CIT Bank High Yield Savings

Getting high interest rates from CIT Bank is not that hard, but as always, you want to be sure it is the right choice for your finances.

High Interest Rates Online Savings

As with most things these days, there is a way to get a better financial deal on your money if you find an online bank without the overhead of a local bank. We’ve talked before about Marcus high-yield savings, Goldman Sach’s, entry in the high online interest account world. Like Marcus, CIT Bank is an online brand of a bigger bank. In this case, CIT Bank is a division of First Citizens Bank, a publicly traded financial institution with $100+ billion in assets.

Is CIT Bank a Scam?

As always, we start from the beginning. Is CIT Bank a scam or is CIT Bank legit for higher interest rates?

It doesn’t take much digging to see that CIT Bank is not a scam. As mentioned above, it is part of a large U.S. Bank that is FDIC insured, the gold standard for banks in America. Just because CIT Bank is not a scam as a fly by night company doesn’t necessarily mean that CIT Bank offerings are not scams.

Are CIT Bank Savings Rates Real and Legit?

CIT Bank’s high interest savings is branded as Platinum Savings and comes with a big, bold, interest rate of 4.85% APY, which is more than standard money market or high-yield savings accounts both on and offline. Is there a catch for CIT Bank Platinum Savings? Kind of.

Like many bank accounts, CIT Bank Platinum Savings pays more for higher balances. In this case, balances over $5,000 earn the high interest 4.85%, which balances below $5,000 earn a meager 0.25%. That means for people looking to park smaller amounts of savings in high interest online bank accounts, there are better options out there. For those still looking to stick with CIT Bank, they offer a money market account that pays 1.55% APY. That is way less than 4.85%, but way more than the 0.25% you will get with the flashy premium savings.

Also, they offer a Savings Connect account with a 4.60% APY.

Fortunately, other than the $5,000 minimum, the CIT Bank high-yield savings is legit for people who already have a main bank account, or perhaps for those who do not need one.

CIT Bank eChecking

We recommend that most people have some sort of local brick and mortar bank or credit union as a way to have in-person access to banking needs that may arise. While most of us may not use as many checks as we used to, that doesn’t mean they never come in handy. CIT Bank offers an eChecking account, but there are no checks. You get a debit card linked to a checking account, which does come in handy, but won’t help you put a deposit in a landlord’s hand. You can have a check mailed on your behalf from CIT Bank if that seems useful to you.

Rather than a local bank, you do your banking via the CIT Bank mobile app. In this increasingly interconnected finance world, transferring money from your eChecking account can work just as well, if not better, than mailing around paper checks, especially if you have a back-up local bank to fall back on when you need.

Otherwise, our CIT Bank eChecking review offers 4 stars for things like no monthly fees, no ATM fees, but comes up short of 5 stars for no real extras.

CIT Bank CDs

If your high interest bank account is going to offer big online savings rates, it might offer the same in CD rates. CIT Bank CDs have good enough interest rates but make little sense next to the various accounts like Savings Connect and Premier Savings. The most useful offering is the No-Penalty CD with a 4.90% and a minimum $1,000 opening deposit. Obviously, even a no-penalty CD comes with limited ability to transfer and access the funds begging the question why a banking customer wouldn’t just stick with the 4.65% Premier Savings and look for better than 4.90% CDs out there.