SoFi Review: Checking and Savings

With direct deposit set up, you’ll earn a higher rate on your savings balance than you would without direct deposit or meeting a minimum deposit requirement. For customers who set up direct deposit in any amount or who deposit at least $5,000 every 30 days into their account using other accepted methods, SoFi savings pays a competitive 4.00% APY on the savings balance.

$5,000 is a steep requirement, and what’s necessary every 30 days in order to qualify for the higher APY without direct deposit. Setting up direct deposit — for which there’s no minimum requirement — is probably more feasible for most people. Other online savings accounts may offer a higher APY but require a high minimum balance.

If a customer hasn’t set up direct deposit, then they will earn 1.20% on their savings account balance, with no balance minimums or limits. While that’s much lower than SoFi’s maximum rate, it still beats the national savings average of 0.42% APY.

Savings features. The savings account also comes with Vaults, which are subaccounts that can be designated for different savings goals. If a customer has at least one Vault, they can also set up an automatic savings program called Roundups, which allows SoFi to round up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and deposit the difference into a Vault of the customer’s choice. These features can help make it easier to organize your money and manage your finances.

SoFi's Checking and Savings account is a combined account, but the checking and savings balances earn different rates. Whether you set up direct deposit or not, you’ll earn 0.50% (APY is variable and subject to change) on your checking balance. That’s much higher than the national average of 0.07% for interest checking accounts.

Early paycheck. In addition to a higher APY, customers who set up direct deposit also have the ability to receive their paycheck two days early. There’s no minimum direct deposit requirement to earn either perk, but there is a $1,000 monthly direct deposit requirement to qualify for overdraft coverage.

Wide access to ATMs. SoFi is part of the Allpoint ATM network, so customers can use tens of thousands of nationwide machines for free to withdraw cash.

Costly cash deposit services. If customers want to deposit cash, then they'll need to visit a Green Dot retail location, which you can find at places including 7-Eleven, CVS, Rite Aid, Safeway, Walgreens and Walmart. Green Dot charges a fee of up to $4.95 per deposit. Other online checking accounts allow customers to make cash deposits for free at retail locations.

Convenient remote customer service options. SoFi is an online-only bank and financial services company. It offers strong remote customer service options, including extended business hours seven days a week for customer service phone calls, a robust X (Twitter) account to handle customer questions and complaints, a virtual assistant chat feature for customers who are logged in, and a website with a large FAQ section. Its mobile app also has a strong customer star rating in the Apple App Store and a solid rating in the Google Play Store.

Note that customers can have either an individual account or a jointly owned account, but not both.

Federal insurance for up to $2 million. A unique feature that SoFi offers is the option to have up to $2 million of your account funds federally insured. The standard insurance coverage from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is $250,000 per person, per bank, per category, but SoFi is able to offer FDIC insurance for a much bigger amount through its partnership with a network of other banks.