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Are there any alternatives to Marcus? It has felt like too good of a deal to last.

smugma 3y ago
Betterment and Wealthfront both offer higher rates than Marcus. 4.75-5%. They also have higher FDIC limits due to how they spread your money.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Covzire 3y ago
I'm currently seeing 5.05% APY from a CITbank savings account.
- hellcow 3y ago
  Careful with them. They keep you at a high APY for a period of time, then they silently drop your interest rate and create a new "type" of savings account for new customers which offers the proper high rate -- you have to notice they did this, since they deliberately don't alert you. They do this over and over again. When I saw what they were doing, I withdrew all my money, and they even built a little popup into their mobile app... "Stay and we'll give you the rate we promised you all this time!" I don't have the time or patience for Comcast-style tactics with my savings account. I moved it into Robinhood Gold and am getting 5%, fully insured, with no stress about them trying to screw me over with an account shell game.
  - Covzire 3y ago
    I'll keep an eye on it, thanks.
etrautmann 3y ago
Cash just sitting untouched in my Vanguard account's default money market is earning more than my Marcus account. I had to transfer everything out of Marcus because there was no point in using it.
- etrautmann 3y ago
  As of right now, Marcus is yielding 4.4% APY while Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) is paying 5.3%
- symlinkk 3y ago
  That isn’t FDIC insured like Marcus (or other HYSA) are.
  - paxys 3y ago
    True, but Vanguard has "too big to fail" insurance.
    - amethyst 3y ago
      Pretty sure that "insurance" only covers their money, not yours.
      - adastra22 3y ago
        Vanguard is an investor-owned mutual company, so that's one and the same, no?
  - hagy 3y ago
    The default settlement account, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, has incredibly low credit risk because its assets are short-term US Federal gov debt and Federal Reserve repurchase agreements. [1] Neither of those entities have substantial default risk. Further, the global financial chaos of significant defaults from either of those entities would likely render FDIC insurance ineffective because too many banks would fail simultaneously due to their assets in those classes. [1] https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx#portfolio-composition https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...
    - adastra22 3y ago
      Or Vanguard could collapse from the inside because some C-level officer was dipping into customer funds to cover some bad investment, and everyone takes a haircut on the holdings. On top of the drop in market value because most vanguard customers invest in vanguard funds, which suddenly become a toxic asset. Your "safe" money market asset is considered equal and paid out pro-rata, sharing the loss of those mutual funds. Meanwhile the FDIC insured savings accounts at the bank next door are just fine in the midst of this total and complete market meltdown, and those account holders decide it's time to diversify and pick up some cheap stocks. That's just one scenario. “Low risk” is not the same as no risk, and the difference isn't important until it suddenly is.
dgrin91 3y ago
UFB Direct has the highest FDIC insured savings account I've seen, 5.25% (and its been there for a while) https://www.ufbdirect.com/ https://www.ufbdirect.com/

Betterment and Wealthfront both offer higher rates than Marcus. 4.75-5%. They also have higher FDIC limits due to how they spread your money.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Covzire 3y ago

I'm currently seeing 5.05% APY from a CITbank savings account.

hellcow 3y ago
Careful with them. They keep you at a high APY for a period of time, then they silently drop your interest rate and create a new "type" of savings account for new customers which offers the proper high rate -- you have to notice they did this, since they deliberately don't alert you. They do this over and over again. When I saw what they were doing, I withdrew all my money, and they even built a little popup into their mobile app... "Stay and we'll give you the rate we promised you all this time!" I don't have the time or patience for Comcast-style tactics with my savings account. I moved it into Robinhood Gold and am getting 5%, fully insured, with no stress about them trying to screw me over with an account shell game.
- Covzire 3y ago
  I'll keep an eye on it, thanks.

etrautmann 3y ago

Cash just sitting untouched in my Vanguard account's default money market is earning more than my Marcus account. I had to transfer everything out of Marcus because there was no point in using it.

etrautmann 3y ago
As of right now, Marcus is yielding 4.4% APY while Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) is paying 5.3%
symlinkk 3y ago
That isn’t FDIC insured like Marcus (or other HYSA) are.
- paxys 3y ago
  True, but Vanguard has "too big to fail" insurance.
  - amethyst 3y ago
    Pretty sure that "insurance" only covers their money, not yours.
    - adastra22 3y ago
      Vanguard is an investor-owned mutual company, so that's one and the same, no?
- hagy 3y ago
  The default settlement account, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, has incredibly low credit risk because its assets are short-term US Federal gov debt and Federal Reserve repurchase agreements. [1] Neither of those entities have substantial default risk. Further, the global financial chaos of significant defaults from either of those entities would likely render FDIC insurance ineffective because too many banks would fail simultaneously due to their assets in those classes. [1] https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx#portfolio-composition https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...
  - adastra22 3y ago
    Or Vanguard could collapse from the inside because some C-level officer was dipping into customer funds to cover some bad investment, and everyone takes a haircut on the holdings. On top of the drop in market value because most vanguard customers invest in vanguard funds, which suddenly become a toxic asset. Your "safe" money market asset is considered equal and paid out pro-rata, sharing the loss of those mutual funds. Meanwhile the FDIC insured savings accounts at the bank next door are just fine in the midst of this total and complete market meltdown, and those account holders decide it's time to diversify and pick up some cheap stocks. That's just one scenario. “Low risk” is not the same as no risk, and the difference isn't important until it suddenly is.

dgrin91 3y ago

UFB Direct has the highest FDIC insured savings account I've seen, 5.25% (and its been there for a while) https://www.ufbdirect.com/ https://www.ufbdirect.com/