Update 6/14/20: Seems they are discontinuing this account, even for existing customers, according to an email that was sent out.
Update 3/16/20: Now only available in Columbia County, AR. For existing members, see this comment.
Update 3/4/20: Rate guaranteed until at least 9-1-20.
Update 2/25/20: Rate is guaranteed for 6 months from today, per the bank’s comment. Still only eligible for residents of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas as of now.
Update 2/23/20: They added a limitation: “Only residents of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas may open Kasasa Cash ® online” so it’s not available nationwide anymore (though you might be able to open it in-brach, regardless of where you live). Not clear if they’re processing the applications for those who’ve already applied. Also worth noting that they’ve said the rate will remain for a little longer, indicating they plan on changing it to an unknown rate down the line.
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 5.12% APY
- Minimum Balance: None
- Maximum Balance: $15,000
- Availability:
NationwideAR, LA, TX - Direct deposit required: None
- Additional requirements: 12 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: No credit pull
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Yes, limit unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Insured: FDIC
The Offer
- Peoples Bank offers their Kasasa checking account with 5.12% APY on balances up to $15,000 when you meet the following requirements:
- At least 12 debit card purchases
- Be enrolled in and review eStatements
- Be enrolled in and log into online banking
The Fine Print
- 5.12% APY to 0.89% APY on balances over $15,000 depending on balance in account
- 0.05% APY* if qualifications aren’t met
- Refunds on ATM withdrawal fees, nationwide (up to $25 monthly)
- Link to free Kasasa Saver® to build savings automatically
- No minimum balance to earn rewards
- $0.01 minimum deposit to open
- The new qualification starts on the second Tuesday of the month, and ends the day before the second Tuesday of the month.
You can find the full details on this account in this PDF.
Avoiding Fees
There are no monthly maintenance fees.
Our Verdict
This is one of the best ‘requirement’ accounts available, the requirements are pretty easy, and the account appears to be available for anyone nationwide is available in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
Hat tip to reader David
3-1-21..They said the interest was lowered to 1.5%
Anyone get a 1099-INT from People’s yet?
Nope. And now that my account is closed, no documents are available! Weak.
The 1099’s have been mailed. If you don’t get one, please let us know and we will email you a copy.
Got mine.
Wow – I really miss getting this interest rate!
Hopefully anyone with an account still open has received the email that our rate will be reduced on 9-8-20. We kept our promise, but the party is about over. I appreciate the positive comments and those who came to our defense. It has been a rough go. However, our rating did go from F to A during our time together:
https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/the-peoples-bank-ar.html#reviews
For those who were kind and understanding, thank you. I encountered many nice people on this journey. I wish you all the best and hope you all will stay safe. Mary
I never got an email but logged in today to see that it was changed to the free no interest checking account.
Is there an ETF with this account? They don’t have a fee schedule listed anywhere. Going to bring my balance to 0 and give them a call later in the week, I guess.
If there’s an ETF I’ll just leave the account at 0 and hope they close it early. The post below suggests there’s a fee because they state there wouldn’t be a fee if you took the offer to close the account by the 10th, but again, I never received an email myself.
email came in 2AM today…
FW: Your Kasasa Account
Your account doesn’t appear to show the usage of a primary checking account with substantial debit card activity, as required in our account agreement and disclosure:
On July 13, 2020 we will be converting your account to a Totally Free Checking account, unless you choose to close the account sooner than that. You will not receive any more interest on this account because the terms of the account have not been met. We would have been within our rights to deny paying your interest on June 9th. We won’t charge an early account-closing fee if you choose to close the account. Thank you. Mary.
Weird how they can’t send a blanket email to everyone.
I still haven’t received the new e-mail(s). And I have received e-mails from them in the past.
Me neither. Still making my debit purchases just in case.
same no email either
Same here.
I received one this evening finally.
I think they’re going through the accounts to see who followed their “good faith” requirements for the account. Since they weren’t just looking for 12 transactions, but wanted to see reasonable (in their view) checking account and debit card usage, they have to manually go through the accounts, to determine who does or doesn’t qualify for this offer.
If you choose to close July 9th, you are essentially getting your interest from the 6/10 – 7/14 *and* 7/15 – 8/11 statement periods. You’re missing out on the interest from the 8/12 – 9/8 statement period. I wouldn’t consider this “holding up the guarantee” as some have said.
I would consider “guaranteeing until September” to mean until the September statement closing date (9/8) *or* September 1st. Falls short of the guarantee by 20 days by my reckoning, splitting hairs as it may be.
The question is for those who are offered the early out, what happens if you don’t make a choice? Do you get the interest until the 9/8 closing date?
“With your ability to put the money into another high-interest Kasasa account right away, you could realize a return of over 5% between now and September.” This is the thing that really makes it tempting to take the offer ASAP, if you have another super high yield account to put the money into you can essentially get double interest for the next couple months.
They absolutely are holding up the guarantee, I don’t understand why people keep making false accusations against this tiny bank, which has been pretty honest with an actual personal touch throughout this whole process.
If you do not take up their offer of an early “buyout,” you will still get the 5% interest rate through the September period. The email very clearly says the rate change goes into effect after the September statement.
They are simply offering people the option of getting the July and August interest rates, lumped together into one payment now, without the need to even meet the debit card transaction requirements. The trade off, is you forego the final month of 5% interest, the September statement period.
Seems worth it to me to take them up on their offer. Lose 1 month of interest, to get paid now, and have the option to transfer to another high interest account, and come out ahead overall since you can effectively double dip. Plus not having to do the debit card transactions is great, I hate having to deal with that.
We have come to the realization that our Kasasa account experiment has been both a failure and a learning experience. We had planned to gradually begin reducing the rate in September so that we could possibly keep your business. For several reasons, that is not going to happen, and I wanted to inform those of you who have opened this account and really taken to heart the primary account usage and reasonable debit card usage. Due to the economy and interest rates, it won’t be feasible for us to offer a competitive rate on the account in September. I’m sure there are or will be many other Kasasa banks and credit unions who will continue to offer premium rates, both now and then.
All that being said, we want to offer you an early-out option that will benefit us both. We are willing to offer you 2 times the interest you received on June 9 to either:
Allow us to convert your account to a Peoples Platinum Checking ($2,500 minimum balance to avoid monthly fee of $6 plus a variable interest rate of 0.30% APY) by July 10th or
Allow us to convert your account to a Totally Free Checking by July 10th or
Close your account by July 10th.
If you choose to convert your account, the account number stays the same and everything connected to the account will continue to work, i.e. debit card, mobile app, etc.
There will be no account closing fee charged if you choose that route.
If you would grant us the favor of taking us up on this offer, we would really appreciate it. With your ability to put the money into another high-interest Kasasa account right away, you could realize a return of over 5% between now and September. There may be a few who are still paying over 4%.
This offer is only being sent to selected customers who have demonstrated good faith over the last 3-4 months. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thanks, and I’m sorry this didn’t work out the way we had planned.
It’s a buyout.
You can wait it out to September or end now and get July and August’s interest upfront.
I’ll probably go for it. What I’d like to know is whether we have to wait for a check to be mailed to us if we opt to close it or if there is a period of time before the closure that we receive the interest and can ACH our funds out.
I believe how it works is that you get the interest immediately when you tell them your intention. Then whenever you close it between then and July 9th they just close it. So you should have time to transfer funds out between. Nobody wants the hassle of mobile depositing a $15000 check.
Just convert to their free checking, then transfer the funds out electronically. Once the account is at $0 you can message them to close it.
That’s just… humiliating to read. Yikes
You mean honest? They are still meeting their commitment of September, but are offering people the chance to miss out on one month of interest, to get 2 months of interest now.
Seems like a good compromise, saves them a little money, and I’d rather have interest now, and not have to worry about legit debit card transactions.
so, are they asking you to voluntarily switch to a different account so that you can’t file complaints/sue when they default on their promise to pay the higher rate through september? …their tone sure has changed. no finger-pointing at their customers who dared not make this their primary account, no “this account isn’t for you” remarks. just pleas to help THEM.
Your point is valid. However I will say that from a customer service perspective, this bank has been impressive. Quick and responsive communication, good app for online banking, fast processing of remote deposits, and good rewards (up to now).
I share in frustration at the nebulous “requirements” that they provided. But ultimately my take is this is a very small bank comprised of good, hardworking people that made a tactical error in this account. At least they are big enough to admit it. When a big bank fouls up in some way, they typically try to somehow pass it off as an improvement or “new features.” So, points for honesty. Lastly, Covid threw everything into a bind. Hard to put that on the bank.
2) Those who did, they will get 2 times the interest of June u mean ? Can u explain
I haven’t talked to them yet. I will let you know more details once i contact them.
I emailed the bank and they confirmed that they will be paying double the amount of interest you received in June at the time you choose to close the account. So they are still holding up their end of the rate guarantee until Sept, I just assume that they are not on the hook for as many card fees from the many folks that are just doing the minimal transactions to qualify for the higher interest rate.
I see.
Prediction here https://www.doctorofcredit.com/peoples-bank-5-12-apy-kasasa-checking-on-balances-up-to-15000/#comment-915505
I didn’t touch this. I blame Kasasa.