Insight 5% APY on $5000 and Netspend 5% APY on $1000 ; How's your experience with these so far?

[DaveInAZ]

@Anonymous- Do you have a PayPal Netspend card? I've been a bit resistant to Netspend & Innsight, but I see Paypal issues a Netspend pre-paid card, and being able to access it through Payal gives me more confidence, I've had a PayPal account since 2005.

On the Insight pre-paid I see this warning on DoC:

Note: Often when pushing money from your bank or Paypal, they’ll do trial deposits and then pull those out. Insight won’t necessarily allow that pullback which might cause your bank not to allow you to complete the linking of that account.

- Anyone encounter this problem?

[Anonymous]

Dave, the Paypal Netpend card has a monthly fee (forgot the amount) that can't be circumvented like the other Netspends cards, since you can only have up to 5 Netspend cards, Paypal is usually on the bottom if it makes the list at all. When you're talking about 5% @ max 1k, a monthly fee of any kind basically renders it worthless. My new Mango that I just sent trial deposits from Ally also has $3.00 monthly service charge but with 6% on 5k, it is easily absorbed. The 5 common recommended Netspend cards, the same ones I have, are Netspend, Ace Elite, Western Union, HEB and Brinks. I'm currently using Ally to to manage the entire operation, no problems linking, funding and withdrawing from any of the accounts, I'll find out this week if I run into problems linking Mango.

Edit for your edit : The trial deposit issue is known, it generally happens when some bank sends trial deposits and the pull back at the same moment not allowing time for the deposits to register creating a NSF situation since you have $0 current balance. Ally is one of those banks that sends them simultaneously but they allow you to link it anyway even without the pull back so I ended up with extra trial deposits in each of my Insight accounts, extra perks. I also linked my first Insight to Synchrony for testing without problems because Synchrony sends the pull back 2 days after the trial deposits.

[DaveInAZ]

Thanks for the info. Paypal doesn't give you that info upfront, but I downloaded a terms of service PDF and yeah, it's a $4.95 / mo. "Plan Fee", and they deduct that from your balance within 36 hours of first load of funds on the account. No thanks. I like Paypal, but they are fee happy.

For Insight, most of my bank accounts do the same day 2 trial deposits & withdraw. But I see Insight is part of Greendot, so I think I would do the first load at Walmart, incurred a small fee from Wallyworld, and then link bank accounts after it is funded and avoid any banking problems.

@Anonymous- I sent you a private messsage

[Anonymous]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

Thanks for the info. Paypal doesn't give you that info upfront, but I downloaded a terms of service PDF and yeah, it's a $4.95 / mo. "Plan Fee", and they deduct that from your balance within 36 hours of first load of funds on the account. No thanks. I like Paypal, but they are fee happy.

For Insight, most of my bank accounts do the same day 2 trial deposits & withdraw. But I see Insight is part of Greendot, so I think I would do the first load at Walmart, incurred a small fee from Wallyworld, and then link bank accounts after it is funded and avoid any banking problems.

@Anonymous- I sent you a private messsage

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That should work but I still recommend no minimum/no fee Ally Savings and Checking if you plan to go full monty on this, they allow linking of up to 20 external accounts and offer flexible time frame on reoccurring auto ACH transfers, important when setting up the $1 deposit every 2 months to avoid that inactivity fee. Lastly and most importantly, if you're planning to getting multiple cards, make sure to do one card at a time from each company, don't order your next card until the current one is setup and funded.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

Thanks for the info. Paypal doesn't give you that info upfront, but I downloaded a terms of service PDF and yeah, it's a $4.95 / mo. "Plan Fee", and they deduct that from your balance within 36 hours of first load of funds on the account. No thanks. I like Paypal, but they are fee happy.

For Insight, most of my bank accounts do the same day 2 trial deposits & withdraw. But I see Insight is part of Greendot, so I think I would do the first load at Walmart, incurred a small fee from Wallyworld, and then link bank accounts after it is funded and avoid any banking problems.

@Anonymous- I sent you a private messsage

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That should work but I still recommend no minimum/no fee Ally Savings and Checking if you plan to go full monty on this, they allow linking of up to 20 external accounts and offer flexible time frame on reoccurring auto ACH transfers, important when setting up the $1 deposit every 2 months to avoid that inactivity fee. Lastly and most importantly, if you're planning to getting multiple cards, make sure to do one card at a time from each company, don't order your next card until the current one is setup and funded.

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Ally sounds like a good "hub" account but I have too many banking accounts right now, due to my being a bit aggressive at chasing new account bonuses - but then I have $650 in bonuses so far this year, with another $200 on the way, so it's been rewarding.

I'll be closing 3-4 accounts in the next few months as early account closure fee/bonus forfeiture times expire. DoC indicates Ally might be a HP to open? And I thought I remembered Penfed being slow to withdraw trial deposits so I checked statements - yep, takes Penfed a few days to withdraw, so that will be a good account to fund Insight and avoid the $4.95 greendot merchant fee.  

[Anonymous]

No HP for me with Ally, my CRAs are locked like yours so I know, have not checked my Chex yet although it's probably to be expected. Also keep in mind that some major banks (Chase for example) has been reported to flag these accounts as predatory lending, which they are, and refuse to link, I have not tried PenFed so I couldn't tell you for sure.

[Anonymous]

Curiosity got the better of me after our exchange, I sent trial deposits to insight from TD, CapOne 360, Penfed and LiveOak, couldn't even find the bank on Marcus/GS to attempt the link and decided not to test DCU with their ACH limitations. We'll find out what happens in a few days, hope I don't trigger some fraud alert with Insight.

[Anonymous]

Update: TD and LiveOak both linked without problems, TD sent trials and withdraw at the same time and LiveOak only trial deposits so far. Penfed and CapOne 360 (I know you have these 2) have yet to send trial deposits 2 days after initiation.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Wow. They both told me that  I could have only 3 cards.  

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Don't believe everything their CSRs tell you, it was definitely tricky getting the 3rd Insight and a little bit of luck getting the forth but definitely possible with persistence, Netspend was smooth sailing until you get to the last 2 (HEB and Brinks) issued by BOFI bank where security verification keeps popping up at login, I still get it for Brinks every time I login even though the account has been up and running since end of Feb. Other than that, really no big issues so far. Far more easier than what I have read online.

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I had largely dismissed this route for traditional savings due to the low limits per account, but now I'm starting to get curious to try if it's possible to get say 10 accounts going. When you say "tricky", can you be more specific?

I'm also assuming these act like normal savings accounts? No risk of loss, etc?

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Wow. They both told me that  I could have only 3 cards.  

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Don't believe everything their CSRs tell you, it was definitely tricky getting the 3rd Insight and a little bit of luck getting the forth but definitely possible with persistence, Netspend was smooth sailing until you get to the last 2 (HEB and Brinks) issued by BOFI bank where security verification keeps popping up at login, I still get it for Brinks every time I login even though the account has been up and running since end of Feb. Other than that, really no big issues so far. Far more easier than what I have read online.

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I had largely dismissed this route for traditional savings due to the low limits per account, but now I'm starting to get curious to try if it's possible to get say 10 accounts going. When you say "tricky", can you be more specific?

I'm also assuming these act like normal savings accounts? No risk of loss, etc?

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You get 2 accounts, the card account, technically a checking account, and the savings account activated once you've funded the card account. The savings account is FDIC insured and acts and regulated like a typical savings account except that it has no contact with the outside world and uses the card account as a go between. However, transfers between the card account and savings is instant therefore there is no time delay with the extra step.

Now on to Insight, basically few will have trouble getting the first card through their online application but after that, you'll more likely than not get a "We're unable to issue the card at this time......." message, you can wait a few days and try again and some have reported success but most likely you will have to call to get your additional cards. Do not call the main number where you're required to enter card number to get to a live rep (then they know you have multiple cards), (855)355-8117 is the back door number with direct access to live reps.

Here is the same script I've used on every call, "Hi, I'm having trouble applying online, can you please take my application over the phone?", basically pretend and make yourself believe that you're applying for the first time, you don't have to lie but don't divulge anything unless asked, certainly don't ask how many cards you can have like OP LOL. You will probably get 3 different type of responses,

1. We do not process applications over the phone, hang up and try again later. (I think it's same guy who says that all the time, if you hear a guy's voice, you might as well hang up without asking lol)

2. Our record shows that you already have X maximum number of cards, X has been reported to be anywhere from 2 to 4 depending on which CSR you talked to. Say "sorry I didn't know that, hang up and try again later. You probably won't run into this scenario unless you have divulged too much information.

3. Sure I'll be glad to help, takes your info and process application and card on the way.

I got my first card like everyone else online, denied online on multiple tries for the 2nd card, called and got it on the first try, CSR had no idea I have another card. 3rd card was tricky because I got that "no application over the phone" guy twice but persisted and got the 3rd card on the third call, again the CSR didn't seem to know about the others. Forth was weird, CSR took my info but was unable to complete because the system freezes when she hit submit, told me no worries a supervisor will complete the app later and to just wait for the card in mail. I knew better though, I suspected I have finally been flagged by the system and resigned to having just 3 card, for some odd reason I decided to give the online app a try before giving up and BOOM, app went right through without a hitch (lucky). I thought maybe I had 2 cards coming but eventually only one showed up so my suspicion of being flagged is probably correct. I still hit up the online app once in a while and may call again to see if I can get that elusive 5th card but something in me says I should quit while ahead.