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How Popular Direct products compare
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Popular Direct CD
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Popular Direct High-Rise Savings
Editor’s Rating
Editor’s Rating
Pros and cons
Popular Direct High-Rise Savings
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.40%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$5,000
Popular Direct High-Rise Savings
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.40%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$5,000
On Popular Direct’s website
Popular Direct High-Rise Savings
Details
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.40%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$5,000
The Popular Direct High-Rise Savings is a worthwhile option as long as you have $5,000 for the opening deposit. Popular Direct pays a high interest rate, and it doesn’t charge monthly service fees. If you don’t have $5,000 to open an account, then you can find other online accounts that pay similar rates.
Popular Direct has a unique rule about transferring money. When you set up your Popular Direct High-Rise Savings, you’ll link it to an external account to transfer funds for your opening deposit. For the first 70 days you have the account, you can only transfer money from Popular Direct into the account you used to fund the savings account — no other accounts.
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.10% to 4.80%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$10,000
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.10% to 4.80%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$10,000
On Popular Direct’s website
Popular Direct CD
Details
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
4.10% to 4.80%
Minimum Deposit Amount
$10,000
Popular Direct pays high interest rates on CDs. The bank requires a high minimum deposit of $10,000. It also charges relatively high penalties if you withdraw funds before your CD matures, especially for longer terms.
How Popular Direct works
Popular Direct is an online bank with a high-yield savings account and CDs. There’s no checking account, which means you can’t access your savings quickly. You’ll have to transfer money to an external account, which could take a couple business days.
When you set up a Popular Direct High-Rise Savings, you’ll link it to an external bank account to transfer funds to Popular Direct. The bank has a rule that if you transfer funds out of savings in the first 70 days, then you can only transfer to the linked funding account.
You can speak with a live customer service representative 24/7 over the phone. There is no live online chat feature.
Popular Direct has a mobile app in the Apple and Google Play stores, but there are hardly any reviews. If a strong mobile experience is important to you when choosing a bank, then you might want to look elsewhere.
Your deposits are FDIC insured for up to $250,000, or $500,000 for joint accounts.
Popular Direct review vs. Marcus review
Both Popular Direct and Marcus have savings accounts and CDs, but no checking account. Both banks require you to transfer money to an external account to access your savings.
Marcus is the better choice for low minimum deposits. Marcus has a $0 minimum deposit requirement for its savings account, and a $500 minimum for CDs — Popular Direct asks for $5,000 to open a savings account, and $10,000 to open a CD. Along with the Marcus High-Yield CD, there’s also a Marcus No-Penalty CD that doesn’t charge a fee when you withdraw funds before your CD matures. If you’re interested in a no-penalty CD, then Marcus is the way to go.
Popular Direct review vs. Ally review
Ally pays similar interest rates on savings accounts and CDs.
Unlike Popular Direct, Ally has a checking account. This makes it much easier to access your savings. All you have to do is transfer money from savings to checking, and you can spend the funds almost instantly.
Ally is the clear option if you don’t have thousands of dollars for an opening deposit with Popular Direct. Ally doesn’t require minimum deposits for any of its accounts.
You might like Ally’s CD options. There’s an Ally High Yield CD that’s similar to the Popular Direct CD. There’s also a No Penalty CD and an Ally Raise Your Rate CD. The Raise Your Rate CD lets you increase your rate should Ally’s rates go up, once during a 2-year term and twice during a 4-year term.
