CIT Bank VS Discover Bank

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.5 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
5.05%APY
Savings/MMA
Advertiser Disclosure
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Pros:

  • Custodial accounts available
  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • Wide range of CDs offered
  • No monthly fees

Cons:

  • High opening required amounts
  • Long transaction periods
  • Hard to access custodial account money
  • High early withdrawal fees for CDs
  • Financial Rates: 4.5 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
4.00%APY
Savings/MMA
Advertiser Disclosure
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Pros:

  • No monthly fees or required balances
  • Personal deposit accounts offered
  • Can open all accounts online
  • Competitive interest rates on accounts

Cons:

  • Only personal deposit accounts
  • Not wide variety of accounts
  • Outgoing wires have a high fee
  • MMA has high opening balance and fee
CIT Bank Review

CIT Bank offers custodial accounts. You open the account in your child's name, but you control the account until the child is eighteen years old. There are no limits on how much you deposit into the account. There are tax benefits to having a custodial account.

The interest rates for CIT Bank accounts are very competitive. The high yield savings account rates are much higher than your typical bank. CIT Bank rates are even higher than other online-only accounts. CD rates are also competitive.

CIT Bank offers a variety of CDs including regular term CDs, no-penalty CD, jumbo CDs, and Ramp Up CDs. The no-penalty CD is an eleven-month CD. You earn interest on a CD with the options to withdraw the money at any time after the first seven days. The Ramp-Up CDs allow you to get a better rate once during the term of the CD. With the Ramp-Up Plus CD, you can get a better rate and make a deposit once during the term of the CD.

CIT Bank does not have a fee to open any of their banking accounts. There are no monthly maintenance fees for any of their banking accounts either.

The required amount to open a CD with CIT Bank is high. The minimum deposit for CDs is $1,000, including custodial accounts. Jumbo CDs require $100,000 to open. Other CDs require either an opening balance of $25,000 or $50,000. The minimum deposit to open a savings account is $100.

Transferred funds are not available until five to ten business days after the deposit is made. Deposits transferred from an external account are available after five days. Deposits mailed take ten days after the deposit is received.

Any money deposited into a custodial account is an irrevocable gift. You cannot withdraw or transfer the money from the account. It cannot be used for any purpose that doesn't directly affect the child listed on the account. Once the child reaches eighteen years of age, the money can be accessed.

CIT Banks fees for early CD withdrawals are higher than other banks. The fee for withdrawing money early from a CD with a term of more than three years is twelve months of interest. The fee for terms from one to three years is six months interest. Fees for CD terms up to one year are three months interest.

Read the full CIT Bank review.

Discover Bank Review

Most Discover online bank accounts do not have monthly fees. They also do not have required balances to keep in the accounts. The online checking account, savings accounts, and CDs do not have a monthly fee. They are completely free. Only the money market account has a fee if your balance falls below $2,500.

Personal deposit accounts are available through Discover. They offer online savings, money market, and checking accounts. Their CDs range in terms from three months to ten years. Discover offers IRA CD terms as well as regular CDs.

These Discover accounts are entirely online accounts. Open the savings, money market accounts, and CDs online or by calling customer service. The checking account can only be opened online. Everything for these accounts is done online.

Discover accounts offer competitive interest rates. The rates for every account are much higher than your typical brick and mortar bank rates. The rates are competitive with other online accounts. The only account that has tiered interest rates is the money market account. The difference between the two-tiered rates is very small. Balances over $100,000 in the money market account earn a slightly higher rate. All balances earn competitive rates.

Discover Bank offers only personal deposit accounts. Those accounts include a savings, checking, and money market account, as well as CDs. Discover Bank does not offer any business accounts.

There is not a wide variety of personal deposit accounts offered through Discover. Discover offers one savings, one money market, and one checking account. No business accounts are available. CD terms range from three months to ten years.

One way to access your money in your Discover accounts is through a wire transfer. There is a fee to complete each wire. That fee is $30 for each outgoing wire sent from your Discover account. There is not a fee for domestic wire transfers received into Discover accounts. There may be a $20 fee for wire transfers received in a foreign currency.

The Discover money market account has a high opening required amount. That account requires $2,500 to open. There is a monthly fee of $10. Waive that fee by keeping $2,500 in the money market account.

Read the full Discover Bank review.

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