Earn 6% APY + $20 Bonus on up to $5,000

These two piggies are battling for the highest interest rate under $5,000 but why not have them both!? This is not your normal banking situation but sometimes you have to do some tricks to get a higher interest and that is why we are looking closer at savings with Mango and Union Plus. To get this extremely high interest rate (compared to market) paid on your savings up to $5,000 you would of course need direct deposit or able to transfer via ACH such as Paypal or from another bank such as Etrade.

There are other cards with savings accounts that are similar such as Control Card (5% APY + $20 bonus) and Union plus.  You would need a prepaid card and in the case of Union Plus you need to sign-up for their organization. It’s free to sign-up and anyone can become a member so it’s not too big an obstacle.  With this Union Plus account you can earn up to 5.10% APY with the Savings Account insured by the FDIC. You can open an account with as little as $1 and make up to 6 transfers out each month. You also have the convenience of checking your balance and transferring money from your mobile phone.

The high 6% and 5.1% interest rates on these accounts drop to 2% without a direct deposit.  Any ACH transfer should work for this direct deposit. Balances over $5,000 will have an APY of 0.10%. There are monthly fees of $2 if you do not load $500 or more in the 30 days prior.

Receive a bonus of $20 to enroll in the direct deposit service of these accounts. You just need to complete two direct deposits totaling $50 within 90 days of account opening.

There are no sign up fees or early account termination fees. Even if had direct deposit at $500 per month to avoid the monthly fee, you’d still be getting the max of 5.1% so Mango would still be a better deal when compared to the Union Plus but this would be good for someone who wants to get another account to get the high interest on an additional five grand. If you take into account the $2 fee with no direct deposit the APY would be 4.62% with the maximum deposited being lower than the rate of 5.28% the other card Mango offers with no direct deposit.

You can find out more about Union Plus Prepaid at myunionprepaid.com and Mango at mangomoney.com.