Comment by LoganDark
6 hours ago
I hope to move to Mercury Bank soon, which allows you to create a (practically) unlimited number of checking accounts without additional verification, including for cases just like these. Just need to find another job to afford the fee ($240/yr)
be aware that Mercury is a fintech, not a bank, and doesn't participate in the FDIC insurance scheme. So there is no backstop if they fail.
To be fair to Mercury, they are quite open about this fact.
Also fintechs tend to close accounts without notice easier than traditional banks
Mercury is going to be a bank, their national bank charter was approved earlier this year.
From Mercury’s own website “ Get up to $5M FDIC insurance through our partner banks and their sweep networks to ensure eligible deposits are protected.”
That's exactly the point though. Mercury is not a bank. So giving them your money and getting it back safely relies upon the partner institution.
As an example: fintech builds front end that takes deposits from user, but not much more. The deposit passes to an intermediary that pools deposits and puts them in FBO accounts at a real (FDIC) bank. Intermediary collapses. Now neither the bank nor the fintech know who had what.
This is exactly what happened when Synapse collapsed (which impacted Mercury at the time too)[0]
[0] https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/the-synapse-collaps...
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Check the rates! If 3.5% beats your current savings rate, and your balance is high enough, it might pay for itself.
It would if I had a balance. Won't have any savings until I can make more money!