Update 12/22/24: Rate now 5%
Update 12/8/24: Rate was reduced to 3% as of 12/01/2024
Update 9/3/24: Rate is now 5%, was 7%.
Update 6/29/23: $350 bonus no longer offered
Update 3/21/23: You can now get a $350 bonus as well. Bonus broken down as follows:
- Get $200 when you:
- Open your new checking account
- Sign up for Online Banking and eStatements
- Complete 10 debit card purchases (excluding ATM transactions)
- $150 when the account has been open for one year
Update 1/7/23: Increased from 5% to 7%. There’s also a referral program whereby each party gets $100.
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate:Â
5%7% APY - Minimum Balance:Â None
- Maximum Balance:Â $5,000
- Availability: ID, WA & OR. More details here
- Direct deposit required:Â Yes, $200+
- Additional requirements:Â See below
- Hard/soft pull:Â SoftÂ
- ChexSystems:Â Unknown
- Credit card funding:Â Can fund with a credit card, up to $5,000
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Insured:Â NCUA
The Offer
- Gesa Credit Union is offering balances 5% APY on balances up to $5,000 when they following requirements are met:
- Enroll in eStatements
- Make a monthly direct deposit of over $200
- Complete 15 debit card transactions
- Provide and maintain a valid email address
- Limit one account per member
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
This account has no monthly fees.
Our Verdict
I’m guessing we will start seeing a lot more of these high yield savings accounts.
The rate went back up to 5% and now it’s down to 3% again in 2025. Time to move on from this credit union.
SmartPlus savings and Youth Savings are still 5% on first $500.
That’s bad, IQ credit union (available for Washingtonians) provides 5.5% checking up to 25K (12 debit card transactions + direct deposit). Time to move money around I guess.
Any CC funding?
No CC funding for IQ credit union
Dammit… I shift over to them as a primary checking and they do me dirty like this. Still better that the vast majority of checking accounts though. If you always keep $5k in there they are essentially paying you $250 each year to bank with them. There are better options out there still though… maybe not for long with pending rate cuts.
Confirmed that APY on savings and checking has dropped to 5%. This is a competent and trustworthy credit union, but I only maintained the account for the high interest rate. At this point, there’s no reason for me to keep the accounts open. I will close my account.
Bye bye!
Looks like saving has dropped down to 5% starting in 09/2024. Sorry ya’ll.
Looks like credit card funding is dead for Gesa. So very, very sad.
Damn, really? When did you try? My cousin opened a checking like 4 months ago and he said it was still an option back then
I tried two weeks ago and can confirm at that time it was dead.
What is the data point for this? Do you know if they still support any sort of debit card funding during account opening?
You can click through their site & try to open an account and it says very plainly that they don’t accept credit cards to open an account before you even enter your name or anything.
Hard pull, Chex sensitive
Gesa tried to play one on me by refusing bonus.
6/2: Signed up from offer page showing $350 bonus. Not instantly approved and got a message stating someone will contact me
6/3: Offer dead
6/5: Received call+email from banker asking me to upload verification docs
6/9: Account opened finally with CC funding
7/15: Had met all requirements so reached out via message asking about sign up bonus and the associate told me offer ended 6/3 and I signed up on 6/9 so no bonus for me. Replied back with the 6/2 email snapshot showing I signed up while the offer was active
7/18: Agent filed for exception and the $200 were deposited soon after.