Quontic Bank is an “adaptive” digital bank headquartered in Manhattan, New York. Founded in 2009, this bank is federally chartered and available to members in every U.S. state. Quontic is a member FDIC as well as a certified Community Development Financial Institution committed to providing accessible banking solutions to low-income households. It was named the Best Online Bank by Bankrate in 2020. 

One could, theoretically, do all of their banking with Quontic, as this bank offers a range of accounts to meet your saving and checking needs as well as mortgage lending options. Deposit products include certificates of deposit, savings accounts, and three different types of checking accounts. Each one supposedly takes less than 3 minutes to open and can be funded with as little as $100 (different terms apply for different accounts).

Find out if a Quontic Bank deposit account is right for you in our comprehensive review below.

Quontic Certificate of Deposit Rates + Details

Quontic Bank boasts a rate of up to 1.11% APY on their CDs, making it one of the most competitive banks in the game currently.

CDs are available in five different term lengths with the highest rates available on the longest terms. Here are the terms you can choose from and their interest rates.

Right now, the national average rate is sitting at 0.14% for a 12-month CD and 0.27% for a 60-month CD according to recent FDIC data. Quontic Bank is highly competitive compared to the national average and other financial institutions offering similar products. With the exception of an account from Comenity Direct, this is the best rate you’ll find on a 1-year CD right now.

Especially if you’re looking for a short-term CD, the 6-month Quontic Bank certificate account is a great option. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better interest rate on a term less than one year, and these certificates of deposit are pretty good overall.

Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly to your account.

Quontic requires a minimum deposit of $500 to open and keep a CD account of any term, which is pretty typical for certificates. You can make this deposit via ACH transfer from an external bank or from another Quontic checking or savings account. You are not permitted to add additional funds to your account after it has been opened.

All Quontic certificates of deposit—and other deposit accounts—are federally insured by the FDIC up to the federal limit of $250,000.

Quontic does not offer specialty, bump-up, fixed-rate, or any other types of non-traditional CDs.

Early Withdrawal Penalties

When your CD matures, you can withdraw your money without penalty. Partial withdrawals are not allowed—you need to withdraw all or nothing. But if you need to take out your money before it matures, you can do so but will incur the following early withdrawal fees:

• Early withdrawals from CDs with terms less than 12 months incur a fee equal to the full term’s interest
• Early withdrawals from CDs with terms between 12 and 24 months incur a fee equal to one year’s interest
• Early withdrawals from CDs with terms over than 24 months incur a fee equal to two years’ interest

These penalty fees are quite a bit higher than most, so avoid them if you can. 

Grace Period

You will have 10 days to remove your money from your certificate of deposit after it renews penalty-free. You will receive a notification at the beginning of this grace period that your account has automatically renewed and that you have a short window of time to withdraw your money, if desired, without incurring penalty fees. Otherwise, you’ll lock in to the same account for another term.

Quontic Bank Savings Accounts

The high yield savings account by Quontic Bank is a standard savings account with an above-average interest rate. The current APY for this account is 0.55% and all users are eligible to earn it regardless of their balance.

Right now, the national average rate on a savings account is right around 0.06%. While certainly above average and definitely competitive, Quontic’s product isn’t quite the best.

A minimum opening deposit of at least $100 is required to open this savings account, which can be made from another Quontic account or from a linked external bank account at no cost. 

There is no minimum daily balance required to earn interest—all positive balances through $999,999.99 are paid interest at a rate of 0.55%.

Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly to your account.

In accordance with Federal Reserve Board Regulation D, users are permitted to make up to six withdrawals or transfers from this account per month. Transactions in excess of this limit are subject to penalties and may not be processed. There is a penalty fee of $10 for every excessive transaction.

There are no monthly maintenance fees, service fees, or low balance fees for the Quontic Bank High Interest Savings account. This is currently the only kind of savings account available at this institution.

Quontic Bank Checking Accounts

Quontic Bank offers three different types of interest-bearing checking accounts: High Interest Checking, Bitcoin Rewards Checking, and Cash Rewards Checking.

Let’s start with the High Interest checking account. 

The national average rate for interest-bearing checking accounts sits at 0.03% with no sign of budging, so there’s no comparison here. This product pays up to 1.01% in interest, and you don’t need a high balance to earn it. All you have to do is meet the following activity requirement: You must make a minimum of 10 qualifying point of sale debit card transactions of at least $10 per transaction per statement cycle.

If you do not meet this requirement, your balance will earn 0.01% in interest.

Only balances up to and including $150,000 qualify for the rate of 1.01% APY.

Balances in excess of $1 million do not qualify for a higher interest rate than 0.01% regardless of activity.

Interest is compounded daily and credited to your account monthly. 

You need to deposit $100 into this account when opening it, but you are not required to maintain a minimum monthly balance in order to earn interest or avoid fees. There are no monthly maintenance, service, or low balance fees associated with this account. 

There are also no fees for using your Quontic debit card at in-network ATMs including those within the AllPoint, MoneyPass, SUM, and CitiBank networks. There are more than 90,000 participating ATMs across the country including in convenient retail locations such as Target, CVS, Walgreens, and Circle K.

The next checking account is the Bitcoin Rewards Checking. This is an interesting product in that rewards are paid in bitcoin. Users are eligible to receive up to 1.5% bitcoin on all point of sale in-person and online transactions made with their Quontic debit card. Transfers, ATM withdrawals, and bill payments are not eligible to earn this interest rate.

Interest is compounded daily and used to purchase bitcoin on your behalf every day. As long as your Bitcoin account remains open and in good standing, your rewards will not expire. Note that this Quontic checking account and the balance in it are FDIC insured but your Bitcoin account and its balance are not.

When you want to redeem the Bitcoin you have accrued for cash, you can do so by paying a 2% fee to NYDIG and NYDIG will transfer your bitcoin to cash and deposit your earnings into your Bitcoin Rewards Checking account. Besides the 2% fee charged by NYDIG, there are no fees charged for this action. You may not purchase more bitcoin than what you earn through interest. Bitcoin rewards are not taxed but transfers may be in your state.

This account requires a minimum deposit of $500 to open, so it is a little bit harder to open than the other Quontic checking accounts. There is no minimum daily balance requirement for earning interest and all balance tiers are eligible to earn the maximum interest rate.

Residents of Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, and North Carolina are not eligible to open a Bitcoin Rewards Checking account at this time.

Finally, the third and final checking account available to customers of Quontic Bank: the Cash Rewards Checking account. Instead of earning interest, this account earns cash back. 

This product allows users to earn up to 1.5% cash back on all qualifying point of sale transactions made with their Quontic debit card. This includes debit card transactions made in-person or online and does NOT include ATM transactions, peer-to-peer transfers, electronic loan or bill payments, and ACH transfers.

There is a minimum opening deposit requirement of $100 to fund this account, but you don’t need to maintain a balance of $100 or more to earn interest. There are no balance tiers for the Quontic Cash Rewards checking account; all positive balances qualify to earn the maximum interest rate.

Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly into your Quontic checking account.

Fees

For every type of Quontic Bank checking account, there are a few fees you should be aware of. These are the following:

• Overdraft/non-sufficient funds: $35 each
• Incoming wire transfer: $10 each
• Outgoing wire transfer: $30 each
• Account dormancy: $10 per month
• Cashier’s checks: $10 each order
• Money order: $4 each
• Activity statement: $5

None of the three accounts charge maintenance or low balance fees.

Quontic Bank Money Market Accounts

Last but not least, the Quontic Bank Money Market account. This account pays tiered interest rates, with higher balances eligible to earn up to 0.40% APY.

To help you get an idea of how these rates compare, the national average rate for a money market account is currently sitting at 0.08%. There are a number of banks and credit unions currently offering rates of 0.45% and higher, but Quontic Bank’s MMA is decent. And especially because any positive balance earns at least 0.30% interest, this is a good option for those who want to put away a smaller amount.

Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly back into your money market account.

This account requires a minimum deposit of $100 upon opening. You can fund your account by transferring money from an external bank or by transferring money from another Quontic account. There are no minimum daily or monthly balance requirements or penalties for low balances.

You may ask for a debit card for this account, but keep in mind that this is a savings account. Users are not permitted to make more than six transactions into or out of this account per statement cycle. Doing so will result in a fee of $10 each time or Quontic may choose not to authorize excessive transactions at all.

Final Thoughts

Quontic Bank can compete with the best of them. When you compare banks offering similar deposit products, Quontic consistently has some of the highest rates even for individuals with lower net worths. Most accounts do not have minimum balance requirements to earn interest and charge few fees.

For its high rates, general accessibility, and fresh take on common bank accounts, Quontic Bank has our endorsement. Check out their deposit accounts if you’re looking for a place to safely grow your money, and let us know what you think.