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Marcus by Goldman Sachs VS VirtualBank

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Variety of Terms: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Required Opening Amount: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Low opening amount & competitive rate
  • Ten-day CD rate guarantee
  • Options on how to receive interest
  • No-Penalty CDs offered

Cons:

  • Full principal withdrawals only
  • Shorter terms not as competitive rates
  • Limited terms for No-Penalty CDs
  • Electronic transfers need linked account
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.5 Star Icon
  • Variety of Terms: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Required Opening Amount: 3.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Competitive interest rates on CDs
  • Good variety of CD terms available
  • Encourages CD laddering
  • Options for how to receive interest

Cons:

  • High opening required amounts
  • CDs are personal deposit accounts only
  • Does not offer interest rate guarantee
  • Early withdrawal fee effects principal
Marcus by Goldman Sachs CD Review

The set amount required to open Marcus CDs is low. Each CD term only requires $500 to open. Marcus CD offers competitive interest rates. The rates are competitive with other online CDs and much higher than typical bank rates. To earn interest on your Marcus CDs, you must keep $500 in the account. You will not earn interest until your CD has a balance over the $500 minimum.

Marcus offers a ten-day interest rate guarantee. Once you fund your account with the minimum deposit, you have ten days to watch the rates. If the rates increase in those ten days, Marcus locks in the highest interest rate.

Interest earned on Marcus CDs is automatically added to the principal amount of your CD. There are other options if you wish to receive interest in another way. You can have the monthly interest transferred to a Marcus online savings account. You can also transfer the money to an external linked account. You can withdraw the earned interest anytime during the CD term without a penalty.

Marcus offers a No-Penalty CD. This CD requires $500 to open. Once the account has been opened for seven days, you can withdraw your money at any time during the CD term. You will not be charged a fee for withdrawing your money before it reaches maturity. You cannot add additional funds to the No-Penalty CD.

You can withdraw money from the No-Penalty CD without a fee, but you cannot make a partial withdrawal. If you want to withdraw the money, you must withdraw the entire balance. This includes all the interest you have earned. You can withdraw the money after the account is open for seven days. You can only make a withdrawal one time during the term life of the CD. Once you withdraw your money, the account will close.

Marcus CDs terms less than 12-months do not offer as competitive of rates as the other CDs. The six-month and nine-month terms still offer competitive rates. Their rates are just not as competitive as the other CD term rates. These rates are still much higher than typical bank rates of the same terms.

The No-Penalty CDs offered through Marcus comes in limited term lengths. There are only three terms offered for the No-Penalty CDs. Those terms are a seven-month term, an 11-month term, and a 13-month term.

To make electronic transfers into your Marcus CDs requires linking another account. You can link a Marcus CD to a Marcus online savings account. You can also link your Marcus CD to an external account. Once you link the accounts you can transfer money electronically to fund the account. You can also have the earned interest transferred into the linked account.

Read the full Marcus by Goldman Sachs review.

VirtualBank CD Review

VirtualBank offers online CD accounts. Each term offers competitive interest rates. The rates are competitive with other online CDs. VirtualBank interest rates are much higher than typical bank rates.

Even the shorter-term CDs offer competitive interest rates. These rates are very competitive compared to other short-term CDs.

There are a good variety of CD terms offered through VirtualBank. They offer CD terms from one month to 60-months. There are a total of 11 CD terms. All the CD terms are online accounts. You can apply online or send your application through the mail.

VirtualBank encourages CD laddering. They have a CD laddering calculator on their website. With the calculator, you can see how much interest you would earn by CD laddering. CD laddering is opening different CD terms, so your CDs mature at a variety of times. This allows you to open longer-term CDs to earn higher interest rates, but still, have access to your money.

There are options for how to receive the interest you earn on VirtualBank CDs. When you open the account, you can choose to have the interest credited monthly or quarterly. Credited the money back to the CD or you can transfer the money into another VirtualBank account. You can also choose to have the interest mailed to you in a check.

VirtualBank has a high required amount to open their CDs. Each CD requires $10,000 to open. That amount is high compared to other online CDs. If you have the $10,000 required opening amount, you can open any of VirtualBank CDs.

The CDs offered through VirtualBank are only for personal deposit accounts. At this time, these CDs are not available for business accounts. There are no specific business accounts available through VirtualBank. Only personal deposit accounts are currently offered.

VirtualBank CDs do not offer an interest rate guarantee. The interest rate you earn for the life of your CD term is the rate on the day you open your account. They do not offer an interest rate guarantee. If the interest rates increase shortly after you open your CD, your rate will not increase. VirtualBank CDs offer fixed interest based on the day you open your CD.

Early withdrawal fees for VirtualBank CDs are high. The fees may affect your principal amount. For CDs under one year, the fee is 100 percent of the interest earned on the withdrawn amount. For terms from one year to two years, the fee is one percent of the principal amount withdrawn. For CDs longer than two years, the fee is two percent of the principal amount withdrawn.

Read the full VirtualBank review.

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