I saw an advertisement on my USAA Mobile App for a $200 bonus on their "Performance Savings" account. It drew my attention ... unless I read the details.
- Deposit a minimum of $15,000 in new money within 30 days of opening a new account from (1/15/25 - 4/24/25).
- Leave that money deposited for at least another 90 days. (30+90 = 120 days minimum.)
- Earn $200 bonus.
At a minimum $15K to meet the requirement, this might be worthwhile if the account was a keeper. That $200 for four months means you'd be earning an annualized 4% above the base rate during the promotion. (200 x 3 = $600/15,000.)
However, the account only earns ... drumroll please ... 0.01% on balances up to $50K! 
Then 0.50% between $50K-$100K; 0.60% between $100K and $250K; 0.70% between $250K and $500K; 1.10% for balances starting at $500K.
Really, USAA? You can clearly do better than this. That is a lot of hoops to jump through and then I'd just be earning about the same rate I get everyday from my HYSA balances, not to mention remembering to close it all down after four months. Maybe one day USAA will recognize what it needs to do in order to be competitive.
the checking bonus is much better, only requires a $100 direct deposit
you'd think if they need money, they'd lift their restrictions and allow it to be more open to any family of servicemembers, a la navy federal
@JoeRockhead wrote:Not all that motivating for some, but I'm sure there are people out there who will say, hey... $200 is $200.
Right, @JoeRockhead, but if making money easily is the objective, there are still quite a few HYSA's (often with no minimum balances or lower than $15K) that earn more than 4.01%, not only in the first four months but most likely in the months thereafter! Even if rates fell, they would likely earn much more than 0.01%. USAA set the bar so low that even the short-term gain is not worth the effort! 
*Doctor of Credit list of HYSAs is a few months old but many of the rates are still at or well over 4.00%. Here's a sampling, current as-of today.
Roger 5.00% (with Direct Deposit)
PiBank 4.75% (No minimum)
Brio Direct 4.75% ($5K to open; $25 to earn APR)
Quontic 4.75% ($100 minimum to open)
Brilliant Bank 4.70% ($1K minimum)
Popular Direct 4.60% ($100 minimum)
Bask Bank 4.50% (No minimum)
Vio Bank 4.46% ($100 minimum to open)
Redneck Bank/All American Bank 4.40% ($500 minimum to open; $100K maximum for APR)
CFG 4.37% ($1K minimum)
CIT Bank 4.35% ($5K minimum)
@Aim_High wrote:I saw an advertisement on my USAA Mobile App for a $200 bonus on their "Performance Savings" account. It drew my attention ... unless I read the details.
- Deposit a minimum of $15,000 in new money within 30 days of opening a new account from (1/15/25 - 4/24/25).
- Leave that money deposited for at least another 90 days. (30+90 = 120 days minimum.)
- Earn $200 bonus.
At a minimum $15K to meet the requirement, this might be worthwhile if the account was a keeper. That $200 for four months means you'd be earning an annualized 4% above the base rate during the promotion. (200 x 3 = $600/15,000.)
However, the account only earns ... drumroll please ... 0.01% on balances up to $50K!
Then 0.50% between $50K-$100K; 0.60% between $100K and $250K; 0.70% between $250K and $500K; 1.10% for balances starting at $500K.
Really, USAA? You can clearly do better than this. That is a lot of hoops to jump through and then I'd just be earning about the same rate I get everyday from my HYSA balances, not to mention remembering to close it all down after four months. Maybe one day USAA will recognize what it needs to do in order to be competitive.
To be completely fair, it is $15k within 30 days of opening the account, so you could open the account with, say, $25 and then on the 29th day deposit the remainder $14,975, so it would be more like $200 x 4 / 1500 = 5.33%. @Kforce will correct me if I am wrong. It is late and I am getting over a sickness. 
@ptatohed wrote:
To be completely fair, it is $15k within 30 days of opening the account, so you could open the account with, say, $25 and then on the 29th day deposit the remainder $14,975, so it would be more like $200 x 4 / 1500 = 5.33%. @Kforce will correct me if I am wrong. It is late and I am getting over a sickness.
That's true and a good point, @ptatohed, although to make sure you meet that deadline you'd need to have the funds moved into the account at least a couple of days early. I calculated based on funding as early as account opening because that's how I would normally set up a new account. And most bonuses state you must deposit with x days (like 30) but then leave the funds deposited for a total of x days, not beginning the deposit requirement after the full initial deposit term. So you'd get the 5.33% for that 90-day period if you waited plus that "extra" 0.01, so 5.34%! 
While that isn't a bad return, the long term interest is sooooo bad that you'd have to make sure you moved the money immediately when you met the requirement.
Some other caveats I noticed:
- I went through the initial application page to get more information. It looks like they may want to do a HARD PULL for approval.
- The minimum initial funding is $1,000, so interest would be lost on that amount at a minimum for 30 days. (balances less than $10K earn 0.01% APR.)
- The bonus is paid into the Performance Savings Account "within 60 days" after meeting the requirements, so the account must still be open to get the bonus. (So I'm wondering if there is a minimum that must be left in the account above $0.01?) Again, potentially lost interest for another 60 days.
