It’s been a LONG time since I last took a look at another online savings account offering because quite frankly, rates have stayed steadily low for quite a few years. Plus, practically every option offers the usual – transfer by ACH, FDIC insurance, no fees etc.
This year is a little bit different though. With the Fed funds rate moving up, a few of the offerings have been upping their yield. It’s still not awesome, but the trend seems to be our friend. The other reason why I want to talk about CIT Bank is because I’ve been getting a few email questions about CIT Bank lately on whether they are related to Citibank. So let me clear this up. CIT Bank has nothing to do with Citibank. CIT Bank is owned by CIT Group and Citibank is owned by Citigroup (I know, this is clear as mud so let me explain further). Both parent companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange, but CIT Bank has a ticket symbol of CIT and Citigroup has a ticket symbol of C. They are two separate institutions.
Click here to sign up for a CIT Bank account.
CIT’s History
Though you may not have heard of CIT before, they’ve actually been around since 1908, when Henry Ittleson founded the company to provide financing for businesses in St. Louis. Through steadied growth and solid business practices one century later, CIT Group is now a global operation with offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America (both Canada and the United States) helping clients in more than 30 industries. With $33 billion in finance and leasing assets primarily focusing on small and medium sized businesses, the CIT Group is a decent sized operation.
And now that they have a few years of online savings account offering under their belt, the bank has also demonstrated the commitment to be a major player in the online account space.
Is My Money Safe?
There’s really only one thing you need to care about when it comes to protection, which is whether the bank is a member of FDIC. Fortunately, a quick look shows that CIT Bank has an active membership since October 20, 2000 with FDIC using certificate number: 35575. This means that each depositor is insured up to at least $250,000, making your money safe up to the limits.
You may also be pleased to know that CIT is a Small Business Administration (SBA) Preferred Lender, which should give you confidence that it’s an institution that has traditionally done the right thing.
No Fees
Most banks have a no fee policy, which means no account maintenance fee and closure fees. But what I like about CIT Bank is that they extend the no fees idea to mail checks. In addition, incoming wire transfers are free for all members, and outgoing wires are also free if your daily balance is $25,000 or higher ($10 otherwise). I know I could use this feature since I wire money about 4-5 times a year, which costs $40 a piece at my current bank.
Note though that they require a minimum of $100 opening deposit to start an account. I’m stating this policy as a negative, but in reality there’s actually no point opening an account if you don’t even plan to deposit $100. Still, keep this in mind when you are opening an account.
Who Cares if Rates are So Low?
This is a legitimate question I get quite a bit these days due to current low interest rate environment, but don’t confuse low rates with no rates. You’ll still earn interest on your money that you otherwise wouldn’t if you keep it in your checking account.
CIT Bank has two tiers of interest rates. They offer a higher rate for accounts with a balance of up to $100,000, and a tiny bit lower rate for balances $100,000 and up.
So What’s the Verdict?
Rate hoppers will be happy that there is yet another option, because CIT Bank’s rates are currently right at the very top amongst the many different high yield savings options. For others who are tired of banks advertising a certain rate and then quickly changing it once you put money into the account, you’d also be happy to know that CIT Bank has been increasing their rates since they came onto the online scene a few years back. There’s no telling whether this practice will change, but at least it’s been good so far.
Give them a shot if you are looking for someplace to park your hard earned savings.
Click here to learn more about the online savings account.
CIT Bank is just one of the online banks we reviewed on MoneyNing.com. Click here for the complete list.
{ read the comments below or add one }
I have been very pleased with CIT Bank. Using them for 6 months now. They helped me understand the trial deposits and were always available when I called. I am very confident with CIT Bank. I get a daily text every morning showing my balance and a monthly text showing the interest earned.
I’ve been with CIT BANK for 2 years and have never had a problem. It’s where I keep my Sinking Funds. My transfers always go through on time. The interest rate is better than my main bank that’s for sure. The Savings Builder account is great in my opinion. I refer this bank alot too my friends.
Hi Arthi,
There will be no fees for withdrawing, but note that savings accounts are regulated to only allow six withdraws a month.
In general, the bank wells fine, so you won’t be disappointed. They are also running a promotion (use promo code Bonus20) as of 2/11/2020 of up to $200 for $50k+ deposits or $100 for $25k+ so if the amount you are thinking of putting in is higher than that, then giving them a try becomes a pretty good bet.
Thanks for the reviews. I will now opt out of joining CIT. I’m all about customer service.
What do I have in my account?
What customer service?
While I have been able to set up an account and have made transfers into CIT from Chase, I have sent 4 emails to them regarding further deposits and have yet to receive an answer.
Their customer service does not exist and I find their entire operation to be very sketchy.
Call – it’s as simple as that. They stink at replying to mail or secure message. You will get a reply in two weeks or so if your lucky. I find picking up the phone and just calling seems to work.
I had the same problems when opening my CIT account my deposit amounts wouldn’t go through, I had to keep calling them they sent of deposit amounts, it worked after of week of going back and forth with them. I have a new concern as to how to make a one time transfer. without having to make my deposits, weekly, Bi weekly or monthly. I was unable to transfer money apparently I have to choose an option. I will be calling customer service to find out how to make deposits when want to without having to use the reoccurring options.
My wife has a recorded POA on her 95-year-old mother’s CIT bank savings account. A few days ago, when my wife applied to electronically transfer funds to her mother’s checking account, to cover the ongoing cost of living in a rest home, the transfer was denied, and my wife was told that it has “always” been a CIT bank policy to not to allow electronic transfers on “POA accounts.” Ironically, the primary reason for establishing the savings account with a POA was so my wife could conveniently transfer funds in and out of her mother’s other accounts. Also, as late as January of this year, my wife had made an electronic transfer from the same savings account to the same checking account, without any problems. We asked a CIT Bank representative to direct us to any written policy that would explain this apparently abrupt change in policy. After a long delay, we were told that the basis for not allowing electronic transfers on “POA accounts” is an “internal policy.” Apparently we have no recourse to verify of clarify the current policy, and must resort to more inconvenient means of transferring funds.
Ask them to open up a case. I had a similar issue with designating a trust fund as a secondary beneficiary. They fixed their policy pretty quick. If you give them a reasonable argument, and get the right rep to suggest the change they usually follow through. However, getting the right rep who will follow through is not always easy.
I really have to question your review. I tried to set up an account with them and I had nothing but headaches. They couldn’t do a successful trial deposit to my bank and their customer service was sketchy. I waited and waited on the phone for them and their Rep couldn’t answer basic questions. A little bonus and a decent rate pale beside not being confident that your money is secure. I ended up cancelling the whole thing and walked away.
Thanks for sharing your experience. When did you try to sign up? And did the trial deposit just not go through, or were the amounts not verifiable? I actually went through the account opening process not too long ago and I didn’t have much of an issue.
I’m going to go through the process again and see if anything changed, but let us know if there are any more details you can provide, as it’ll help those who are thinking of opening an account with them.
Gregg or David Ning,
Can you please let me know how this bank is performing at this time (Feb 2020) as I am looking to opening an account with them with the intention of using them as a savings account for my over and above savings (beyond my other vehicles of stocks, shares, 401K etc etc) and wanted to know specifically if I could set up a recurring inflow into this account from my main checking account (an entirely different traditional bank) and if there are or will be any fees should I decide to withdraw portions of my savings at any given point in the future.
Thanks!