11/14/2023 Update: Primis is now offering 6% APY for 6 months on up to $50,000 on Primis Novus checking. This requires direct deposit within 60 days of opening an account. Here is a screenshot of an emailed ad.
9/1/2023 Update: There are a lot of things to cover so I will list them briefly (you can find the details on the material presented below in this link from Primus):
- Primus reimburses ATM fees. ATM withdrawal limit of $550/day.
- Following are the ACH transfer in/out limits (screenshot):
- Per-Transaction – $6,000.00
- Daily – $18,000
- Monthly – $100,000
- Primis does not charge for incoming Wire transfers and for the time being they will refund wire fees assessed by the originating bank, plus give you an extra $10 (screenshot).
Also, Primis offers a “Primis V1be” app that allows you to bring the bank to your home for free. You can do things like schedule a banker to pick up cash from you, drop off cash to you, and even make a notary request. Details of V1be can be found in this link from Primus. Obviously, using this service requires that you are in area of service of the local branch.
8/8/2023 Update: Referral is live. The referrer gets $100 when referred deposits $2,500 within 60 days. The referrer requires First Name, Last Name, and email address to send out an invite. One can invite up to 5 users per month and a total of 1,000 customers can join per month. You may use the contact form to reach out. You can read the referral guidelines here. This is a 5+ APY from an actual bank (not fintech) so it might be worthwhile to invite family members.
8/6/2023 Update: I am adding several things to today’s update since a bunch of things have happened.
- Primis Saving now provides up to $2 million in FDIC insurance. This is possible by distributing funds to their partner banks. You can find the list of partner banks and read the details on extended coverage on this official page of Primis.
- Primis is closing eight branches (out of thirty-two) and laying off around three dozen employees. Primis discovered a $2.5 million hit from a loan scam that was committed by a single employee over the course of ten years. Based on recent events of how they put so many customer accounts on hold, it is no surprise that even their internal fraud detection was garbage. Read more in this news article.
- Primis is now moving to invite only. They plan to test it out with 1000 accounts/month and go on from there. You can read about it in the screenshot below.
7/29/2023 Update: Effective yesterday (July 28th), the rate has been increased from 5.03% to 5.16% APY. They are not taking new accounts at the moment.
Not long ago Primis was offering a 5% APY with pretty much no requirement. I had signed up for it then. Then, DoctorofCredit blogged about it and the 5% rate didn’t even last a week. Currently, they offer 4.35% APY on a “Premium Checking” account (no fee).
They were quick to mention that those who had joined early would still keep their 5.03% APY. They didn’t have to do it but it was a nice gesture.
I knew Primis was a small bank but just how small it is became clear after they send out an email after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. The full email is screened below but here are the bits that are interesting:
Since January 1, 2022, we have grown core customer deposits by $866 million or 31%. We are strongly core funded, thus we do not utilize wholesale borrowings, crypto related deposits or venture capital customer deposits. Primis has more than twice as much cash ($593 million) on our balance sheet as we do investment securities ($244 million).
Primis customers are in all 50 states, with a mixture of consumer and commercial customers. Our account types add more diversity with checking (37% of total), savings and money markets (49% of total), and CDs (14% of total). Lastly, we have extensive, unused borrowing capacity of approximately $855 million, or 24% of deposits if we needed it.
When a bunch of “small” banks are in bed with crypto, it is nice to see a small bank not deal with that at all.
Anyway, even after the rate cut it seems a record number of people are still joining Primis. Their website still has a banner saying “Our customer care center is currently experiencing a higher call volume than usual. We are also receiving a record number of account applications, which has caused delays to accounts that require manual review. Thank you for your patience.”
Why are people going for Primis at 4.35% when the likes of Ally are slowly creeping upward (currently at 3.75%)? Of course, Juno has offered 5% for a while but they aren’t a real bank and their primary business is crypto (this is as good as any time to plug “financial platforms that support crypto can be a liability to you“).
Closing Thoughts
I like what I see so far. They push money out pretty fast. They also have a debit card that rewards 50 cents per swipe (totally not sustainable as more and more deal seekers abuse it). I tried them because I am looking for an alternative (supplement) to Ally. Worth a shot if you are looking for a new high APY bank (FDIC Cert # 57968).
