EverBank Offers 6-Month Guarantee On Checking, Money Market Account Rates

EverBank has a new promotional offer on its money market and checking accounts, guaranteeing a six-month rate of 1.05% APY for first-time account holders.

Now, that doesn’t beat the best nationally available account at 1.25% APY, offered by TIAA Direct, the online bank startup from retirement services provider TIAA-CREF. Nor does it beat the top nationally available MMA rate of 1.15%, offered by AmTrust Direct and My Banking Direct, both of which are online divisions of New York Community Bank.

But none of those rates are guaranteed.

EverBank (www.everbank.com), a predominantly online bank based in Jacksonville, Fla., has different balance restrictions on its “6-month Bonus Rate” depending upon whether you open an MMA or a checking account.

For its MMA, the rate is good on balances of up to $50,000. Any portion of your balance greater than $50,000 will earn Everbank’s standard rate, currently 0.76% APY.

For the checking account, the rate is good on balances up to $100,000. Balance portions above $100,000 will earn a tiered rate of between 0.76% APY and 0.91% APY.

For both accounts, it takes a minimum deposit of $1,500 to earn this bonus rate, and the money to open the account cannot be transferred from another EverBank account.

If your balance falls below $5,000, you’ll be charged $8.95 a month on the MMA account. (If it falls below $5,000 in the checking account, you’ll be charged $8.95 if you want to use online bill pay.)

After the bonus rate expires, your account yield will match the standard rate offered by EverBank and can change at anytime.

(The 0.91% APY “First-Year APY” in the above photo is a blended annual yield based on what you’d earn in the second six months of the year with the current standard rate MMA rate. The first-year APY is lower with the checking account.)

Since this rate is guaranteed for six months, it might be helpful to compare this deal with the top 6-month CD rates.

On that score, this offer wins.

The best nationally available 6-month deal on our CD Rates Leaderboard pays 0.85% APY. You’ll earn that rate from two banks: AloStar Bank of Commerce and KeySource Commercial Bank.