The Offer
Direct Link to offer | MyPoints
- Swagbucks is offering 6,000 ($60) when you sign up for a Western Alliance high yield savings account and fund $500.
The account currently earns 5.36%, at time of this writing.
The Fine Print
- SB will pend for 32 days after funding your account with $500 or more
- Must use the same email address associated with your Swagbucks.com account when signing up to earn.
- Must be a new Western Alliance Bank user.
Our Verdict
$60 isn’t a lot for a bank signup. This one sounds like an easy-to-do bonus and some people will find it interesting.
Update: a reader says that if you did the $50 Rakuten deal for Raisin then you can’t do this deal since Raisin uses Western Alliance as their backer.
Finally got the MyPoints payout. Now waiting for the next statement period to end so I can get those last few pennies of interest before I close.
Is this bank Chex sensitive?
Several people have reported that they do not pull Chex. Also, unfortunately the offer is no longer around so you and I both missed out.
MyPoints hasn’t paid out yet either. Have to nag them about another one.
If you withdraw your entire balance, you get a prompt asking if you want to close the account.
this bank sucks. their online banking portal is nonfunctional.
Agreed. 50% of the time I couldn’t even login to their portal. I initiated a withdrawal today, can’t trust this anymore.
From their FAQ on the website when logged into your HYSA:
“Is There A Downloadable App For My Mobile Phone Or Other Device?
No. However, you can access your account on your computer, smartphone or mobile device at https://highyieldsavings.westernalliancebank.com/login.”
I tried the same initially, downloaded the personal banking app and could not login. Then found above. Looks like HYSA is treated separate from other personal banking.
“Offer Unavailable” 🙁
That’s too bad. I had planned to sign up but hadn’t gotten to it yet. Hopefully we get lucky and a better offer comes out down the road.
Their website’s technology is fresh out of the 1990s.
This account is not usable. Only can link one account. And u can not ach push/pull from external account.
Were test deposits rejected by WA when you tried to link your external account? If not, what makes you say that?
He’s saying you can only link one external account and you have to initiate transfers from WA.
I understood both of those things. I asked
savingwizard how they figured out the latter.
You’re not understanding the latter. “u can not ach push/pull from external account” = “you have to initiate transfers from WA.”
Yes, I am understanding. You are the one that is not understanding what I am writing.
I am asking how you and
savingwizard figured out that “u can not ach push/pull from external account”. Is it that WA does not have bank account info (like Betterment CR)? Is it that a rep told you this was the case or it’s written in the terms (like DSD)? Is it that you do have account info but test deposits were rejected by WA? Is it just a wild guess?
Ah, my mistake. I assumed you had read the other comments in this thread and/or had an account yourself. There’s no account info provided and the terms state:
The Service allows you to deposit funds to and withdraw funds from your Account (each a “Transaction”) via your Linked Account. All Transactions must take place electronically via the Service.”
I have not read through the comments but I am subscribed to the post as I had planned to sign up.
I agree that is annoying. That was 1 of the reasons that I closed my DSD account several years ago. That being said, I will still probably do the bonus if it comes back since WA doesn’t pull Chex.
While it is annoying, it’s honestly not that bad for a savings account. It took a while for the initial funding to become available for withdrawal, but you don’t normally add funds to a savings account with the intent to withdraw them immediately. My withdrawal posted to my external account the next business day, so it’s still pretty liquid.
Even if it had the highest rate, I could never use it as my main account. The reason is because I have my credit cards pull funds from my external account(s) to pay what I owe. With this account (and Betterment), that’s impossible. It is a pet peeve of mine.
This is according to the CSR.
“Please note that this account does not accept direct deposits or wire transfers and can only be accessed through your linked account. “
I’ve never tried to push/pull from external bank. As CSR clearly says this account can not accept direct deposit (which is very rare for a bank account), most probably any transaction initialed externally would be returned.
The only other accounts that I know of that are like that are Betterment CR and DSD. It is a pretty ridiculous policy.
You can’t even try to initiate a transaction from your external account though, since they don’t give you a routing number.
The CSR told me exactly the same.
Swagbucks went pending instantly after funding $500, easy $60
Opening the account process was smooth in my part
Kinda junky really. Can’t add another linked account, can’t easily change linked accounts, can’t deposit or withdraw directly.
.