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I've received an offer for a relatively high interest savings account. The offer is from Capital One Bank (a major US financial bank), and it's for a 1.1% APY interest rate savings account. They also provide a $100 signup bonus if you open the account with the minimum balance, which is an extra 1% for the minimum $10k.

Today is June 27, 2015 and the US Federal Reserve lending rates are all under 1%. The saving account rate is quite attractive as it's over twice the rate of the savings account I have through my credit union and about 30% higher than CD's I can get for balanced under $90K (which I don't have).

The complication is this: I don't have any other accounts with this bank, so it would be quite a hassle to set up, maintain, and ultimately retrieve the funds. The minimum opening balance is also higher than my cash reserves, so I'd have to scrape together a few extra funds to 'lock in' their 'promotional' rate.

But my question wouldn't be about the hassle. My question would be about the typical terms for promotional, luring rates for this. I basically want to know how common it is for the savings rate to be cranked back down to the currently typical 0.1%~0.2% rates as soon as the promotional period is over. I imagine they're playing it as close as they can with these terms to avoid lawsuits for false advertising and bait-and-switch. After all, a $100/account (1-2% commission) isn't that high in terms of marketing budgets.

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    I guess the concern here is that this could be "primarily opinion-based". Personally I think it's on the good side of that boundary, but I'm not entirely sure.
    – Ganesh Sittampalam Mod
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 20:11

2 Answers 2

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My question would be about the typical terms for promotional, luring rates for this. I basically want to know how common it is for the savings rate to be cranked back down to the currently typical 0.1%~0.2% rates as soon as the promotional period is over.

In my view this would be "Opinion Based" as its very hard to predict that would happen in future. I guess on cases where questions are border-line, there is no harm is asking on the main forum with the understanding that it may get closed.

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  • Sure, everyone has an opinion. In my opinion, a national bank exists for the benefit of its shareholders, not its customers. Therefore, such a bank will do everything in their power to maximize profits and minimize expenses, including cutting interest payouts to promotional customers at the earliest legal date. I'm not interested in opinions; really I'm interested in 1) direct evidence or historical performance of this type of promotional account with this particular bank and 2) aggregate data on national banks' promotional accounts. Does that make a Q not-opinion-based? Or just unanswerable?
    – Dacio
    Commented Jun 29, 2015 at 22:42
  • I don't think direct evidence exists, except on a "there's probably data out there if you want to track it down, analyze it, and try to guess -- while remembering that past results, as always, are no guarantee of future performance and there are going to be influences (including who makes the decision and whethervshe had coffee that morning) which are not predictable or even public knowledge in retrospect. I believe there is no clear answer, or even a clear question.
    – keshlam
    Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 19:07
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I think this question is on-topic. However, I don't think it will generate good answers, and here is why: Over the last several years, everyone's interest rate has gone down. Everyone who answers will say, "Yes, I deposited money at a good interest rate, and the rate went down shortly thereafter." You won't get anyone who says, "I still have a great interest rate after all these years." It's not necessarily bait-and-switch, it is simply what the market has done.

5 years from now, who knows? If your question was "What will my interest rate be 5 years from now?", that is definitely off-topic as "primarily opinion based."

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