ONE Finance Review: Get 5% APY On Up To $250,000 ($75 Signup Bonus)

Update 9/17/24: Now reduced to $75.

Update 9/16/24: Now $125/12,500 Membership Rewards points on Rakuten. Hat tip to DDG

Update 7/22/24: Rakuten and Swagbucks both offering $75 bonus now; Rakuten requires $200 deposit, Swagbucks requires $30 deposit. There’s also an additional $25 bonus showing in the One app for adding your One debit card to Apple Pay, funding your account, and activating a cash back reward.

Update 6/28/24: Now $75 signup bonus via Swagbucks for depositing $30 (ht Kory)

Update 5/13/24: There is now a sign up bonus of $100. You get $75 by going through Swagbucks and depositing $30 and then can get another $25 in app when you link Google Pay. Hat tip to reader Jimmy

Update 6/27/23: Rate is now 5.00% APY on Savings balances up to $100,000 when you receive $500 a month in eligible direct deposits or have a total daily balance of $5,000 or more.

Update 9/20/22: Apparently new customers do not get the 3% rate; only existing customers get it as a grandfathered benefit.

Update 7/20/22: Some One Finance customers got the following email: starting August 8, 2022, your Save Pocket and the current balance in your Auto-Save Pocket will both earn 3.00% APY. Up to $25,000.

One Finance Review

Direct Link

One Finance is a fintech online bank with no fees and no minimums. They are FDIC-insured through a bank partner, Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC.

Most interestingly, they have two savings account interest rate offers:

• Get 1% APY on up to $5,000. If you have a qualifying paycheck direct deposit, the limit is $25,000.
• Get 3% APY on a separate Auto-Save account. The way it works is you designate between 1 – 10% of your paycheck to go to this account and earn the 3% interest rate. Max $1,000 per month can be added to the 3% Auto-Save account. (You can also have any purchases on the One Finance linked debit card get rounded up and deposited to the 3% account. These roundups have no limit.)

They also offer unlimited account creation which they call Pockets that you can create to separate money for various purposes and even share them with other people.

$50 Referral Bonus

Referral Terms | Referrer Terms

One Finance also has a referral program with the following bonuses:

• Both referrer and referee get a bonus of $50 when the person signing up receives a direct deposit of $250+
• You can refer a maximum of 10 people per year.

We’ve created a page where readers can share their referrals. Do not put your referral links in the comments below.

Post History

• Update 10/19/21 3/28/22 back again: This is now 11,250 ($112.50) on Swagbucks and 22,500 on MyPoints ($142-$150) via their Revenue Universe walls. Swagbucks link | MyPoints link You should also get a $50 direct deposit bonus offer after signing up and also (sorry, expired) $5 after first debit purchase. (ht Kris)
• Update 9/7/21: Now  $87.88 on Swagbucks via RevU or $102 via 15,200 MP. Hat tip to Davis.
• Update 8/10/21: Swagbucks is offering $75 for opening an account and setting up direct deposit of $100 or more. Hat tip to CT
• Update 1/13/21: There is a $50 bonus for existing users that add two recurring paycheck deposits of $250 or more to their One account from 1/1/2021 through 11:59pm PST on 3/05/2021. I assume you can’t do this if you do the referral bonus/have done the referral bonus in the past. First direct deposit must be received by 11:59pm PST on 1/31/2021.
• Update 1/1/21: Reposting as referral offer has been increased to $50.

Our Verdict

In the current interest-rate environment, even 1% APY on $25,000 is nice, though it probably wouldn’t get me to change my direct deposit. The more interesting part is the ability to get 3% APY which is terrific. It’s also a soft pull to open the account (no Chex either).

Though limited to 10% of paycheck, there’s no stated limit on how much can earn the 3%; if you have $120,000 in paychecks going to One Finance, you can max this out with $12,000/yr going to the 3% Auto-Save account. According to the current rules, that should be able to continue building year over year as you increase the balance – after 2 years you can have $24,000 earning 3%, after 3 years $36,000, etc. (Of course they can always add a limit or change the rate in the future, but for now it sounds good.)

We’ll add this to our list of Best High Yield Savings Accounts.

Thanks to readers Chris R, AA, and Trey for sending this in.