $500 monthly deposit have to stay in the account? Can you deposit the money and remove it each month? If so, a better deal. If the money has to remain, not so much with the low 0.25% rate.
Same question
Stay far away from these guys. There are a number of reports (as in more than 12 data points) on Reddit in the February-March timeframe of people that never used their old Visa debit cards, having the information compromised and getting alerts of suspicious activity on their cards. Sofi refused to acknowledge any kind of systemic problem or breach, and just pretended that nothing out of the ordinary happened.
They were, by far, the most aggressive in cutting interest rates during the pandemic. They cut their rate the day of each Fed announcement, something I had never seen before from any bank on a savings account. Combine all of this with them rendering their existing routing number useless, and not backwards compatible, rendering direct debits, deposits, and checks useless. It’s like they don’t want new business.
Whoever runs Sofi money has absolutely no idea what consumers want in a bank. I am glad I stuck with Alliant as my primary checking and savings, and I would encourage anyone thinking about doing business with Sofi to carefully read the subreddit and understand how they’ve run their business over the last few months.
i imagine sofi’s bank contracts caused the rate cuts as they aren’t a bank themselves. That aside, yikes.
Be aware, SoFi is quick to change terms quietly without updating them, making you falsely believe you signed up under the terms you actually signed up for, but in actuality, NOT!
I’m in the process of fighting two issues with them. First the legitimacy of my real DD (lol?) and second the bonus I signed up under (they are trying to shortchange me). SoFuq u.
SoFi? More like NoFi
Stadiums are expensive, I guess
True, especially with COVID-19 causing a decrease in projected immediate future earnings
I think I had a comment a while back expecting a bait and switch with SoFi Money after they pulled one for SoFi Invest. That is their business model. They’re grandfathering people in this time but they still couldn’t pass up the chance to make it retroactive a month. It’s as if every decision at SoFi has to go through an approval process that asks “But are we sure we aren’t missing an opportunity to screw customers?” SoFinished.
I moved all my money back to Ally accounts when they tanked the rates.
“We’ve partnered with Allpoint to provide you with ATM access at any of the 55,000+ ATMs within the Allpoint network. You will not be charged a fee when using an in-network ATM, however, third party fees incurred when using out-of-network ATMs are not subject to reimbursement. SoFi’s ATM policies are subject to change at our discretion at any time. Accounts opened prior to June 9, 2020 will continue to receive reimbursement for all ATM fees under our prior policy. SoFi Securities ATM policies are subject to change at our discretion at any time.”
Wow, thanks for the info. That’s a huge negative charge.
Womp, womp. I’ll add that, thanks
Oh I did not realize I am grandfathered into the old ATM fee reimbursement policy! They didn’t have the dates last time I checked. I wonder when they will remove the grandfathered policy…
Don’t worry, they’ll let you know a month after it happens.
The bank accounts have been getting worse overtime. All these new venture backed startups should be treated as “take the sign up bonus and run”. I was considering making it my main account but now I am glad I stuck to my crotchety old trusty credit union providing 2% back with some spending threshold.
You might want to add that they also changed their routing number so if anyone has automatic debit they might wanna change that. Sucks if IRS has your info since all future stimulus will come by mail instead of bank deposit. Current routing ends nov 1st
Current routing through Wilmington ends on 9/30 I believe … new routing is through “The Bancorp”. Wish they would just get their own banking license …
Right.