Sallie Mae Bank Review December 2023
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BLUEPRINT
Published 8:00 a.m. UTC Dec. 11, 2023
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Sallie Mae Bank
Pros
- Competitive saving yields.
- No monthly maintenance fees.
- Goal-setting options with SmartyPig accounts.
Cons
- No physical locations.
- No ATM access.
- No checking account option.
Sallie Mae Bank basics
- Checking accounts: None offered.
- Savings accounts: Sallie Mae SmartyPig Account and the Sallie Mae High-Yield Savings Account.
- Money market accounts: Sallie Mae Money Market Account.
- Certificates of deposit (CDs): CD terms range from six months to five years.
- Other accounts: Private student loans.
About Sallie Mae Bank
Sallie Mae is well-known for its presence in the private student loan arena. But Sallie Mae Bank is more robust than that, offering a range of savings products with competitive yields and no monthly fees.
Notably, the bank doesn’t offer any checking accounts, which might be a dealbreaker for savers who want to conduct all of their banking under one roof.
The funds you save at this bank are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which means your funds are protected for up to $250,000 per depositor, per account ownership type (think joint vs. individual).
Sallie Mae savings
Sallie Mae offers two different savings accounts options: the High-Yield Savings Account and SmartyPig Account.
The High-Yield Savings account is aptly named: It features a 4.50% APY and you don’t need to reach a minimum balance requirement to start earning interest. When you’re ready to make withdrawals, you can transfer funds out of this account for free. But you won’t be able to withdraw the funds through an ATM, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since you want your savings to remain intact to earn interest.
The SmartyPig account offers goal-setting features that set it apart. You can set specific savings targets with deadlines and track your progress. To help propel your finances and do less work, you can establish automatic deposits that occur monthly or biweekly.
Like the High-Yield Savings account, the SmartyPig account doesn’t come with any minimum balance requirements attached. But it offers a slightly lower APY of 4.25% APY on balances from $0.01 to $10,000, 4.25% APY on balances from $10,000.01 to $50,000 and 4.25% APY on balances greater than $50,000.
Sallie Mae money market
Sallie Mae’s Money Market Account offers an eye-catching 4.75% APY and, like its sister deposit accounts, it doesn’t come with any minimum balance requirements or monthly maintenance fees.
However, unlike most money market accounts, this one doesn’t give you access to your funds via debit or ATM card. Instead, you’ll need to use checks or online transfers to access the funds. When you open your account, you can place a check order for free. But refills cost $5 per checkbook.
Sallie Mae certificates of deposit
Sallie Mae Bank offers 11 CD terms, ranging from six months to five years, and all of them feature competitive yields, making this an unusually good contender if you’re looking to build a CD ladder. The catch, however, is a minimum deposit of $0.
Whichever term(s) you choose, be sure that you can commit your funds until the maturity date(s). Like most CDs, Sallie Mae CDs come with early withdrawal penalties. If you withdraw funds early from a CD with a term of 12 months or less, the penalty is 90 days’ worth of simple interest; for CDs with terms greater than 12 months, an early withdrawal would cost you 180 days of simple interest.
You can see the best CD rates and the best no-penalty CD rates here.
Other products
You can find education loans for undergraduate, graduate and professional career training courses. Sallie Mae doesn’t offer checking accounts or other loan products.
How Sallie Mae Bank stacks up
Sallie Mae vs. Ally Bank
Ally Bank is another online banking option. In contrast to Sallie Mae, it offers a wider range of products, including savings and checking accounts, home loans, credit cards, auto loans, investment services and more.
For savers who are comfortable with digital banking and want to tackle all of their banking needs in a single place, Ally Bank is a good option.
If you’re only looking for savings options, both offer great yields. Ally Bank might win you over if you value accessibility — it has a network of over 43,000 ATMs to facilitate withdrawals — and Sallie Mae may win if you’re after top-notch CD rates in particular.
Sallie Mae vs. Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Marcus by Goldman Sachs is the online savings division of the famous investment bank. It offers a high-yield savings account and a wider range of CD products, including high-yield CDs, no-penalty CDs and a rate bump CD.
Like Sallie Mae Bank, it doesn’t offer many other products. It’s even discontinuing its personal loan services.
Which one is better depends on exactly which account you’re interested in. For example the Marcus by Goldman Sachs High-Yield Online Savings Account offers 4.40% APY, which is greater than the yield SmartyPig offers (4.25%), but lower than the Sallie Mae High-Yield Savings (4.50%).
Sallie Mae vs. Discover
While Discover also lacks physical branches, it offers a more robust selection of products than Sallie Mae and access to more than 60,000 ATMs.
Its cornucopia of banking products includes credit cards, student loans, home loans, personal loans, savings, checking, retirement accounts and a wider range of CD terms, running from three months to 10 years. Many of the deposit accounts come with competitive rates, making them worth a look before you deposit your money.
Sallie Mae was originally founded as a government-sponsored enterprise designed to service federal student loans. But the Sallie Mae brand is no longer in the business of handling federal student loans. Instead, Sallie Mae Bank offers private student loans and savings products.
Yes, Sallie Mae Bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The deposit accounts offered by this bank protect your funds for up to $250,000 per depositor, per account type.
Sallie Mae Bank CDs offer savers a place to stash cash with a worthwhile interest rate attached, and many of its CDs are among our favorites. The CDs available through Sallie Mae tend to come with competitive interest rates. The minimum deposit requirement of might be a dealbreaker for some. But if you are comfortable with the minimum deposit requirement, Sallie Mae Bank’s CDs might be a good choice.
If you withdraw funds early from a Sallie Mae Bank CD with a term of 12 months or fewer, the penalty is 90 day’s worth of simple interest. If the CD had a term of more than 12 months, an early withdrawal would cost you 180 days of simple interest.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
