Savings account you can deposit cash into?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, I'm interested in creating a separate savings account from my daily joint account with the spouse. The plan is to use it for longer term savings that we don't want to be tempted to use. Are there any savings accouts with a decent rate (apy) that you can deposit cash into? 

[Borealis]

Ally offers 0.50% interest on their savings accounts, which is literally 50x what I was getting from my local bank. They are online only, but play well with others, making bank to bank transfers a breeze via ACH or Zelle. Their website is extremely user friendly and their customer service is unparallelled. I also really love the tools they have available, like creating separate "buckets" within the account to earmark for different goals - they motivate me to save more. There are even more options if you have checking with them, those accts even make interest too (0.10%). No minimum balances. You cannot deposit actual cash there since they have no physical branches, but you can deposit checks by smartphone or snail mail if you want. I just kept my local checking acct open for that kind of stuff, so I can make a physical deposit conveniently and then transfer it to Ally. Best of luck, whatever you decide!

[Anonymous]

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@Borealis wrote:

Ally offers 0.50% interest on their savings accounts, which is literally 50x what I was getting from my local bank. They are online only, but play well with others, making bank to bank transfers a breeze via ACH or Zelle. Their website is extremely user friendly and their customer service is unparallelled. I also really love the tools they have available, like creating separate "buckets" within the account to earmark for different goals - they motivate me to save more. There are even more options if you have checking with them, those accts even make interest too (0.10%). No minimum balances. You cannot deposit actual cash there since they have no physical branches, but you can deposit checks by smartphone or snail mail if you want. I just kept my local checking acct open for that kind of stuff, so I can make a physical deposit conveniently and then transfer it to Ally. Best of luck, whatever you decide!

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You don't have to sell me on Ally, I already have an account! Lol. It's our daily driver, we love it and I tell everyone about it who might be interested. The customer service is what sold me with them. I called them to ask some questions before I was even a customer and they were so curteous. Anyway, I wanted to get a separate account that is harder to access and also allows cash deposits. How would you go about depositing cash in your Ally account? Or converting cash if that's a better term lol. 

[OmarGB9]

I was going to say DCU has 6.17% APY on balances up to $1k, after that it's only 0.15%, but still decent. They do have physical branches for cash deposits, but only in the Massachussetts/New Hampshire area.

[Anonymalous]

Explore some credit unions. There are a number with high rates on savings (or checking) accounts. Some are capped at a certain dollar amount, so whether you want one of those or one with no cap but a lower rate will depend on your plans. If you're going to use this as a savings account with little activity, that will rule out quite a few because many of the higher rate accounts require a certain number of transactions per month. You may find a local CU that fits your needs, but even if you don't a national CU can work -- the Co-Op network used by many credit unions allows members to perform banking services in branches of other credit unions that are part of the Co-Op network, which can include cash deposit. Some of the Co-Op network ATMs may also accept cash deposits. So look into that, and see what services are supported by both the CU you choose and the local Co-Op members.

[Borealis]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Borealis wrote:

Ally offers 0.50% interest on their savings accounts, which is literally 50x what I was getting from my local bank. They are online only, but play well with others, making bank to bank transfers a breeze via ACH or Zelle. Their website is extremely user friendly and their customer service is unparallelled. I also really love the tools they have available, like creating separate "buckets" within the account to earmark for different goals - they motivate me to save more. There are even more options if you have checking with them, those accts even make interest too (0.10%). No minimum balances. You cannot deposit actual cash there since they have no physical branches, but you can deposit checks by smartphone or snail mail if you want. I just kept my local checking acct open for that kind of stuff, so I can make a physical deposit conveniently and then transfer it to Ally. Best of luck, whatever you decide!

---

You don't have to sell me on Ally, I already have an account! Lol. It's our daily driver, we love it and I tell everyone about it who might be interested. The customer service is what sold me with them. I called them to ask some questions before I was even a customer and they were so curteous. Anyway, I wanted to get a separate account that is harder to access and also allows cash deposits. How would you go about depositing cash in your Ally account? Or converting cash if that's a better term lol. 

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I've been with Ally almost a year, wish I'd switched sooner! I still use my old local brick and mortar bank for cash deposits, then pull it over to Ally via ACH transfer. It's not instant that way, but it's just going to savings so it's not like my world will crumble if it takes a few days to get there. Also if you use cash share apps like Venmo you can push money from there. I don't know of many banks where you can get sweet interest rates AND the convenience of a physical branch, the online-only model is how they are able to keep overhead costs down enough to offer the better rates. That said, are you a member of any credit unions? They are often able to bridge that gap. They don't offer as many locations as regular banks, but there may at least be one in your region. Their rates on savings and money market accounts might not be as high as the online banks, but they are usually pretty competitive. 

[OmarGB9]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

I was going to say DCU has 6.17% APY on balances up to $1k, after that it's only 0.15%, but still decent. They do have physical branches for cash deposits, but only in the Massachussetts/New Hampshire area.

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@Anonymalous wrote:

Explore some credit unions. There are a number with high rates on savings (or checking) accounts. Some are capped at a certain dollar amount, so whether you want one of those or one with no cap but a lower rate will depend on your plans. If you're going to use this as a savings account with little activity, that will rule out quite a few because many of the higher rate accounts require a certain number of transactions per month. You may find a local CU that fits your needs, but even if you don't a national CU can work -- the Co-Op network used by many credit unions allows members to perform banking services in branches of other credit unions that are part of the Co-Op network, which can include cash deposit. Some of the Co-Op network ATMs may also accept cash deposits. So look into that, and see what services are supported by both the CU you choose and the local Co-Op members.

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I forgot to mention, and thank you to @Anonymalous for pointing it out, the Co-Op network is very convenient. DCU is a part of it. I was able to deposit cash at another local CU where I was working at into my DCU account, so I can vouch for it working.

[LawStudentCivilis]

I highly recommend Affinity FCU.  2% APY up to $2,500 and 1% APY $2,501 - $5,000.  They also have other great products including their cc offerings and cash back checking with early direct deposit.

[Duke_Nukem]

A good starting point would be to figure out how much money you will be depositing and keeping in the account.  Many high yield accounts have limits or levels that earn different rates.

You may also want to consider how much effort you are willing to put into earning those higher rates.  Some accounts require nothing extra from you, others require one or more of online access, debit card spend, direct deposit, etc.

Then you may also want to consider if earning a SUB will be more fruitful than just earning a higher % on your money.  For instance, Discover has a SUB offer that can get you $150 or $200 (depending on deposit amount that can be immediately transferred out if you prefer)... but their savings rate of 0.40% is lower than others.  US Bank has a $500 offer right now on their checking, but no interest earnings.

Recommend checking out Doctor of Credit site for updated savings % from various places.

     https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/ 

For us, we have a couple of Evansville Teachers Credit Union Vertical Checking accounts earning 3.3% maxed out.  This requires online access, a direct deposit, and 15 debit card spends.  There are ways to make this simple (such as Amazon reloads) and transfers from one bank account to them can trigger the direct deposit requirement.  Maxing both accounts out each month earns over $110 in interest, which is worth the effort for us.

We also use the T-Mobile Money checking as our main checking account, even though we don't have T-Mobile as our wireless provider.  This account earns 1.0% with no limit or requirements (it earns 4% up to a certain threshold if you meet requirements and are a T-Mobile customer).  You can use a huge ATM network for free (all CVS and Walgreens seem to be in network and I've used them in the past to get some cash).

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous and @Borealis I've been looking at Ally as well for a savings account that will give me a better savings rate than my regular bank: Chase. If it's not too much trouble I'd like to pick your brains a little bit  What has your experience been like with Ally, good and bad? Is it as simple as transferring money there and forgetting about it? What does the account require from you if anything to retain the APY rate? Being able to link Ally savings as an external account to my main banking account seems very easy and straightforward.