It was one of the tools that allowed me to maintain healthy credit card usage habits. In my idle time when messing around on my phone I’d gotten into the habit of just transferring money from my checking account to my credit card, often in excess of my actual balance, so as to cover “pending” purchases.
Not only will my bank no longer let me do that, just to twist the knife a bit, they will let me make multiple payments totaling the pending total due so long as no individual payment exceeds my actual balance.
So it’s not that they can no longer handle negative balances on the card, it’s just that they’ve half-ass made the interface disallow it.
Easy peasy. Instead of making payments to your credit card, transfer the amount to a high yield savings account instead. Then use that savings account to pay your CC once per month. (Savings accounts typically have a limit on debits, but you can usually make as many deposits as you want.)
Enjoy the cashback AND a few bucks in interest AND having your checking account accurately reflect your “real” money at all times.
Where is this mythical high yield savings account?
I use Fidelity investments; money that isn’t in stocks automatically goes into SPAXX, a market rate high yield savings account.
Cash app has one that’s 4%. Probably not quite what inflation is but not terrible either.
Inflation is at 9% this year last i checked (US)
That is really high. I haven’t checked in a while
Yeah…my union job has contracted yearly raises that almost always beat out inflation. Have technically taken a pay cut the last two years
It’s a common financial instrument. You can find many providers online.
You get a much better interest rate than a typical savings account (I think current rates are around 4% or so), but you are typically limited in the number of withdrawals you can make per month. Banks offer better interest rates because the cash is less volatile and sits in the account longer. They are good for cash you want to park somewhere for a while but that you still need quick, infrequent access to, like emergency funds. Credit card payments are also a fine use for it, though I’d say the benefit is pretty minimal unless you consistently maintain a balance greater than the credit card payment.
They vary wildly. The typical savings account now as about 1% or less. There are some online versions when offer 3.5. There are a few with stipulations: $200,000 in the account or deposits of $5,000 a month. Those are approaching CD type rates with rules.
But they are not particularity common.
High-Yield Savings Accounts are something distinct from normal savings accounts. I don’t believe there are any HYSAs being offered that have rates as low as 1%.
You can find many institutions online offering HYSAs. It is definitely pretty common. In personal finance circles it’s very often recommended to put your emergency fund in a HYSA.
And yes, as you noted, HYSAs have different rules than normal savings accounts. Just like how CDs do.
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/best-high-yield-interests-savings-accounts/
This was the first result that I searched. You can get a HYS with a little to no minimal balance. A lot of them are online banks, but they’re still FDIC insured. There are plenty HYS accounts out there that are usable for everyday people given you have the ability to save.
Every link went to forbidden as I am not currently in the US. So that was interesting. Then when I did check these rates in the small print I got only with a new account, subject to change, etc. That is a the scummy part I was talking about. I guess if one hoped they could get that rate for at least 6 months and were willing to shuffle it to another bank every so often, it could work.
Yeah, you’re not going to be able to get a guaranteed rate on a HYS account. The upside is that the interest rate is high. The downside is that the interest rate will change, usually down, as the market changes, but something is better than nothing. You have to find the balance between maximizing returns and maximizing effort. If you want more that a 3-4% return, you’re likely going to have to start looking into an investment account, but a 3-4% return is still better than the 0.2% return a traditional savings account provides.
One that earns you more than the default 0.15% or so that you earn on most savings accounts.
You have to do a bit of hunting, but for example, I have an account with Citizens Access that earns 3.50% last time I checked. It’s not much, but it’s better than earning nothing on the emergency fund that I want to keep liquid and accessible.
That is a really good rate. Online only version of Citizens bank right? The regular citizens rates are low like everyone elses, I wonder why they are offering such a high rate? You would think online banking wouldnt be that much of a benefit to them anymore but I guess it is. Pretty rare these days!
Yeah, its their online-only bank.
I have no idea why some banks can offer those CD-like rates while others offer virtually zero. Capital One 360 Savings and Ally have similar rates as well.