Update 7/22/22: Rate increased to 3.50% now on up to $5,000
Offer at a glance
- Availability: Nationwide
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft pull
- APY: 2%
- Maximum balance: $5,000
- ChexSystems: Unknown, sensitive (not sensitive in branch)
- Credit card funding:Â Up to $1,000 with Visa, Mastercard or Discover ($50 if this is not your first account with Affinity)
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Household limit:Â None
- Expiration date:Â None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Affinity Federal Credit Union is offering 2% APY on balances up to $5,000
Our Verdict
A lot of readers will already have an account with AFCU from the other deals they offered.
They are increasing the APY to 4% and cap to $10,000. https://www.affinityfcu.com/personal-banking/banking/savings/smartstart-savings
Chuck 
William Charles
Opening account was slow, about a week or more before approval. Had to attach pictures of drivers license and SS card. Also, had to join New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education for $5 or something through their application status login. So not real straight forward, but easy enough to park 5K. Seems like there might have been some manual review during the process. I’m way OOS.
Is there any withdrawal limit for this?
This seems like a really appealing offer! I haven’t banked with Affinity CU before. Any reason to wait before applying to see if they have a bonus for opening a savings account with them?
Great news!
Went through a dry run test of opening a minor account. The teen checking/savings are available, but suprisingly so is the Smartstart savings, and the funding page shows this:
Congratulations! Your accounts are almost open. Funding is required before the accounts can be activated. Here’s how:
By electronic check (also known as ACH) funds transfer to Affinity Federal Credit Union from your account at another financial institution (up to $12,500 on this application). A maximum limit of $2,500 for any combination of savings and checking products. An additional $10,000 will be available for certificate products.
By credit or debit card using Visa®, MasterCard®, or Discover® (up to $1,000 for new applicants or $50 for existing members).
Entering $995 does give the option for debit/cc funding, so it sounds like the $1k limit still applies for new members, including minors applying through a parent.
Any DP for credit card funding by opening the SmartStart Savings as the very first account with Affinity ? Thanks folks !
you can be the DP!
seriously, probably 95% of the people in this thread already have at least one if not multiple affinity accounts
I tried to open this account on Thursday and got a message saying my application was pending. Then Friday they sent an e-mail asking me to upload a current pay stub. Seems weird for a savings account, anyone else have to do that?
Yeah, I was asked for pay stub and utility bill. I’m not fussed. They’ll claim it’s to do with Patriot act and verification, and probably does have a fair bit to do with ‘know your customer’ rules.
Has anyone done external push and pull with Affinity? How long does it take to push and pull (next day, two days, or three days?)
The pull is pretty fast next day.
Next day. Their ACH is quite good.
Usually next day for both…possibly same day if you get it in early enough
Is the smart savings limited to 6 withdrawals a month? I can’t seem to find the deposit agreement for savings.
I chatted with the virtual assistant and it says 6 withdrawals per month BUT it is not being enforced because of the pandemic. Not sure if it still holds true.
I initiated trial deposits to link over half a dozen banks. Hope I don’t get flagged. They are very similar to SCU sharing a lot of the same backend third party systems. SCU is garbage though with only $10K external push/pull limit per month.
Do they do an additional chex pull if we already have a checking account open?
I just checked my file and when I opened my 2nd account no Chex pull occurred.
I just love Doc’s website. It’s like a digital mind reader. “A lot of readers will already have an account with AFCU from the other deals they offered.”
Yes, a lot of us have an account with Affinity for the recent easy $150 banking bonus. I just received the bonus and letting the account sit a month or two per Doc’s guidance before closing. Make it easy to throw an additional $5000 into their savings from my rainy day fund to score a little higher interest.