CIT Financial institution has grown to turn out to be one of many best-known digital banks. It presents checking, financial savings, cash market accounts, and certificates of deposit (CDs) with engaging options and charges. It may be a sensible choice to park extra financial savings to earn excessive curiosity.
Is it the kind of on-line establishment that can allow you to finish your relationship along with your native, conventional financial institution? We’ll attempt to reply that query for you.
Who’s CIT Financial institution for?
CIT Financial institution is an efficient alternative for anybody who is totally snug with an all-digital banking expertise and doesn’t require entry to native branches. The financial institution presents aggressive checking, financial savings, cash market accounts, and CDs. It has among the best high-yield financial savings accounts out there, in addition to some engaging shorter-term CDs.
Nonetheless, potential clients should be conscious that CIT Financial institution doesn’t provide paper checks with its checking accounts, and it limits mortgage merchandise to dwelling loans. It additionally doesn’t present any enterprise banking companies.
Evaluation of CIT Financial institution merchandise
CIT Financial institution checking
CIT eChecking
APY*
0.25% with a stability of $25,000 or extra; 0.10% with a stability of beneath $25,000
Execs:
- Pays curiosity on all balances.
- No month-to-month upkeep, overdraft, or incoming wire charges.
- Limitless withdrawals and disbursements.
Cons:
- $100 is required to open an account.
- No paper checks can be found with the account.
CIT Financial institution eChecking pays 0.10% annual proportion yield (APY) on balances beneath $25,000, and 0.25% on balances equal or above. There aren’t any month-to-month service charges, no overdraft charges, and no charges for incoming wire transfers. CIT Financial institution eChecking doesn’t cost ATM charges, and you may be reimbursed for as much as $30 per thirty days for ATM charges charged by different banks. A minimal of $100 is required to open an account.
CIT Financial institution eChecking comes with the flexibility to make transfers, funds, and purchases utilizing Zelle, Invoice Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay. You may make cellular examine deposits and revel in limitless withdrawals and disbursements.
Why we advocate it. CIT eChecking isn’t the highest checking account for incomes curiosity, however it’s in any other case all-around on-line checking account. It pays curiosity on all balances and has none of the usual checking account charges.
CIT Financial institution checking options
CIT Financial institution financial savings accounts
CIT Financial institution Financial savings
Min. stability to earn APY
$5,000
Execs:
- Two of the accounts pay among the many highest rates of interest on balances above $5,000.
- No month-to-month upkeep charges.
Cons:
- Requires at the least $100 to open an account.
CIT Financial institution presents three totally different financial savings account choices:
- Financial savings Builder. Financial savings Builder pays 0.40% APY on balances beneath $25,000, and 1.00% APY on equal or larger balances. No minimal deposit is required to open an account, and there aren’t any month-to-month upkeep charges.
Why we advocate it. Platinum Financial savings is a superb financial savings alternative when you have at the least $5,000. The present fee of 5.05% APY paid on balances of $5,000 or extra is likely one of the highest within the trade, particularly when mixed with the absence of month-to-month service charges. You probably have lower than $5,000, the higher alternative can be Financial savings Join.
CIT Financial institution Financial savings options
CIT Financial institution cash market account
CIT Financial institution MMA
Min. stability to earn APY
N/A
Execs:
- Respectable fee paid on all account balances.
- No month-to-month service charges.
Cons:
- Not the very best fee out there on cash market accounts.
The CIT Financial institution cash market account is presently paying 1.55% APY on all balances. There’s a $100 minimal opening deposit, however no month-to-month service fees.
Why we advocate it. We’re considerably impartial on this account. We like the truth that it pays an inexpensive fee on all account balances and has no month-to-month service charges. Nonetheless, if you’re in search of the very best fee on cash market accounts, it’s best to go elsewhere.
CIT Financial institution MMA options
CIT Financial institution CDs
Execs:
- Time period CDs pay very engaging charges on six-month, 13-month, and 18-month phrases.
- The No-Penalty CD pays a beautiful fee on all balances and has no early withdrawal penalty.
Cons:
- Low charges are paid on Time period CDs with phrases better than 18 months.
- $1,000 minimal funding is required.
- Jumbo CDs pay poor charges on high-balance certificates.
CIT Financial institution presents three CD varieties (its RampUp and RampUp Plus CDs are presently unavailable).
- Time period CDs. These pay the very best charges, together with 5.00% APY on a six-month certificates (see comparability desk beneath for charges paid on all phrases). Time period CDs may be bought in minimal denominations of $1,000 and haven’t any opening or upkeep charges. They’re out there in phrases starting from six months to 5 years.
- No-Penalty CD. This presently pays 4.90 % on all balances and is obtainable in a single time period of 11 months. Just like the Time period CD, the minimal funding is $1,000, and there aren’t any opening or upkeep charges. Because the identify implies, there isn’t any penalty if you’ll want to withdraw funds early.
- Jumbo CDs. These require a minimal preliminary funding of $100,000 and can be found when it comes to two, three, 4, and 5 years. The 2- and three-year phrases pay 0.40% APY, whereas the four- and five-year phrases pay 0.50% APY. There aren’t any account opening or upkeep charges for Jumbo CDs.
Why we advocate it. We just like the No-Penalty CD with its very excessive APY and the absence of an early withdrawal penalty. Time period CDs of 18 months or much less are additionally engaging. The place CIT Financial institution misses the mark is that it pays low charges on longer-term CDs.
CIT Financial institution CDs options
Different CIT Financial institution merchandise
CIT Financial institution presents solely dwelling loans. There’s presently no availability of auto loans, pupil loans, private loans, bank cards, or enterprise companies and financing.
Evaluation of CIT Financial institution options
ATM community
CIT Financial institution offers a debit Mastercard with an eChecking account, however the financial institution doesn’t present an ATM community. You need to use your debit card at any ATM, and CIT will reimburse you as much as $30 every month for any charges charged by ATM house owners.
Charges
Total, CIT Financial institution may be very mild on charges, together with charging $0 for overdraft and inadequate funds, and for incoming wire transfers. The one relevant charges are as follows:
- Outgoing wire transfers: $10, however free for account balances of $25,000 or extra.
- Return deposited merchandise: $10 per merchandise.
- Invoice Pay, cease cost: $30.
- Worldwide point-of-sale/ATM withdrawal: 1% of the transaction quantity.
Early withdrawal penalties on CDs are as follows:
- Phrases as much as one 12 months: three months’ curiosity.
- A couple of 12 months via three years: six months’ curiosity.
- Phrases better than three years: 12 months’ curiosity.
Safety
CIT Financial institution offers a safe messaging portal with communications encryption, ongoing transaction and exercise monitoring, layered safety to restrict entry to data, antivirus safety, firewalls, 128-bit safe socket layer (SSL) encryption to create a safe browser connection, and automated sign-out of your account after a interval of inactivity. Deposits are protected by Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) insurance coverage for as much as $250,000 per depositor.
Customer support
Customer support is on the market by toll-free cellphone at 855-462-2652, 24 hours a day, seven days per week. It’s also possible to contact the financial institution via its on-line platform or cellular app, utilizing electronic mail in both case.
UI/expertise
CIT Financial institution clients can benefit from each on-line and cellular banking. The cellular banking app is on the market for each Android and iOS units and can be utilized to examine account balances, monitor transactions, switch funds between accounts, and pay payments. It’s also possible to use Zelle, Invoice Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay to make funds, purchases, and transfers.
Extra about CIT Financial institution
Who owns CIT Financial institution?
CIT Financial institution is a division of First Residents Financial institution, which describes itself as “one of many largest household managed banks within the nation.” Nonetheless, the mum or dad firm of First Residents Financial institution is First Residents BancShares, Inc., a publicly held firm buying and selling on the NASDAQ alternate beneath the ticker FCNCA. First Residents BancShares has greater than $100 billion in belongings, whereas First Residents Financial institution operates greater than 600 branches in 22 states.
Historical past and status
CIT Financial institution was based in St. Louis in 1908. Although the financial institution began as a conventional native brick-and-mortar establishment, it will definitely advanced into the digital banking platform it’s in the present day. It turned part of First Residents in 2022.
CIT Financial institution has an A- ranking with the Higher Enterprise Bureau, although it’s not accredited via the BBB. Trustpilot charges CIT at 2.2 out of 5 stars (poor), based mostly on 391 critiques as of Sept. 18, 2023.
As of Sept. 18, 2023, Android customers give the cellular app a ranking of two.8 out of 5 stars, based mostly on critiques of greater than 2,900 customers on Google Play. Its app scores from Mac customers are a extra spectacular 4.6 out of 5 stars by roughly 11,400 iOS customers on the App Retailer.
World presence
CIT Financial institution is a digital banking platform out there via on-line and cellular banking. The financial institution doesn’t have bodily financial institution branches, nor does it take part in an ATM community.
How does CIT Financial institution evaluate?
CIT Financial institution Financial savings pays the very best curiosity on financial savings as much as $5,000 among the many banks listed beneath. The cash market account pays a lot lower than Uncover® Financial institution on all balances, and nicely beneath U.S. Financial institution on balances beneath $25,000. With CDs, CIT is the star performer amongst six-month phrases, and it’s aggressive with different phrases. Amongst checking accounts, CIT trails solely Nationwide. Total, CIT is very aggressive on the speed entrance, although it’s not the chief in each class.
TIME Stamp: CIT Financial institution is within the ballpark with most of its merchandise and finest for its No-Penalty CD and Financial savings Join accounts.
CIT Financial institution presents an inexpensive product lineup, together with checking, financial savings, cash market, and choose CDs. Many of the accounts have sensible worth, at the least when put next with typical brick-and-mortar financial institution choices, although none of these merchandise essentially stand out.
It’s additionally vital to know that CIT Financial institution just isn’t a full-service financial institution. Its checking accounts don’t provide paper checks, and the financial institution doesn’t present frequent banking companies reminiscent of bank cards and loans.
The 2 stand-out merchandise within the CIT Financial institution quiver are its No-Penalty CD, with its very excessive fee and no early withdrawal penalty, and its Financial savings Join account, paying 4.65% APY on all account balances with no month-to-month charges.
It could be nicely price your time to open both account with CIT Financial institution.
Regularly requested questions (FAQs)
How do you shut a CIT Checking account?
CIT Financial institution doesn’t present steering on its web site as to find out how to shut an account, however as it’s a absolutely digital financial institution, you’ll have to contact a consultant to provoke an account closure.
How protected is CIT Financial institution?
Like most on-line banks, CIT Financial institution maintains a community of safety to reduce the potential of account or id theft. That features encryption of knowledge transmission, storing private data behind firewalls, and implementing numerous procedures to restrict entry to particular person accounts.
Is CIT Financial institution insured by the FDIC?
Sure. CIT Financial institution is insured by the FDIC for as much as $250,000 per depositor.