This comes up over and over so I thought to write a dedicated post.
There’s a website called Savebetter/Raisin which is a kind of high yield saving/CD aggregator. They have some nice high yield interest accounts available for signup. You give all personal information to Savebetter and fund the account through the fintech who then has the funds flow to regular financial institutions and banks. They often have better yields than going directly through said banks.
The allure of Savebetter is being able to easily shift your money from one account to another if you find a better rate – no need for an entire new signup process since the main signup is with the Savebetter fintech themselves. Savebetter also runs a referral program so you might be able to get a small bonus ($25-$125 when depositing $5,000-$125,000) if you sign up using a referral link.
I have nothing against Savebetter and they may well be an interesting option to consider, especially for those who like rate chasing. There’s a similar option called Maxmyinterest.com (we once wrote about them a bit here).
Readers often ask why we don’t list their rates in our Best High Yield Savings Account list. The reason I’ve never listed them is that with Savebetter you don’t have access to your funds via a traditional routing/account. You have to initiate a transfer request from within Savebetter and they’ll pull the funds out and transfer it to your linked bank.
To avoid confusion, I keep our list with ordinary banks or fintechs that offer direct routing/account number access. Most of the time there are also other comparable rates available on our list from a regular bank, though there might be sometimes that Savebetter does have something slightly better.
If you’ve used Savebetter, feel free to discuss your experiences in the comments below. Do not leave any referral links in the comments.
Raisin just announced a “Cash Account” hub for more easily transferring money in/out of Raisin, and also into new Raisin products. It’s hard to tell if there’s actual routing/account numbers (assuming not), but it does list an Account Number in the sample screenshot. It looks like you can only initiate in/out from the Raisin platform still.
I guess it’s useful if, for example, a CD matures and you want to open a different CD—now the CD can mature into the hub instead of the external account, so you can open the new account using those funds quicker (instead of waiting for essentially a round-trip transfer).
https://www.raisin.com/en-us/cash-account
I think the main benefit is that it is easier for “rate chasing.” So if you have a 5.12% HYSA and an account that offers 5.2% is now available, you can withdraw your funds from the 5.12% account and into the Cash Account, and fund the 5.2% account from there.
The way it is today, you have to ACH the funds completely out of Raisin, then back in. It’s still unclear if transferring to/from the Cash Account will be faster than external accounts though.
Raisin is currently on Rakuten with a $50 bonus for new customers who open an account with $100+ https://www.rakuten.com/raisin.com
I clicked on the “shop now” button through the link on Rakuten, and it brought me to Raisin website, but then the Raisin website showed a bunch of other bank offers. I didn’t see a button to “open a Raisin account” on the page. Am I supposed to open another bank account that is on the Raisin’s page instead?
Thanks for keeping these separate, I hate the uncertainty of “not quite banks” when it comes to transfers and FDIC insurance
I signed up for SaveBetter about six months ago because, at the time, they offered the best rates by far. However, you can now find comparable rates elsewhere (for example, CFG Bank, etc.).
SaveBetter is a fantastic concept. However, it’s not executed nearly as well as it could be. For example, joint accounts are pretty much worthless. The primary owner can deposit/withdraw funds, but the joint owner can only view the account. Also, you can only link one funding account to SaveBetter, and the linked account cannot be changed for 60 days. On the plus side, SaveBetter may allow you to join financial institutions that were previously unavailable due to geo-restrictions, etc. (Green State Credit Union, for example).
adam
Could you elaborate about “SaveBetter may allow you to join financial institutions that were previously unavailable due to geo-restrictions, etc. (Green State Credit Union, for example).”
I’m also curious about how it works to make other credit unions accessible- are you actually a proper member of a cu if you signed up for their account through raisin? Do they pull Chex/are they as fussy about it as they would be for a normal application, etc?
Are the funds in the client bank and therefore fdic insured or are they technically at the fintech layer so not insured?
https://www.savebetter.com/deposit-insurance
The money is insured for FDIC limits, with pass through insurance
Where do you see mention of pass through insurance? Can’t seem to find anything at that link
https://www.savebetter.com/faq
Thank you!
I have Emailed the FDIC about Savebetter accounts and was told it may or may not be insured. It all depends on the way deposits were setup because there is certain protocols that have to be in place in order to be insured. I pulled my money and
went to banks that had actual routing and account numbers. Savebetter is a risk.
I’d just like to chime in with a “fintechs suck”.
Ill chime in with big monster megabanks suck. If I am getting something outsized benefit wise (credit card) or interest rise, Ill deal with some quirks. I wont take zero yields. For the most part in my life I need very little hand holding. Its not common for me to have much needs other than the ability to get my money in and out. Thats it.
Is it just one chex pull? This might be a bid plus as rate chasing can lead to multiple chex and/or hard pulls.
They don’t pull credit for any products according to their customer service.
I concur with the reluctance with this place. Financial institutions are subject to rigorous IT record keeping with offsite backups and redundancies. This random fintech, if it goes down, how would they know what is where. Who is raisin? Nobody regulates them. They put down the fdic, ncua on their website but that is misleading. I can only see potential for a nightmare scenario unfolding.
Underrated comment
Reminds me of the fintech called “Beam”
LIGHT THE BEAM! wait, this isn’t the Sacramento Kings
Actually, Savebetter is not a random fintech. It belongs to Raisin. Being from Europe (where Raisin is from) but living in the US, I know quite well how Raisin works and I have never had any problems with their financial products in Europe. Regarding Raisin’s financial products in the US market, I do have an account with Savebetter and opened a CD with Sallie Mae and an HYSA with another bank. I called Sallie Mae and that other bank before transferring any money and they did confirm everything was legit and FDIC-insured.
A similar option is MaxMyInterest which is through Lending Club. They charge a small fee (0.04% per quarter) and manage opening accounts, auto-rebalancing funds, and 1099s for you. It’s been worth it to me and if I want they allow you to set up online banking with the sub accounts they open on your behalf so you have direct access to your funds if you want.
They do have a minimum charge of $20 per quarter though. So definitely only an option for very large dollar amounts.
Can we get a referral thread going?