About Radius Bank

Radius Bank was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Boston. Unlike many traditional banks, although Radius Bank is also an FDIC member, it focuses on online banking and has only one branch at its Boston headquarters. In February of this year, Lending Club announced that it would acquire Radius Bank for 185 million dollars, and the transaction is expected to take 12 to 15 months to complete. This year, Bankrate named Radius Bank the best online bank of 2020.

Radius Bank offers a wide range of products, including checking, savings, trust, CDs, credit cards, mortgages, and more. Here we will mainly introduce its Reward Checking account.

Radius Reward Checking

Account Opening and Bonus

Right now, if you apply through a referral link, you can get a $50 account opening bonus. You only need to deposit

  • Application link (you need to enter a referral code in the promo code field to receive the bonus; my referral code is 2ujlf4, feel free to use it)

The application should be a soft pull, with no reports of a hard pull.

  • Here is my DP: I opened the account on June 20, deposited $500 on the 23rd, and received the $50 bonus on September 1. It took a total of 73 days from account opening to receiving the bonus, which is fairly fast overall. Both the referrer and the referred person can receive a $50 bonus, and there is no limit on referrals.
  • The referred person needs to keep the account open for 60 days, and at the end of the 60 days, the account must have a $500 balance. Overall, this is very easy to complete. No direct deposit is required; just deposit $500 and wait 60 days.

Highlights

  • 1% cash back on debit card purchases: This is very similar to Discover checking. The purchase needs to be processed through the debit network. For example, reloading on Amazon can earn 2% in Amazon rewards plus 1% on the debit card purchase. As for how to MS this, you will need to test it yourself.
  • Additional cash back promotion: Recently, Radius Bank has been running a promotion offering an extra 5% cash back at drug stores and pharmacies, medical services and health practitioners, misc. food stores, convenience stores, specialty markets, fast food restaurants, eating places and restaurants, grocery stores supermarkets, cable and other pay television (previously cable services), computer software stores, book stores, charitable and social service organizations, so total cash back can reach 1.5%. The promotion ends on December 30, 2020.
  • APY interest: For Checking accounts with more than $2,500, there is 1% APY; for balances above $100,000, there is 0.15% APY.
  • Free ATM withdrawals: Out-of-network ATM withdrawals are free.
  • You can receive paycheck direct deposit up to two days early.
  • There is no monthly fee, the minimum opening deposit is $100, and the debit card runs on the Mastercard payment network.

Summary

Overall, Radius Bank is a relatively established company among online banks, and compared with many newer digital banks that have emerged in recent years, it may feel more trustworthy. The checking account bonus is only $50, so it is not especially generous, but it is very easy to earn. With no monthly fee, no ATM withdrawal fees, and up to 1.5% cash back, this account can still be worth having.