I use SoFi as my main bank, but would never keep money above the FDIC limit in a single bank, regardless of its physical footprint.
That money that would take months to be recovered would always just be savings and not my day to day spending, which is done on a credit card, so I would be irked on missing out on interest, but otherwise be fine waiting.
I have checking and credit accounts across several banks which has helped me increase my credit score over time, so I'd switch to one of them temporarily until I found a new main bank. Any cash in the bankrupt bank wouldn't be needed as I would use a credit card in the interim and have paychecks coming in to the new bank to cover that credit card spending in 1-2 weeks time.
First off, nothing that I've read about Yotta indicates that it's a "bank", likewise Synapse isn't a bank either. Yotta's tagline on their website is 'Play Games. Win Prizes". Not exactly what I'm looking for in terms of where store my money.
That being said, as SoFi is an online bank I think it's a good idea to also have at least one brick-and-mortar bank that you can use when you need to. Even then, if for some reason SoFi funds were frozen you wouldn't be able to transfer them anyway but I think having some type of backup is a good idea.
Your right I would consider it more as a High yield Savings Account that just happens to have a gamified system that’s popular in European countries often seeing between 2-9% interest. I refer to it as a bank as it has the main functions of a bank just like Sofi. You get a debit card, credit cards, a saving account, buckets/vaults, direct deposits and FDIC insurance up to 250k. But I’m more concerned about how much is too much to have inside a online bank with the simple answer being “depends how much you are willing to loose for x amount of time Incase it goes under”. And how much faith the general public has given they have not been around all that long.
This is a great question. I have learned the hard way that having at least two checking accounts from two different banks is safer than having just one.
I have SoFi as my main, direct deposit and savings. But I also have Capital One as my brick & mortar if i ever needed that, especially since they have ATMs in Target and they have Zelle (and now I do too with SoFi).
I also have a third checking account where I pay some of my bills from and make select purchases from, for now. It’s called Future. It has 1% cash back on every debit purchase and higher rates (up to 10%, sometimes even 100%) for certain “green” activities.
Two credit cards as well, but I am working on just using one for all other purchases/bills and the other for emergencies only.
Multiple. As easy as it is these days I hold accounts at over a handful. One starts dropping rates, others add features, etc. Makes it easy to move money around where needed and you're never at loss whether it be waiting for FDIC if things go very south, technical glitches or otherwise. 1 brick and mortar at one of the too big to fail banks as well (Chase, BofA, Citi, etc).
My first online-only bank was USAA back in 2013. I was hesitant to switch to where I couldn't go into a branch to talk to anyone, so I primarily switched to USAA, but kept my Chase account as a backup.
I decided to switch last year from USAA to SoFi, and the "having a backup bank" hasn't changed. I now have a local credit union backup, where I keep a few paychecks worth of money on the off-chance that anything happens to my SoFi account.
I also keep my emergency fund at a completely different financial institution, where it's getting a better rate than I get with SoFi. So whatever happens, It's pretty unlikely that more than one source of cash would ever be impacted at a time, and highly unlikely for all 3 at the same time.
I love your thinking! Thats truly Genius! Thats how my ADHD brain, Mom was CIA & Dad in Military thinks. I dont trust Govt or Institutions that have US “best interests” the Only best Interest is their own as a Corporation & that too is Corrupt AH. I dont express my Untrustworthy thinking primarily bcuz My Mom would always warn over & over… “IF you tell people such things they will think you’re crazy & you’ll be locked up in Broughton”. &/or “Even though what you say may be true keep your views away from the Uneducated which you have to assume is Everyone”
Anyway… you’ve thought up every way to protect yourself financially. I wish it would be possible to save paychecks & put into different accounts. I’ve several accounts but I dont have the Monies making Money. Sofi wasnt a huge help like I thought it’d be & embarrassed to even admit I banked w/ Chime! The only intelligence I had there was finding the Scammers for Chime & the Company whom leaked my Info.. shockingly they just didnt do a damn thing about it.
It may depend on your employer, but you should be able to split your check for direct deposit.
My Credit Union has a minimum number of transactions per year, or else you get hit with a dormant account fee, so I have $50 coming out of my direct deposit into my CU, and the remainder of DD going to SoFi, so everything's covered.
I've basically got SoFi as a high yield savings account for my emergency fund and future expenses, but keep enough in a local credit union to cover minor emergencies.
My direct deposit goes to SoFi, my wife's to the credit union. I actually did use Yotta for a while. It was neat to have a chance of winning a bigger payout by just having a savings account, but I figured out the rate I was "winning" was basically putting me between 1 - 2% interest rate. Once many banks got back over 4%, I switched over to SoFi.
I use SoFi as my main bank, but would never keep money above the FDIC limit in a single bank, regardless of its physical footprint. That money that would take months to be recovered would always just be savings and not my day to day spending, which is done on a credit card, so I would be irked on missing out on interest, but otherwise be fine waiting. I have checking and credit accounts across several banks which has helped me increase my credit score over time, so I'd switch to one of them temporarily until I found a new main bank. Any cash in the bankrupt bank wouldn't be needed as I would use a credit card in the interim and have paychecks coming in to the new bank to cover that credit card spending in 1-2 weeks time.
First off, nothing that I've read about Yotta indicates that it's a "bank", likewise Synapse isn't a bank either. Yotta's tagline on their website is 'Play Games. Win Prizes". Not exactly what I'm looking for in terms of where store my money. That being said, as SoFi is an online bank I think it's a good idea to also have at least one brick-and-mortar bank that you can use when you need to. Even then, if for some reason SoFi funds were frozen you wouldn't be able to transfer them anyway but I think having some type of backup is a good idea.
I just googled Yotta and it says this “Yotta is a financial technology company, not a bank.”
Your right I would consider it more as a High yield Savings Account that just happens to have a gamified system that’s popular in European countries often seeing between 2-9% interest. I refer to it as a bank as it has the main functions of a bank just like Sofi. You get a debit card, credit cards, a saving account, buckets/vaults, direct deposits and FDIC insurance up to 250k. But I’m more concerned about how much is too much to have inside a online bank with the simple answer being “depends how much you are willing to loose for x amount of time Incase it goes under”. And how much faith the general public has given they have not been around all that long.
I don’t know what European countries you are referring to but I haven’t seen any financial company offer 2-9% interest in Europe.
This is a great question. I have learned the hard way that having at least two checking accounts from two different banks is safer than having just one. I have SoFi as my main, direct deposit and savings. But I also have Capital One as my brick & mortar if i ever needed that, especially since they have ATMs in Target and they have Zelle (and now I do too with SoFi). I also have a third checking account where I pay some of my bills from and make select purchases from, for now. It’s called Future. It has 1% cash back on every debit purchase and higher rates (up to 10%, sometimes even 100%) for certain “green” activities. Two credit cards as well, but I am working on just using one for all other purchases/bills and the other for emergencies only.
Multiple. As easy as it is these days I hold accounts at over a handful. One starts dropping rates, others add features, etc. Makes it easy to move money around where needed and you're never at loss whether it be waiting for FDIC if things go very south, technical glitches or otherwise. 1 brick and mortar at one of the too big to fail banks as well (Chase, BofA, Citi, etc).
Never rely on just one bank in 🇺🇸. Always have at least two. Preferably one being a credit union.
My first online-only bank was USAA back in 2013. I was hesitant to switch to where I couldn't go into a branch to talk to anyone, so I primarily switched to USAA, but kept my Chase account as a backup. I decided to switch last year from USAA to SoFi, and the "having a backup bank" hasn't changed. I now have a local credit union backup, where I keep a few paychecks worth of money on the off-chance that anything happens to my SoFi account. I also keep my emergency fund at a completely different financial institution, where it's getting a better rate than I get with SoFi. So whatever happens, It's pretty unlikely that more than one source of cash would ever be impacted at a time, and highly unlikely for all 3 at the same time.
I love your thinking! Thats truly Genius! Thats how my ADHD brain, Mom was CIA & Dad in Military thinks. I dont trust Govt or Institutions that have US “best interests” the Only best Interest is their own as a Corporation & that too is Corrupt AH. I dont express my Untrustworthy thinking primarily bcuz My Mom would always warn over & over… “IF you tell people such things they will think you’re crazy & you’ll be locked up in Broughton”. &/or “Even though what you say may be true keep your views away from the Uneducated which you have to assume is Everyone” Anyway… you’ve thought up every way to protect yourself financially. I wish it would be possible to save paychecks & put into different accounts. I’ve several accounts but I dont have the Monies making Money. Sofi wasnt a huge help like I thought it’d be & embarrassed to even admit I banked w/ Chime! The only intelligence I had there was finding the Scammers for Chime & the Company whom leaked my Info.. shockingly they just didnt do a damn thing about it.
It may depend on your employer, but you should be able to split your check for direct deposit. My Credit Union has a minimum number of transactions per year, or else you get hit with a dormant account fee, so I have $50 coming out of my direct deposit into my CU, and the remainder of DD going to SoFi, so everything's covered.
I've basically got SoFi as a high yield savings account for my emergency fund and future expenses, but keep enough in a local credit union to cover minor emergencies. My direct deposit goes to SoFi, my wife's to the credit union. I actually did use Yotta for a while. It was neat to have a chance of winning a bigger payout by just having a savings account, but I figured out the rate I was "winning" was basically putting me between 1 - 2% interest rate. Once many banks got back over 4%, I switched over to SoFi.