Popular Direct review: High minimum deposits, but competitive interest rates

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Pros and cons

Popular Direct Select Savings Account

The Popular Direct Select Savings Account is a worthwhile option as long as you have Popular Direct Select Savings Account for the opening deposit. Popular Direct pays a high interest rate, and it doesn’t charge monthly service fees. If you don’t have Popular Direct Select Savings Account to open an account, then you can find other online accounts that pay similar rates.

Popular Direct has a unique rule about transferring money. When you set up your Popular Direct Select Savings Account, you’ll link it to an external account to transfer funds for your opening deposit. For the first 70 days you have the account, you can only transfer money from Popular Direct into the account you used to fund the savings account — no other accounts.

Popular Direct Certificate of Deposit

Popular Direct pays high interest rates on CDs.  The bank requires a high minimum deposit of Popular Direct Certificate of Deposit. It also charges relatively high penalties if you withdraw funds before your CD matures, especially for longer terms.

How Popular Direct works

Popular Direct is an online bank with a high-yield savings account and CDs. There’s no checking account, which means you can’t access your savings quickly. You’ll have to transfer money to an external account, which could take a couple business days.

When you set up a Popular Direct Select Savings Account, you’ll link it to an external bank account to transfer funds to Popular Direct. The bank has a rule that if you transfer funds out of savings in the first 70 days, then you can only transfer to the linked funding account.

You can speak with a live customer service representative 24/7 over the phone. There is no live online chat feature.

Popular Direct has a mobile app in the Apple and Google Play stores, but there are hardly any reviews. If a strong mobile experience is important to you when choosing a bank, then you might want to look elsewhere.

Your deposits are FDIC insured for up to $250,000, or $500,000 for joint accounts.

Popular Direct review vs. Marcus review

Both Popular Direct and Marcus have savings accounts and CDs, but no checking account. Both banks require you to transfer money to an external account to access your savings.

Marcus is the better choice for low minimum deposits. Marcus has a Marcus by Goldman Sachs High Yield Online Savings Account minimum deposit requirement for its savings account, and a Marcus by Goldman Sachs High-Yield CD minimum for CDs — Popular Direct asks for Popular Direct Select Savings Account to open a savings account, and Popular Direct Certificate of Deposit to open a CD. Along with the Marcus High-Yield CD, there’s also a Marcus No-Penalty CD that doesn’t charge a fee when you withdraw funds before your CD matures. If you’re interested in a no-penalty CD, then Marcus is the way to go.

Popular Direct review vs. Ally review

Ally pays similar interest rates on savings accounts and CDs.

Unlike Popular Direct, Ally has a checking account. This makes it much easier to access your savings. All you have to do is transfer money from savings to checking, and you can spend the funds almost instantly.

Ally is the clear option if you don’t have thousands of dollars for an opening deposit with Popular Direct. Ally doesn’t require minimum deposits for any of its accounts.

You might like Ally’s CD options. There’s an Ally High Yield CD that’s similar to the Popular Direct CD. There’s also a No Penalty CD and an Ally Raise Your Rate CD. The Raise Your Rate CD lets you increase your rate should Ally’s rates go up, once during a 2-year term and twice during a 4-year term.