Popular Direct VS Quontic

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
4.60%APY
Savings/MMA
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Pros:

  • High-interest rates on accounts
  • Account available everywhere
  • Variety of CD terms
  • Online and mobile banking

Cons:

  • Opening accounts requires large deposit
  • The savings account has a monthly fee
  • Only offer CDs and one savings account
  • Linked external account required
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 4.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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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
Popular Direct Review

The interest rates on Popular Direct accounts are very competitive. They are considerably higher than your typical brick and mortar banks. The rates are competitive with other online-only accounts.

Because Popular Direct is an online-only bank, the accounts are available everywhere. Applying for the account is quick and completed online. Everything you need for your account is accessed online. There are no branch locations.

Popular Direct offers a variety of different CD term lengths. The terms range from a three-month term to five-year terms. The other terms include six months, one year, eighteen months, two, three, and four-year terms. The interest rates increase the longer the term length.

All Popular Direct accounts come with online and mobile banking. With online banking, you can set up account notifications and see statements. You can transfer funds between the linked external account. Mobile and online banking allow you to transfer money between Popular Direct accounts. You can check account balances and deposit checks.

To open a savings account with Popular Direct, you must have $5,000 as your opening deposit. To open a CD with Popular Direct, you must have $10,000 as the opening required deposit. You will still earn interest if your balance drops below these required amounts.

Popular Direct savings account has a monthly fee. The fee is $4 per month if your balance falls below $500. No fee is charged if your balance remains above $500. There is also a fee for closing the account before 180 days after opening it. A $5 monthly fee is charged each month if your account is inactive for 12 months. Following the 12th month, the fee is charged each month the account is inactive.

Popular Direct only offers CDs and one savings account. They do not offer a checking account, money market account, or any business accounts. The CDs range from 30-day CDs to a five-year term.

Popular Direct requires you link your account to an external account. The linked account allows you to make deposits into your Popular Direct account. The external bank account cannot be changed within the first 60 days of opening the account.

Read the full Popular Direct 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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