Updated and back for 2025. Laurel Road is a digital subsidiary of KeyBank (not a fintech) that reminds me of SoFi in that they are building a relationship that starts with student loan refinances and then expands to personal loans, mortgages, bank accounts, and credit cards.
Laurel Road is again offering (my referral link) for their by referral only. This bonus is on top of the standard interest rate, which is currently a relatively competitive 4.15% APY. Here are the steps:
- Open a High Yield Savings account before June 30, 2025 using a referral link that shows this offer. Offer not available on their regular website.
- Deposit at least $1 in the first 20 calendar days of account open.
- Have at least $5,000 (or whatever tier you pick) in your account by calendar day 90 after open. $50 bonus for deposit total between $5,000–$14,999.99. $100 bonus for deposit total between $15,000–$29,999.99. $200 bonus for deposit total of $30,000+.
- Once the requirements are met, the bonus amount will mailed to you as a check within 45 days of meeting the requirements. Your account must be open to receive the bonus, no other form of payment will be provided.
Note that it says that the “Referred individuals cannot be the owner or co-owner of a Laurel Road account in the last twelve (12) months.”.
Importantly, my reading of the terms is that there is no minimum hold period. The actual fine print:
Starting at 12:00AM EST on January 16, 2025, through 11:59PM EST on June 30, 2025 (“Campaign Period”), a $50 bonus (the “Bonus”) will be awarded to existing Laurel Road members (“Referrer”) for each friend who opens a new Laurel Road High Yield Savings (HYS) account (the “Referred”) and meets the following requirements, the Referred must: 1) submit the HYS account application through the Referrer’s link during the Campaign Period, 2) have a minimum HYS account balance of at least $1 by 7PM EST within the first twenty (20) calendar days of account opening, and 3) have a minimum balance of $5,000 by 11:59PM EST on the ninetieth (90th) calendar day of HYS account opening for Referrer to earn the Bonus. This offer cannot be combined with any other programs.
In other words, technically you just have to put $1 there by Day 20, and the rest can land on the 85th day or so to be safe.
Napkin math. Given that there is no minimum hold period, the annualized yield is theoretically sky-high. Note that the $50 bonus is at best a 1% bonus on $5,000 deposited, while the $100 and $200 bonuses are at best a 0.67% bonus on either $15,000 or $30,000, respectively. This is pretty solid since the standard APY is already competitive. Even if you held the money in there for 30 days, the $100/$200 bonuses would work out to an extra 8% annualized. Added to the 4.15% APY standard yield, that would be a total of 12.15% annualized interest.
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