WaFd Bank VS Marcus by Goldman Sachs

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 2.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 3.5 Star Icon
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Pros:

  • Good variety of accounts available
  • Low opening required amounts
  • Business accounts offered
  • Money market and CDs earn good rates

Cons:

  • Low interest rates on accounts
  • Tiered interest rates on some accounts
  • High rates require eligible checking
  • Accounts have monthly fees
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
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Pros:

  • No required balance or account fees
  • High account interest rates
  • Variety of terms lengths of CDs
  • Personal loans available

Cons:

  • Only savings account and CDs offered
  • Must link accounts to another bank
  • No ATM or debit card offered
  • Opening balance for CDs is $500
WaFd Bank Review

WaFd Bank offers a good variety of accounts. Those include:

  • Savings account
  • Savings account for minors
  • Checking accounts
  • Money market accounts
  • CD terms from three-months to five-years
  • Retirement accounts
  • Lending options
  • Credit cards
  • Small business accounts
  • Commercial options

The opening required amounts for WaFd accounts are low. Most savings and checking accounts only require $25 to open. A savings account for minors requires $10 to open. The Stellar Plus checking account requires $100 to open. The money market accounts require $100 to open. All CD terms require $1,000 to open.

WaFd Bank offers business accounts along with personal accounts. Those accounts include small business checking and savings accounts. They also offer some commercial business accounts. To open those accounts, you need to contact a commercial banker.

The WaFd Gold Money Market account has competitive rates. These account rates are the most competitive rates offered at WaFd. They are lower than other online money market accounts but still competitive. The seven-month and 13-month special CDs also earn higher rates than other WaFd CDs.

WaFd accounts besides the Gold MMA and special CD terms have low interest rates. These rates are similar to other brick-and-mortar bank rates. They do not compare to other online-only accounts.

Some WaFd accounts have tiered interest rates. To receive the highest rate for the Stellar Plus checking account requires a $10,000 balance. The regular money market account requires $90,000 to earn the best rate. Even the highest interest rate for these accounts is low.

Specific WaFd accounts require you to open other eligible accounts. To earn the best rates on the special CD terms, you must have an eligible checking account. The rates are only 0.05% higher if you have the checking account.

Most WaFd Bank accounts have monthly fees. The checking account fees range from $0-8 per month. The savings accounts have monthly fees from $3-10 per month. There are ways to waive some of the monthly fees. Those include keeping a set account balance. That balance ranges from $100-$20,000, depending on the account.

Read the full WaFd Bank review.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs Review

There is no required amount to open the account or to keep in the account. Marcus does not have monthly maintenance fees. You start earning interest on anything over $1 in the high yield savings account.

Marcus offers very competitive interest rates on their savings account and CD accounts. The interest rates are competitive with other online-only accounts. They are much higher than your typical bank rates.

Many different term lengths of CDs are available. Marcus offers nine different CD term lengths from six months to six years. The longer the term, the higher interest rate you earn. All the CD interest rates are very competitive with other online-only banks.

The personal loans offered through Marcus do not have fees. The loans are a fixed-rate interest loan. You can borrow up to $40,000. These loans can be to consolidate debt or for home improvement projects. The loans range in length from 36 to 72 months.

Marcus only offers deposit accounts of CDs and a high yield savings account. Checking accounts, money market accounts, and business accounts are not offered.

Since Marcus does not offer checking accounts, you cannot transfer money between Marcus checking and savings accounts. The easiest way to deposit money into your Marcus savings account is to link to an external bank account. You can also send a wire or check. Marcus does not charge a fee to send or receive a wire transfer, but the external bank might.

Marcus does not offer an ATM or debit card for the high yield savings account. To access your money, you must transfer the money back into your external bank account. You can also request a wire transfer.

To open any CD with Marcus, $500 is required. That amount opens the CD and is the amount needed to start earning interest. The interest rates vary depending on the term length of the CD. The longer the CD term, the higher the interest rates.

Read the full Marcus by Goldman Sachs review.

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