Apple Card Savings Account's Interest Rate Lowered to 4.4% Today

[sw1tcher]

Meanwhile, treasury bonds still pay ~5.3%... Don't get me wrong, this is a good rate for a savings account but if you want to get the best rate, t-bills are the way to go.

Bonds are paying 4.6% at best.

What's paying 5.3% or better are Treasury bills.

Treasury bill = up to 1 year maturity
Treasury note = 2 - 10 year maturity
Tresury bond = 20+ maturity

Chase actually has what it calls a high-yield savings account that pays in the neighborhood of the others listed. But you must deposit at least $100,000 thousand dollars first.

Does that mean you need to have $100,000,000?

Another option is I-Bonds. You can take the money out any time you like but the contracts are six months at a time. And each individual can only put in up to $10,000 a year. If you’re married, your spouse can also put in up to $10K. If you take your money out before a given contract expires, you get no interest for that six-month period. But you keep all interest accrued before that.

You cannot cash out I bonds at any time. There is a 12 month minimum holding period. And if you cash out between 12 months and less than 5 years, you pay 3 months interest as penalty, not 6 months. After 5 years, it's penalty free.

Maximum purchase amount for an I bond is $15,000. But this only works if you have a big ($5,000 or more) tax refund. You buy $10,000 in I bonds and use $5,000 of that tax refund to buy another $5,000.

 

[orangeadrenaline]

VUSXX. $3,000 minimum to get started. 5.29% and most of the interest should be exempt from state income tax. Transfer to your local bank in 2-3 business days.

 

[goodcow]

Meanwhile, treasury bonds still pay ~5.3%... Don't get me wrong, this is a good rate for a savings account but if you want to get the best rate, t-bills are the way to go.

And they're city and state tax exempt.

 

[Gummiwise]

Another option is I-Bonds. You can take the money out any time you like but the contracts are six months at a time. And each individual can only put in up to $10,000 a year. If you’re married, your spouse can also put in up to $10K. If you take your money out before a given contract expires, you get no interest for that six-month period. But you keep all interest accrued before that.

I have an i-Bond account. You can buy up to $10,000 in electronic i-Bonds per individual per calendar year. You can purchase an additional $5,000.00 in paper i-Bonds per year but it has be using your tax refund money only. You can't cash in an i-Bond within the first 12 months of purchase. After 12 months, you can withdraw funds up to the full value of the bond but you will incur a penalty of the last three months of interest for each withdrawal until the i-Bond reaches maturity at 5 years. After the 5 year mark, there is no interest penalty for withdrawals. Another treasury account to look at is a TIPS (Treasury inflation-protected securities) account that has much higher limits on what you can put in each year. You can buy up to $10 million worth of TIPS at auction and an unlimited amount in the secondary market.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Not true. UBS, Merrill Lynch, etc... - you have 0 problems with this.

You have personally created a brand new account, with no history with the bank, deposited $10,000 then attempted to withdraw that money in a day or less? Because if those banks have no problems with that, I’d question the safety of those institutions.

 

[Shasterball]

You have personally created a brand new account, with no history with the bank, deposited $10,000 then attempted to withdraw that money in a day or less? Because if those banks have no problems with that, I’d question the safety of those institutions.

That's not the situation that caused a lot of the issues: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/15/goldman-sachs-apple-savings-overhaul/

 

[Fuzzball84]

Apple should just become a bank

iBank 24/7

🤔🥴

 

[newyorksole]

Difference being that I can literally get my money from Apple Savings instantly. If you withdraw to Apple Cash instead of your bank, you can do instant transfer to your bank from Apple Cash. I just did it today actually. The whole process literally took less than 2 minutes, based on my time logs.

yup that’s the trick. people don’t realize that.

 

[Harry Haller]

Apple should just become a bank

iBank 24/7

🤔🥴

Tim won’t take less than 30%.

 

[bigjnyc]

Another option is I-Bonds. You can take the money out any time you like but the contracts are six months at a time. And each individual can only put in up to $10,000 a year. If you’re married, your spouse can also put in up to $10K. If you take your money out before a given contract expires, you get no interest for that six-month period. But you keep all interest accrued before that.

I-bonds were only good at initial issuance when they were paying in the 9% range... Now only paying about 5.5% it's not really worth it with the 10K limitation. If you are investing 10K you are better off looking for an option with better returns.

 

[orangeadrenaline]

yup that’s the trick. people don’t realize that.

Like instantly transferring money from savings to checking at Ally, Capital One, and Discover?

 

[orangeadrenaline]

I-bonds were only good at initial issuance when they were paying in the 9% range... Now only paying about 5.5% it's not really worth it with the 10K limitation. If you are investing 10K you are better off looking for an option with better returns.

It’s worth it for the long game. Fixed rate is 1.3% that holds for 30 years. That’s the highest fixed rate in 15 years.

 

[chris.finazzo]

Bonds are paying 4.6% at best.

What's paying 5.3% or better are Treasury bills.

Treasury bill = up to 1 year maturity
Treasury note = 2 - 10 year maturity
Tresury bond = 20+ maturity


Does that mean you need to have $100,000,000?


You cannot cash out I bonds at any time. There is a 12 month minimum holding period. And if you cash out between 12 months and less than 5 years, you pay 3 months interest as penalty, not 6 months. After 5 years, it's penalty free.

Maximum purchase amount for an I bond is $15,000. But this only works if you have a big ($5,000 or more) tax refund. You buy $10,000 in I bonds and use $5,000 of that tax refund to buy another $5,000.

Last I looked, the requirements for Private Client at Chase are ~$150,000 in an account - not so difficult if you add everything up - and - more to the point - it's invitation only. There's an application process, but approval isn't guaranteed.

Still, the interest rates aren't really that great, which gets back to the original question...

If Apple does part ways with Goldman, does that include both Apple Card and the Savings account? Per WSJ's reporting this does seem likely, but we won't know until they've actually made an official statement.

 

[Chazak]

There are much better alternatives if you can meet minimum required investment levels. Apple is a good alternative if that is not in your wheelhouse
.
For example, if you have a brokerage account or any business with Vanguard, VUSXX which strictly invests in gov't securities is paying 5.3%. It as good it gets for security, yield and liquidity. However, VUSXX requires $3k increments going in or out. 24 hours cash returns going in or out. There are other similar funds besides VUSXX. All money market funds will move in concert with 90-day T-Bills.

 

[chris.finazzo]

Like instantly transferring money from savings to checking at Ally, Capital One, and Discover?

At present, instant transfers with Apple Savings incur a fee, but everything else is free.

 

[CausticSoda]

Apple is almost a bank. I've actually been testing this very idea since the start of March and plan to use the following three for the rest of the year as a test. The only feature Apple is missing in terms of being a complete Digital Bank is the lack of a checking account, which Ive been using Navy Federal Credit Union as a solution for that:

Apple Cash -> Debit (Recently added a debit card number in a recent iOS update)
Apple Card -> Credit
Apple Savings -> Savings

This graphic in Apple Notes is what I made when I figured out it could be done. The lack of a checking account is the only thing they are missing currently:

No, that is a bit like saying a car rental company is almost a car manufacturer.

 

[Harry Haller]

No, that is a bit like saying a car rental company is almost a car manufacturer.

Apple has as much business being in banking as they did in cars.

 

[orangeadrenaline]

There are much better alternatives if you can meet minimum required investment levels. Apple is a good alternative if that is not in your wheelhouse
.
For example, if you have a brokerage account or any business with Vanguard, VUSXX which strictly invests in gov't securities is paying 5.3%. It as good it gets for security, yield and liquidity. However, VUSXX requires $3k increments going in or out. 24 hours cash returns going in or out. There are other similar funds besides VUSXX. All money market funds will move in concert with 90-day T-Bills.

$3k is only for the initial investment. There is no significant increment required for additional investment or withdrawal.

 

[Chazak]

Last I looked, the requirements for Private Client at Chase are ~$150,000 in an account - not so difficult if you add everything up - and - more to the point - it's invitation only. There's an application process, but approval isn't guaranteed.

Still, the interest rates aren't really that great, which gets back to the original question...

If Apple does part ways with Goldman, does that include both Apple Card and the Savings account? Per WSJ's reporting this does seem likely, but we won't know until they've actually made an official statement.

Bonds are paying 4.6% at best.

What's paying 5.3% or better are Treasury bills.

Treasury bill = up to 1 year maturity
Treasury note = 2 - 10 year maturity
Tresury bond = 20+ maturity


Does that mean you need to have $100,000,000?


You cannot cash out I bonds at any time. There is a 12 month minimum holding period. And if you cash out between 12 months and less than 5 years, you pay 3 months interest as penalty, not 6 months. After 5 years, it's penalty free.

Maximum purchase amount for an I bond is $15,000. But this only works if you have a big ($5,000 or more) tax refund. You buy $10,000 in I bonds and use $5,000 of that tax refund to buy another $5,000.

If you can move your money in chunks of $3k or more it is quite easy to get the 90-day T-Bill rate, currently 5.3% and have 24 hour liquidity. Money market funds investing in gov't securities provide the highest short term yields, risk free.There is no principal risk as there is with just about all bonds. You don't need $100k, private client relationship or a commercial bank's "high-yield savings account" nor do you need to tie up your money with limited liquidity as these bank products most often require. Options are limited below $3k minimums.

 

[WilliamG]

I see 4.65 for CIT Bank.

Every month I get a little notification that says "you just made hundreds of dollars for free" and its awesome.

Nope it's 5.05% APY as long as you have at least $5k in there.

Savings Account Options | CIT Bank

A CIT Bank savings account helps you get more from your savings with interest rates for maximum growth. See how we can help you reach your goals.

www.cit.com

 

[MrMojo1]

From what I remember, the ones having problems were dealing with 10’s of thousands of dollars, so, yah, any brand new bank account moving that kind of money around would get flagged anywhere

Depends on the bank and its policies.

Here's one U.S. bank's transfer limit:

• Daily
  $25,000.00
• Per Transfer
  $25,000.00
• Monthly
  $25,000.00

Here's another U.S. bank's transfer limits:
"For incoming transfers, you can transfer up to $1,000,000 per day.
For outgoing transfers, you can transfer up to $250,000 per day."

The list is missing an online N.E. bank that pays 5% interest.
US TBills are, currently, ~5~5.5% and the interest is nontaxable in states in the U.S, though Treasury Direct's website and functionality are confusing to use.

 

[Chazak]

$3k is only for the initial investment. There is no significant increment required for additional investment or withdrawal.

Correct. I meant to say it as you did. My mistake. Thank you for pointing it out.

 

[noannualfee]

Hope the rumors that Synchrony will take over are true. As better rates and they seem better equipped to handle the Credit Card and Savings. Amex that was also rumored seems so unlikely, since you'd instantly have to start wondering everywhere you go "do you accept Amex?" since no matter what numbers Amex says, in day to day life, countless places you will run into that don't accept Amex. That would be the one thing that would cause me to drop Apple Card. Sachs for Apple Card has consistently been the worst customer experience right up there with Comcast. So imagine Synchrony couldn't be any worse.

Not sure if many agree about the Synchrony part. I remember Synchrony being terrible when I poorly made the youthful choice of getting credit lines with them. I love Amex but the co-branded Amex cards don’t get the same love as their own cards, but I’d welcome Amex all day.

 

[ifxf]

Meanwhile, treasury bonds still pay ~5.3%... Don't get me wrong, this is a good rate for a savings account but if you want to get the best rate, t-bills are the way to go.

You can also get better rates buy CDs but higher rates means not having instant access to your money without paying a penalty.

 

[chris.finazzo]

Not sure if many agree about the Synchrony part. I remember Synchrony being terrible when I poorly made the youthful choice of getting credit lines with them. I love Amex but the co-branded Amex cards don’t get the same love as their own cards, but I’d welcome Amex all day.

Synchrony's core business is in cobranded cards. I suspect Apple would want similar terms from them than what they had in the Goldman deal, so it might end up with a better deal than their other efforts up until now.

(We don't know obviously, I'm just guessing here).

Between the two, I'd also prefer Amex, but I wonder what the exact pitch might be. Do they stick with the cashback model and we essentially get an Apple-branded version of Blue Cash, or does Apple borrow a page from Delta and others to offer a points scheme that prioritizes Apple and Apple Pay transactions?

E.g, 3x, 2x, and 1x (for everything else) respectively.