Raisin Review: Easy Access to Some of the Highest Savings Rates Available

Raisin's pitch is pretty simple: Get access to many great savings accounts via one simple login. And it delivers.

Raisin, formerly known as SaveBetter, gives users an extremely easy way to access some of the best high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD rates I've seen. With no account fees and a simple online interface, Raisin should be a great fit for many savers' needs.

In this review, I'll look at how Raisin might benefit you, and whether it might be a good fit for your savings needs.

What is Raisin?

Raisin, previously known as SaveBetter, is an online marketplace where you can easily find and sign up for savings products from dozens of FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions, many of them offering industry-leading interest rates. As long as you're a U.S. citizen, opening accounts through Raisin allows you to bypass any of the usual credit union membership requirements that you might encounter if you were to open an account directly with the credit union.

Is Raisin a bank?

Raisin itself is not a bank. It simply provides the marketplace and the account dashboard and monitoring for various types of savings accounts from its partner banks.

Given that Raisin isn't a bank, it's also important to understand that Raisin doesn't hold your money. Instead, Raisin works with a service bank that acts as a conduit to get your money into the accounts that you choose.

This is critical, because it means that your money is in an FDIC-insured institution every step of the way.

We'll get into more of exactly how Raisin works, but first let's take a look at some of the accounts and banks it offers in its marketplace, since this is the primary value from the platform.

Raisin's partner banks offer high-yield savings accounts with some of the highest APYs (annual percentage yield) currently on the market. Here are a few of our favorite high-yield savings accounts currently listed on Raisin.

The banks, accounts, and rate offers available on Raisin change regularly.

Raisin money market accounts

Similar to high-yield savings accounts, Raisin offers money market accounts from its partner banks, again featuring accounts with some of the highest APYs available. Here are some of our favorite money market accounts currently available on Raisin.

Raisin offers both standard CD (certificate of deposit) accounts as well as no-penalty CD accounts. The primary differences between the two are that the standard CDs charge a fee if you withdraw your funds prior to the maturity date of the CD, while the no-penalty CDs do not. On the other hand, the standard CDs tend to offer higher interest rates than the no-penalty CDs.

Note that you always have seven days to cancel an automatic CD renewal or rollover without penalty.

Because of the variety of CDs available on Raisin, it can be a great tool for building a CD ladder.

Here are some of our favorite standard CDs currently available on Raisin.

Below, you can compare our featured CDs from Raisin to some of our other top picks:

Raisin offers a variety of no-penalty CDs. These generally have a slightly lower APY than a standard CD, but have the big benefit that you can withdraw your money (typically in an all-or-nothing fashion) prior to the maturity of the CD and not be charged an early-withdrawal penalty.

Here are some of our favorite no-penalty CDs currently available on Raisin.

Is Raisin safe to use?

Yes, Raisin is safe to use. Why? Because your money never leaves FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions. That means your deposits are insured up to $250,000 per person, per institution.

Your money doesn't leave insured financial institutions, so you should be protected in a wide variety of unlikely, but unfortunate scenarios. For example, if the partner institution were to fail, your funds insured up to the applicable limit. If Raisin's service bank failed, it should not impact you, as your money would be in a partner institution, not the service bank. And if Raisin itself went bankrupt, again, your money would be in insured accounts, not with Raisin itself, so your money should still be safe.

Where does your money go in Raisin?

Let's go a little deeper to understand exactly what happens to your money with Raisin.

Your money starts in your external account. When you transfer money to a savings product from the Raisin marketplace, the money goes from your account to the "service bank" (an FDIC-insured bank called Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC) d.b.a. Central Payments). The service bank then transfers the money into a custodial account at the partner bank with the savings product.

The custodial account is in the name of the service bank, but your money is earmarked for you and receives pass-through FDIC insurance. That means your funds are insured to the same extent they would be if you opened the account directly in your name.

A real-life example

Let's say you open a savings account with Customers Bank through Raisin and fund that account with $10,000.

Raisin's service bank would request the transfer of the $10,000 from your external account. The funds would be transferred by Raisin's service bank to Customers Bank, where the money would go into a custodial account. The service bank maintains the record of where your funds are, so that your money is properly accounted for and will receive FDIC (or NCUA) coverage via the partner bank.

You can add additional funds to that account over time (up to the $250,000 FDIC-insured limit for individual accounts or $500,000 for a joint account) or withdraw money to your external account as you need it.

How do I know all of this? Because the process of how this all works is outlined in the Raisin Terms of Service (one of those long documents that you have to agree to but rarely read from end to end), but also because I've talked to Raisin directly about this, to ensure I understood, and to confirm that how it's supposed to work is actually how it's working in practice. I also reviewed FDIC guidance on custodial accounts and passthrough insurance.

How to get started with Raisin

1. Pick a product. To get started, choose the first savings product that you’d like to open.

2. Input your personal information. Once you choose your banking product, Raisin leads you through some information gathering to set up the account.

3. Link an external account. As part of the setup process, Raisin asks for an external bank account. This is where all of the money will come from to fund your Raisin accounts and where all of the money from your Raisin accounts will go when you're taking money out. For most banks, it's easy to connect electronically via Raisin's interface.

4. Fund your account. Once all of this is set up, you'll choose the amount of money that you want to fund your first account. This will trigger the ACH transfer from your external account to your new account at the Raisin partner bank or credit union. The ACH transfer should take between one and three business days.

One important detail to be aware of is that if you already have an account at the partner bank or credit union, the limit on FDIC or NCUA insurance applies to your combined balance. The limit is per person, per institution.

5. Open as many accounts as you'd like. You can also navigate to the Raisin marketplace that lists all of the savings products from partner banks to open additional accounts. Because you've already entered all of your information to open the first account, each additional account is just the matter of a few mouse clicks.

I looked into how easy it was to contact Raisin, as well as what customers say online about their customer service.

How to contact Raisin

You can reach Raisin by email at [email protected] or by telephone Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET at 844-994-3276.

Online customer reviews

Raisin gets high marks on Trustpilot. Users enjoy and appreciate Raisin's features.

Raisin earns a B+ from the Better Business Bureau, mainly because there are a high number of complaints. Raisin posts an individual response to each complaint (as opposed to copying/pasting the same response to all customers), and the responses clearly show that Raisin managers are thoroughly researching every complaint. Most of the complaints were successfully resolved. The Better Business Bureau website is designed for complaints, so you should expect negative comments to outweigh positive comments for almost any business listed there.

My personal experience with customer service

My personal experience dealing with customer service at Raisin has been positive. The responses I've received have been professional and polite, and answered all of my questions.

Based on my experience, I'd feel confident that the customer service team would do a good job with most of the questions and needs that the average customer would have.

Four things to know about using Raisin from my personal experience

I've been a big fan of Raisin since I've started using it. It is very hard to beat the interest rates for the savings products available at Raisin. And opening accounts with Raisin partners is a breeze. I am also a big fan of the simplicity of Raisin's interface for tracking my money.

There are a few facts to know if you're planning to use Raisin, since it's not exactly like using a direct bank account.

1. Your only option to transfer money out is to transfer it back to your linked external account

There are no other options for moving money. If you want to link a different account, you need to contact customer service, who will help you make the swap. Given that money in a savings account should be money you don't need on an immediate basis, the one to three days that it takes to transfer the money back to your external account shouldn't be a huge downside for most people.

2. You can't transfer money directly from one Raisin partner bank to another

Banks and credit unions can and do switch things up regularly. Interest rates on savings products go up and down. You might notice an offer on Raisin that's better than what you're currently earning, especially if the rate on your current account has fallen. If you want to take advantage of the better offer, you would need to withdraw money to your linked account, and then transfer it back in to fund the desired account. You cannot move funds from one account to another within the Raisin ecosystem. It's still a lot easier than opening up a whole new account at a brand new bank or credit union, which is what you'd have to do without Raisin.

3. CDs automatically renew when they mature

Automatic renewal is typical for a CD at most banks. If you open a CD account and do nothing, after it matures, you'll have seven days to take the money out or the CD will renew. That means your money will get locked in for the same duration, at the current interest rate for that CD at that institution.

On the Raisin platform, you have the option to turn off automatic renewal before your CD matures. You can go to your Account Overview, click through to your CD account, then click "Manage Your CD." Turning off automatic renewal is handy if you know you'll need the money at the maturity date or if you're laddering your CDs and don't want the money to simply roll into the same maturity again.

4. Raisin won't let you deposit more than $250,000 (or $500,000 for a joint account) into a single partner bank

Raisin wants users to get the most out of FDIC or NCUA insurance. By not allowing users to put more than the insured limit into an account, it helps ensure that customers' funds will be protected to the fullest extent.

Do be aware though, that interest earnings can push your balance over the limit. When that happens, you won't be able to add more money to that account. Likewise, if you have an account at a given bank outside of Raisin, the insurance limit applies to your combined balance. Raisin does not monitor for this, so if this applies to you, monitor your combined balance to ensure you don't exceed the limit.

Capital One Bank

Capital One receives favorable reviews from customers. Capital One offers high APYs on deposit accounts and charges minimal fees. You can find a conventional interest-bearing checking account here, which may be an option to consider if you tend to let money sit in your account. Plus, Capital One has an extensive branch network, and therefore could be a good choice for people who occasionally want to deposit cash or need in-person help.

Ally Bank

Ally Bank is a highly rated online bank that offers a comprehensive suite of banking products ideal for those who want to manage their money all in one place. Because it has no branches, it's able to offer high APYs on its accounts and charge no monthly maintenance fees. Ally offers several types of CDs as well as an interest-bearing checking account.

It's hard to beat Raisin if your priorities are to earn interest rates at the top of the market and have the ability to spread your savings over multiple FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions with just a few clicks.

Raisin has a few quirks that could be a dealbreaker, depending on your needs. Money transfers take time, and you'll need to manage all withdrawals and deposits via a single external account. Raisin has no brick-and-mortar locations. Though the Raisin partner banks and credit unions may have physical locations, Raisin accounts don't bear your name, so you can't get customer service from partners directly.

With APYs that are many multiples of the national average and regularly beat out other top savings accounts, the dollars and cents definitely speak in favor of Raisin.

Our savings account methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, we rate savings accounts on a five-star scale (1 = poor, 5 = best). We evaluate all savings accounts across four main criteria: annual percentage yield (APY), brand and reputation, fees and minimum requirements, and perks that really make a difference -- think ATM access, linked checking accounts, or even branch access.

Our scores are weighted as:

• APY: 50%
• Brand and reputation: 20%
• Fees and minimums: 15%
• Other perks: 15%

Learn more about how The Motley Fool Ascent rates bank accounts.