Update 10/3/21: They lowered the rate on the savings portion of the account to 0.50% effective October 01, 2021. The checking earns 1% on up to $25,000 while the savings earns 0.50%. Hat tip to reader JC
Update 10/7/20: Rate will drop to 1% APY on November 1, 2020.
Update 9/29/20: They just changed it from nationwide to Florida only. Assume those who already have the account are fine nationwide.
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate:Â 3% APY/1.5% APY
- Minimum Balance:Â None
- Maximum Balance:Â $25,000/$50,000
- Availability:Â
NationwideFlorida - Direct deposit required:Â No
- Additional requirements: 12 debit transactions
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Insured:Â FDIC
The Offer
- Liberty Savings Bank offers the Big Interest Bundle checking account with 3% APY on balances up to $25,000 when you have 12 debit card transactions on your account each month. Must also be enrolled in eStatements.
- When meeting the checking account requirements, you are also eligible to open a Big Interest Savings account and get 1.50% APY on balances up to $50,000.
The Fine Print
- Your account must meet specific qualification criteria to earn the interest rate(s) disclosed above. To earn the rewards rate, your Big Interest Checking account must i) be enrolled in our electronic statement delivery product (eStatements); and ii) must have completed 12 debit card transactions (excluding ATM transactions) each monthly statement cycle using the Debit Card(s) linked to this account. To earn the rewards rate on your Big Interest Savings account, you must have a Big Interest Checking account that meets the requirements above.
- When the qualifications above are met during a monthly qualification cycle, (1) Checking balances up to $25,000 receive an Annual Percentage Yield or APY of 3.00%, and balances of over $25,000 earn 0.50% APY on the portion of balance over $25,000. (2) Big Interest Savings account balances up to $50,000 receive APY of 1.50%, and balances of over $50,000 earn 0.50% APY on the portion of balance over $50,000. (3) When Big Interest Checking account qualifications are not met, all balances in the account earn 0.05% APY. Rates are effective 4.10.20 and are subject to change without notice. (4) Some fees may apply, refer to our current Schedule of Fees.
Referral Bonus
There’s also a referral bonus of $25 for the referrer and $25 for the new member. Do not ask or offer referrals in the comments below, instead head over to this dedicated thread to exchange emails.
To receive the $25 Refer-a-Friend bonus: 1) Your friend needs to be a new Liberty Savings Bank (LSB) customer, open a LSB checking account and make one LSB debit card purchase (excluding ATM transactions). After that, we’ll deposit the $25 bonus into your LSB checking account and $25 into your friend’s LSB account within 10 business days. Bonuses are considered miscellaneous income, and may be reportable to you and the IRS on Form 1099-MISC (or Form 1042-S, if applicable). The $25 Refer-a-Friend bonus is valid for one account per friend or social security number. Liberty Savings Bank, F.S.B., Member FDIC. This is a limited time offer and subject to change without notice. Not valid with any other offer.
Avoiding Fees
There are no monthly fees and no minimum balance. ($100 minimum at time of opening.)
Our Verdict
The 3% is nice and even the 1.5% is nice in our current climate. The added little referral offer is a nice little bonus on top.
Hat tip to reader Zach
Chuck
They lowered the rate on the savings portion of the account to 0.50% effective October 01, 2021. So the checking earns 1% on up to $25,000 while the savings earns 0.50% on up to $50,000.
For anyone who kept the account for the 1% on up to $75,000 because there were few other good options, the account is now worthless. Way too time consuming for an extra $125 in the checking compared to most other savings accounts.
Updated, thanks
The Big Interest savings account earns 0.5% on all balances. The $50,000 threshold is no longer relevant to this account.
Fixed, thanks
$15 dormant account fee PER MONTH after 6 months! I got them to refund overdraft fees caused by these fees being assessed, but not the fees themselves. I should have just closed the account after the rate went down.
This bank has a “close account” form available for download:
https://www.libertysavingsbank.com/ContentDocumentHandler.ashx?documentId=2606
Closure report: I transferred the full balance of the Liberty savings account to Liberty checking, then initiated an ACH pull from another bank to drain the Liberty checking balance to 0. After that, I sent an email to [email protected] (apparently Liberty doesn’t have secure messaging?) asking them to close both accounts, and they told me to call because they didn’t see my accounts. I called and was told I can only close accounts in writing, but then the phone agent looked for my account and said she could close my accounts since they both had a balance of 0. But THEN I got an email stating they would need me to email them a copy of my driver’s license and a request to close both accounts. I don’t feel comfortable sending an image of my driver’s license via unencrypted plaintext email, so I guess I’m going to have to snail mail them a letter to close two accounts that are already at 0 balance. Annoying and archaic.
Good info Mark. Did they close your accounts after the snail mail?
Looking forward to my six-month mark next week.
I haven’t received confirmation yet, but I can’t imagine they won’t close it.
Not that this is relevant for much longer anyway, but I got an answer from Liberty Savings Bank about why the interest rate in the account dashboard shows as “0.5%” even if you’ve met the transaction requirements for the month already:
“The Big Interest Checking account will always display the base rate. In order to confirm the rate earned on the account you would view that on your electronic statement.”
So basically the interest rate on the dashboard is completely meaningless/worthless.
That’s a bummer! I wanted to know if Amazon ran as a non-debit worked since it won’t let me run it as a debit!
Yea, I was about to sign up today and it appears to be 1% now.
They changed the rate to a lousy 1% after I joined this month. Will be closing account.
$50 early termination fee per account if less than six months
Can anyone see your full account number on their site?
I see the last four digits (on the statements also)..
Amazon won’t let me register their card as a debit card. Anyone else with the problem or solution? The option to process as debit it not there and I’ve already chatted with 3 different amazon associates. I have 2 cards and they both are doing the same. Thanks!
Has anyone seen their interest rate move from 0.05% on the Account Information dashboard. Even after making 12 debit purchases (days ago) it still says “0.05%”…
How did you get it to register as debit? Mine will only show credit card and the option for debit is not available on these cards.
I’m wondering the same thing. None of the debit Mastercards in my Amazon acct offer that option anymore.