Smarty Pig offering 3.05% APY

[DisneyFans-Poage]

Has anyone used SmartyPig? Or is Ing better? Who has the best rate?

https://www.smartypig.com/

 

[eeyorethegreat]

Never even heard of this site before. Would stick with a known financial institution.

 

[got2luvtink]

Does anyone else know about this site?

 

[rosanafamily]

is down to 1.49 last I checked.

 

[TGEmpress]

What a coincidence! I was just looking at this today. I am looking for a place to save some money for DH's new car, we just paid off the old one and I want to continue making the payments into a savings account.

According to the website, it is backed/partnered with West Bank in Iowa. I went to West Bank's site and they had a link back to Smartypig so that seems to check out (not that the internet can't lie, but still). West Bank doesn't look like a huge BOA sort of deal, but more like a smaller local bank. The accounts are FDIC insured, so I am thinking of trying it out. No firm decisions yet though.

Nice to know I am not the only one considering it

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

Never heard of it before but the ING rate is so low that I recently transferred a large portion of our savings to 3 CDs through GMAC bank. The longer you can keep your money in - the better the rate.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Has anyone used SmartyPig? Or is Ing better? Who has the best rate?

https://www.smartypig.com/

I've never heard of them.

You can check if they are legitimate at the FDIC website under Bank Find.

http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main_bankfind.asp

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Just doing a quick google search on reveals that getting your money back from the company is not as easy as depositing it. They apparently would rather give you your money back in the form of gift cards or a SmartyPig Mastercard Debit card.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/146413/smartypig_savings_site_with_strings_attached.html

I'm not sure that tying my savings up with this type of saving method is a good idea. At least with ING, I know that I'll have ALL of my money in the form of COLD, HARD CASH in 3 days. No messing around with GCs or MC Debit cards.

I'm confused as to why anyone would set up an account for savings through a 3rd party like SmartyPig? Wouldn't you worry about fraud & identity theft? Why not just set up a savings account through the bank that SmartyPig uses to hold the funds? That would be West Bank of Des Moines, IA.

 

[msmayor]

Just the name....smarty pig...is enough to keep me away.

 

[Momto3Girls&Max]

I recently opened a high yield checking account at Southern Missouri Bank & Trust www.sbmtonline.com at 6.01% up to $25,000. I found them through an article on Yahoo Finance last month. There are a few conditions -- you have to use your debit card 12x a month and you have to have at least one direct deposit or ACH payment a month, but meeting these requirements has been pretty easy so far. I started looking for alternatives when ING kept lowering my rate and I'm glad I did.

 

[Gina]

I recently opened a high yield checking account at Southern Missouri Bank & Trust www.sbmtonline.com at 6.01% up to $25,000. I found them through an article on Yahoo Finance last month. There are a few conditions -- you have to use your debit card 12x a month and you have to have at least one direct deposit or ACH payment a month, but meeting these requirements has been pretty easy so far. I started looking for alternatives when ING kept lowering my rate and I'm glad I did.

I think the link is messed up... just a couple letters transposed. Should be www.smbtonline.com Unfortunately, this is the biggest restriction:

"Account available only to residents of Missouri and Arkansas."

 

[ctinct]

I checked out this site when it was mentioned on a financial blog I read. (Get Rich Slowly - a great read for Budget Boarders.) I find the concept intriguing, and am considering setting up an account. You don't HAVE to take your cash back in gift cards, but if you do, you actually get a slight bonus. You can have a check sent to you. I actually like that you have to set a goal, and that it is not as easy as running down to the local bank to get your money. They pay great rates, too. I'm hoping someone who has actually used the site will chime in here. It all seems to check out, but I am cautious by nature---took me months to set up my ING account.

 

[Momto3Girls&Max]

I think the link is messed up... just a couple letters transposed. Should be www.smbtonline.com Unfortunately, this is the biggest restriction:

"Account available only to residents of Missouri and Arkansas."

Thanks for correcting the link. They must have been slammed with new accounts because I'm in Chicago and the restriction wasn't there when I applied last month.

I'll see if I can find the Yahoo article because there were several other banks offering the same or similar rates. I couldn't find the article I read, but did find a listing of high yield accounts state by state: http://www.highyieldcheckingdeals.com

 

[rosanafamily]

Be careful and check your online accounts often. I recently had my ING account "broken " into and over 8000. stolen. I did get my money back but it is not fun to go through!! I was never lax with my password either!! Dh didn't even know the password and it was not written down anywhere. Whoever did it ALSO signed into my email account and created a filter so my ING mail was discarded!!

 

[msmayor]

While I cannot doubt the legitimacy of this business, I have concerns when I see them offering a rate just above 3% when the money market savings rates of the bank holding these funds is barely 1%.

Where's that other 2% coming from? Is it from the fees that SmartyPig charges others who want to 'contribute' to someone else's account (apparently, if family and friends want to send cash to your account it will cost them 2.9% unless they have their own SmartyPig account)?

It may be a great way for some to save, but allowing a third party to handle my banking information just doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world. A higher earnings rate is always nice, but for me the risks outweigh the extra $2 per hundred dollars I could earn over a full year of saving.