PNC VS Quontic

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 2.5 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 3.0 Star Icon
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Pros:

  • Virtual Wallet rates are competitive
  • Relationship Rates offer higher rates
  • Student accounts offered
  • Business accounts are available

Cons:

  • Low interest rates for other accounts
  • Accounts have monthly fees
  • High required balances to avoid fees
  • Must open CDs at branch locations
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 4.0 Star Icon
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Pros:

  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • Low opening required amounts
  • Good variety of accounts available
  • No monthly fees on accounts

Cons:

  • Accounts have tiered interest rates
  • Checking account rates have requirements
  • Limited CD terms available
  • No ATM fee reimbursement
PNC Review

Opening PNCs Virtual Wallet accounts earn competitive interest rates. This includes three specific accounts: the Spend, Reserve, and Growth accounts. The Spend account is your checking account for everyday spending. The Reserve account is a short-term savings account. It offers overdraft protection for the Spend account. The Growth account is for longer-term goals, like a down payment, car, or vacation. Virtual Wallet accounts offer interest rates that are competitive with other online accounts. You must link these accounts together to earn competitive rates.

Some Growth savings accounts offer slightly higher rates with Relationship Rates. You must qualify to earn the Relationship Rates. To qualify, you must have a set amount directly deposited into the Spend account. Making five debit transactions also qualifies you. The amounts of direct deposits vary from $500 to $5,000 depending on the account. If you qualify, your money will earn even higher interest rates.

PNC offers accounts for college students. With proof you are enrolled in college, the monthly fee is waived. This account offers a debit card and online and mobile banking. The same features of Virtual Wallet are available for the college account. Parents can sign up to receive alert texts when balances are low or overdrawn. Some colleges offer other perks with the account. For example, one college allows you to use your student ID card as a PNC ATM card.

PNC offers small and commercial business accounts. Checking, savings, and money market accounts are available. CDs, credit cards, and online services for your business are available. Bill pay, remote check deposits, and online payroll are services offered.

PNC standard account interest rates are low. To earn the competitive rates on Virtual Wallet accounts, you must meet the set requirement. If you open a standard account or do not meet the requirements, interest rates are low. To earn the competitive rates, be sure you open the right accounts and meet the requirements.

Most PNC accounts have a monthly fee. The fees range from $5 to $25 depending on the account. There are ways to waive the fees. Having a set amount in the account or in qualifying PNC accounts will waive the fees. Direct deposits of a set amount or if you are 62 years or older will waive some fees. As of March 2019, PNC loan and investment balances are not included to waive monthly fees.

The amounts required to have in PNC accounts to waive the monthly fees are high. The money market account requires $5,000 to avoid the monthly fee. Virtual Wallet accounts require $500 to $5,000 to waive the fee or $10,000 to $25,000 across all PNC deposit accounts. After March 2019, loans and investment balances will no longer count toward the total amount to waive fees. Their standard savings account only requires $300 to waive monthly fees.

Customers must open PNC CDs at a branch location. Most PNC CDs required $1,000 to open. The CDs with terms of seven to 89 days require $5,000 to open. PNC has branch locations in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Read the full PNC review.

Quontic Review

Quontic accounts earn competitive interest rates. These account rates are competitive with other online accounts. The interest rates are much higher than typical bank interest rates.

The required opening amounts for Quontic accounts are low. The regular savings account requires $100 to open. The checking account and money market account requires $500 to open. Each of the CD terms require $1,000 to open.

There are a variety of accounts offered through Quontic. They offer personal savings, checking, and money market accounts. They also offer personal CDs and IRA CDs. Quontic offers business accounts. Those include business checking and savings accounts. Quontic offers personal and business lending options, including reverse mortgages.

The Quontic checking account does not have a monthly fee. The money market account only has a fee if you receive a paper statement. That fee is $5 per month. If you opt into paperless statements, there will not be a fee on the account. Most Quontic accounts do not have a minimum balance required to keep in the account to avoid the fees. The regular savings does have a $3 fee if your account balance falls below $100.

Quontic accounts have tiered interest rates. To earn competitive rates on accounts requires a high account balance. To earn the highest rate for the MMA requires a balance over $100,000. The regular savings account requires a balance of $250,000 to earn the most competitive rate. Amounts over $5,000 for the MMA earn competitive interest rates, just not the highest. The regular savings account requires a $50,000 balance to earn a competitive rate.

The Quontic checking account earns very competitive interest rates. To earn those rates, you must meet the requirements. You must have 15 point-of-sale debit transactions and one ACH transaction in or out of the account. You must meet these requirements each statement cycle. If you do not meet these requirements, you will not receive the competitive rates.

Quontic Bank has limited CD terms available. They do not offer a CD term shorter than 12-months. The longest CD term is a 60-month term. There are five total CD terms available with Quontic Bank. Each CD requires $1,000 to open. The CDs and IRA accounts are only for personal deposit accounts.

Quontic offers over 90,000 surcharge-free ATMs. If you use an ATM not in their network, Quontic will not reimburse you the ATM fee. The ATMs in their network include AllPoint, MoneyPass, and SUM. The ATMs at Citibank branches are also included.

Read the full Quontic review.

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