Founded in 1932 as GE Capital Retail Finance, Synchrony Bank is a division of Synchrony Financial, the largest provider of private-label credit cards in the U.S. Here’s a look at its personal banking products.
Savings
The Synchrony Bank High Yield Savings offers 4.75% APY with no minimum balance requirement. You can access money in the account via electronic transfers, phone transfers, wire transfers or with an optional ATM card. Synchrony Bank does not charge ATM fees and will refund domestic ATM fees charged by other financial institutions, up to $5 per statement cycle.
Like most banks, Synchrony limits you to six transfers or withdrawals from your savings account per month. Withdrawals you make from ATM machines do not count toward this limit, but cash-back transactions at retailers do.
If you need to access cash from your savings account on a regular basis, the Synchrony Bank combination of high-yield savings plus an ATM card could be a good solution.
Money Market
The Synchrony Bank Money Market Account (MMA) offers 2.25% APY with no minimum balance requirement. Although this APY is lower than that of the Synchrony Bank high-yield savings account, the money market account offers the ability to write checks.
If you don’t know when you may need to access your savings, the Synchrony Bank Money Market Account gives you the ability to write checks, while earning a higher APY than a typical savings account or checking account. The Synchrony Bank Money Market Account (like the Synchrony Bank High Yield Savings) also offers an optional ATM card to access your cash.
Keep in mind that money market accounts may still be subject to monthly transaction limits. If you intend to frequently write checks or transfer funds out of the MMA, you might be better off with a checking account.
CDs
Synchrony Bank Certificates of Deposit (CDs) offer terms of three months to five years, with no minimum deposit, and APYs ranging from 0.25% APY on a three-month CD to 4.00% APY on a five-year CD.
Here’s a look at the current terms and rates:
| CD Term | APY | Minimum Deposit |
|---|---|---|
3 Months | 0.25% | $0 |
6 Months | 4.80% | $0 |
9 Months | 4.90% | $0 |
11 Months No-Penalty | 0.25% | $0 |
12 Months | 4.80% | $0 |
18 Months | 4.50% | $0 |
24 Months | 4.20% | $0 |
24 Month Bump-Up | 3.60% | $0 |
36 Months | 4.15% | $0 |
48 Months | 4.00% | $0 |
60 Months | 4.00% | $0 |
Synchrony’s CDs may or may not offer a higher APY than a high-yield savings account, depending on the term. Remember there are trade-offs: The CD’s APY is fixed for the duration of the term, whereas the APY of the savings account can fluctuate at any time. Synchrony Bank’s CDs with durations of three months to nine months pay slightly less than Synchrony Bank’s high-yield savings account, while CDs of 12 months or longer duration pay up to 4.50%.
Also, when you put your money into a CD, you are committing that money for a specific period of time (the “term” of months or years), and you cannot withdraw the money until the term is up without incurring an early withdrawal penalty. Synchrony Bank’s early withdrawal penalties range from 90 days of simple interest to 365 days of simple interest, depending on the term of the CD.
Checking
Synchrony Bank does not offer a checking account, although you do have the option to write checks from your Synchrony Bank Money Market Account.
However, savings accounts and money market accounts are not designed to be used for everyday banking and bill-paying—they are intended to be stable deposit accounts where your money accrues interest. If you want a checking account that pays interest, you may want to consider a different bank.
IRAs
You also can invest retirement savings in Synchrony IRA Money Market Account (individual retirement account) money market accounts or Synchrony IRA CDs. The APY rates on Synchrony Bank’s IRA account offerings are the same as its other money market accounts (2.25% APY) and CDs (5.10% APY for a 12-month term with no minimum deposit).
Synchrony Bank offers its IRA money market accounts and IRA CDs for both traditional and Roth IRAs. Depending on your investing time horizon, goals for short-term income, risk tolerance and other retirement savings strategies, a Synchrony Bank IRA could potentially be a helpful part of your financial planning for retirement. However, if you want to invest your retirement savings in a wider range of potentially higher-risk/higher-reward assets—like stocks and bonds—Synchrony Bank’s IRAs do not offer those options.
