Marcus savings account by Goldman Sachs

The Good

• No wire transfer fees
• Very high daily transfer limits ($1 million)
• Very intuitive website
• One of the top interest rates

Goldman Sachs is a Wall Street institution that has been around since the 1800’s and served the investing needs of the elite.  Before the 1%, there was the 0.1% – Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller – and Goldman Sachs was where they invested their money.  So it was a bit of a shock in the industry when, in 2017, they announced that they would be entering consumer banking under the brand name Marcus – named after founder, Marcus Goldman.  By all objective measures, they are doing a good job of it.

Marcus offers savings accounts, no-fee personal loans, and high yield certificates of deposits (CDs).

The Marcus high-yield savings account is built for consumers who have a lot of cash and who want to move large chunks of it electronically.  Large chunks of cash are frequently moved via wire transfer, so this is why Marcus has offered this service for free.  Marcus is not for consumers who want to move smaller amounts with more frequency.  So in The Bad section below, take it in context.  They’ve just been very deliberate about only serving a particular type of consumer.

Not only can you wire funds for free – rather than paying the typical $20-30 per wire – but you can also transfer money for free via ACH.  You can transfer a LOT of money.  The maximum ACH transfer is $1 million which is 4x the maximum of Marcus competitors.  Goldman Sachs has also invested a lot of time and money into the Marcus website.  It’s intuitive and easy-to-use, and there is a lot of information for consumers.

Finally, their APR rate is very competitive.  It is with 5 or 10 basis points of the highest you’ll find on the market.

The Bad

• No mobile app
• No ATM access to funds
• No checking account offered

As stated previously, Marcus has built their savings accounts for mid-to-high net worth consumers who want to occasionally move large amounts of money.  Wire transfers like this are typically not something you would do over a mobile app, I suppose, so they haven’t built one.  That said, having a mobile app is pretty much table stakes these days.  You can buy $1 million of bitcoin on the Coinbase mobile app – why not transfer $1 million into your savings account?  Or check the balance?  The rumor is that Marcus is in development, and if the website is any indicator, it will probably be very good.  But it’s not here yet.

Marcus does not offer ATM access to consumers.  I’m not saying there is no reimbursement or no larger ATM network to use – you just can’t use ATMs period.  There is no ATM card or debit card offered.  For some consumers, this won’t matter.  For others, it is a deal breaker – particularly since Marcus does not offer checking accounts which presumably would have ATM access.

The Summary

Marcus is a great option for a high yield savings account IF that is precisely and exclusively what you want – high yield savings.

They do what they do very well, and while some banks like Northpointe might offer a slightly higher interest rate, Marcus makes it much easier to get your money in and out and the free wire transfers may compensate for the interest rate difference.  Finally, they are backed by Goldman Sachs.  This is a company that has been around for a long time and has the resources to invest in a great consumer experience.