CIT Bank Review 2019
Matthew Goldberg is a consumer banking reporter at Bankrate. He graduated from Illinois State University with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and earned an MBA at William Paterson University. He began his writing career in 1998 at Sun Publications in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He was sports editor at The Daily Vidette, a sports reporter at The Journal Standard and a sports writer at The Quincy Herald-Whig. His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated On Campus. He has been honored by both the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association and the Illinois Press Association. He also has more than seven years of financial services experience, in both banking and insurance.
4/5
CIT Bank is an online bank that offers competitive annual percentage yields (APYs) on its savings accounts, with its Savings Builder in the top tier of APYs. CIT Bank doesn’t offer a checking account, but it does have a money market account – though the money market account doesn’t offer check-writing privileges or a debit or ATM card for ATM access.
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Bankrate's overall ratings for financial institutions comprise weighted averages up to five stars of five main categories: customer service, savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts (MMAs) and certificate of deposit (CDs).
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When a financial firm offers more than one checking, savings or MMA accounts, Bankrate reviews the account with the highest APY. Each bank is evaluated based on the 12-month certificate of deposit (CD) it offers.
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About CIT Bank
CIT Bank is the internet-based bank that is part of CIT Bank, N.A., the principal banking subsidiary of CIT Group, Inc. – a financial holding company founded in 1908. CIT Bank, N.A. was founded in 2009.
As of September 2018, CIT Group had more than $30 billion in deposits and more than $40 billion in assets, according to CIT Bank. CIT Bank has its headquarters in Pasadena, California.
Both CIT Bank, N.A. and OneWest Bank, which is a division of CIT Bank, N.A., are under the same FDIC insurance.
CIT Bank is known for offering a top-tier APY on its Savings Builder and has competitively increasing APYs to stay near the top of Bankrate’s top-saving APYs.
CIT Bank is a great choice for customers who are looking for high-yielding savings and CD accounts. If you prefer to have branch access or a checking account for day-to-day banking, you should look elsewhere.
Pros
- CIT offers very competitive yields on its savings and CD accounts. Its savings APY has been among the highest nationally available rates.
- It offers flexible fixed- and variable-rate CD accounts, including a no-penalty CD with an attractive yield.
- There are no monthly fees for savings accounts.
Cons
- Minimum deposit amounts for CDs of $1,000 are relatively high, and APYs for CDs are not the very best nationally available rates.
- There are no checking accounts available.
- You can’t access the Savings Builder and the Money Market account from an ATM.
- The app is available for iOS and Android are not highly rated and may be difficult to use.
- The bank doesn’t have physical branch locations.
CIT Bank Services
4.5/5
New CIT Bank customers have access to standard CDs, jumbo CDs and a no-penalty CD. Standard CDs require minimum opening deposits of $1,000. Early withdrawal penalties apply for most CDs. For example, for a CD with a term of 1 year or less, the penalty is 90 days of simple interest. For a CD with a term of 1 year to 3 years, the penalty is 180 days of simple interest.
Pros
- Interest is compounded daily.
- A CD without an early withdrawal penalty is available.
- Interest can be drawn without penalty before maturity.
Cons
- Other online banks pay higher yields.
- Ramp-up CDs are no longer available to new customers.
CDs available from other banks
4.7/5
The Savings Builder is CIT Bank’s highest APY option. It gives you two ways to earn one of the highest APYs around. You can either keep $25,000 in the account or you can deposit $100 and deposit $100 or more every month to a top-tier APY. The Savings Builder encourages monthly savings and rewards you for putting $100 or more each month -- making this one of the top savings accounts for savers.
Pros
- The Savings Builder has one of the top APYs around.
- The Savings Builder motivates you to save by forcing you to deposit $100 each month in order to get the top APY.
- There are no monthly fees.
Cons
- $25,000 minimum balance (if you don’t deposit $100 or more each month) on the Savings Builder is one of the higher minimum balance requirements to earn a top APY.
- There may not be any monthly fees, but if you don’t meet the APY requirements (such as having at least $25,000 in the Savings Builder or making a $100 or more deposit into the Savings Builder) it’s going to cost you with a nearly 100-basis point difference in APY.
- The Savings Builder doesn’t offer ATM access. A free ACH transfer to another bank, free outgoing wire transfers (there is a $10 fee for accounts with balances under $25,000) or calling and having a check mailed out for free are your options.
Savings accounts available from other banks
4.3/5
The Money Market Account has an APY nearly nine times the national average. There’s no monthly fee on this account and you get the top APY on any balance. It also only requires $100 to open the account -- so this reasonable minimum is good for all savers.
Pros
- The APY is more than eight times the national average APY for money market accounts.
- There is no monthly fee.
- There is only a $100 minimum balance.
- People Pay Account to Account & PayPal are available with the CIT Bank Money Market.
Cons
- The Money Market Account doesn’t have check-writing privileges.
- There are higher money market account APYs out there.
- Since the account APY isn’t tiered, there’s less incentive to deposit a large amount of money in this account when some other banks reward you with a higher APY.
MMAs available from other banks
2.8/5
Since CIT doesn’t offer checking accounts, it lacks functionality associated with spending accounts, such as budgeting features. However, CIT says it will soon make a bill pay feature available to CIT Bank Money Market account customers. The mobile banking app won’t rock your world but it will let you take care of the basics, such as allow you to check your transaction history and transfer funds between CIT Bank accounts. It will also display the balances for your money market account, CDs and savings accounts. While you won’t be able to use a branch, CIT’s customer service hours are pretty generous. You can reach the bank via the phone from 8 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. (EST) on weekdays. You can also reach a human on weekends, but with reduced hours.
