HUGE Updates Coming to SoFi in 2022 - YouTube

SoFi is gearing up to make some huge updates in  2022 including more competitive interest rates,  

an updated interface, and even offering  some brand new products to their already  

impressive lineup of incredible financial tools so  today let's breakdown every change that is coming  

up so that you know what to expect from SoFi  this year. Alright let's jump right into it.  

What is going on everyone I hope you're  all having a fantastic day. So last week  

we talked about some huge news that SoFi recently  announced and how that impacted SoFi’s stock price  

but I realized that not everyone is interested  in investing in SoFi and simply wants to know  

what this means for the SoFi platform from a  user's perspective. So if you don't yet have  

SoFi and you'd like to give it a shot there is  a link in the description below where you can  

sign up and get $50 for free so definitely check  that out but let's get started with some of these  

major updates. So the huge piece of news that was  announced a few weeks ago is that SoFi finally  

received regulatory approval for their national  banking charter. So we looked at the impact that  

this announcement had on SoFi stock price last  week but from a user's perspective, this might  

not seem like a huge deal but trust me it is.  As you might already know, up until this point  

SoFi was really just a technology company hence  the name SoFi technologies incorporated and they  

actually partnered with a number of partner banks  who are the ones who took care of the backdoor  

nuances of actually being a bank. And there's  absolutely nothing wrong with that and actually,  

a majority of these financial technology companies  are set up in the exact same way. However,  

by receiving their national banking charter, this  means that SoFi will not just be providing the  

flashy user interface and technology but is  now actually the bank behind their products.  

But again you may be asking who cares. Well, what  this means is SoFi has essentially removed the  

middleman from the equation because they now no  longer have to go through those partner banks in  

order to access the funds and interest rates that  are made available and set by the Federal Reserve.  

And by removing that middleman, that means that  they are able to offer higher interest rates on  

their banking products, and more competitive lower  interest rates on their lending products. Not  

to mention the fact that this also gives them  the ability to launch some brand new products  

that were previously not available to them  which we'll talk more about in a second.  

SoFi’s the CEO Anthony Noto said “This incredible  milestone elevates our ability to help even more  

people get their money right and realize their  ambitions With a National Bank charter not only  

will we be able to lend at even more competitive  interest rates and provide our members with high  

yielding interest in checking and savings, it will  also enhance our financial products and services  

to ensure they efficiently meet the needs of our  members, business partners, and communities across  

the country while continuing to uphold a high bar  of regulatory standards and compliance.” There's  

a lot to unpack there but the first thing that  really sticks out to me is the fact that he said  

high yield interest on checking and savings and  this is actually the first new product lineup that  

I believe SoFi is going to launch in the coming  months. So if you currently have SoFi you may  

know that the SoFi money account is really a  hybrid platform that is a blend of your checking  

and savings account and these two things are not  separated. Now you do currently have SoFi vaults  

which is sort of like a savings account and that  vaults feature is not going anywhere but based on  

the statement I just read you and a blog posted by  SoFi just a few days ago, it looks like they are  

gearing up to launch separate checking and savings  accounts for easy budgeting. Personally, I'm a  

huge fan of this because I already used these SoFi  vaults as my savings account but I'm curious what  

you think of this down in the comments section and  whether you'd prefer to have a separate checking  

or savings account or if you'd just like to keep  the hybrid acount as it currently is. Regardless  

of how you feel about that the other great  news that so if I had announced a few days ago  

is they are already planning to raise interest  rates to 1% APY on a checking and savings balances  

when you have direct deposit set up which I  will show you how to do in a second. Now we've  

seen interest rates on checking and savings  accounts slowly start to rise in recent weeks  

since the Federal Reserve has made it clear that  they do plan on raising interest rates in 2022  

but again the fact that SoFi has removed that  middleman and now is able to directly access those  

interest rates that are set by the Federal Reserve  means that they are already taking there .25%  

interest rate all the way up to 1% and who knows  those rates might continue to rise throughout  

the year. Now there's a few important things  down in the fine print that I do want to point  

out in regard to those interest rates. First of  all the 1% APY is only on your first $50,000 of  

balances however it does say that you can have a  cumulative balance of $150,000 in your SoFi vaults  

and all of those funds will also earn 1% APY and  chances are most of us will probably fall under  

those thresholds anyways so 1% on that amount of  money is pretty awesome. Another important thing  

to keep in mind is that previously SoFi offered  $1.5 million in FDIC insurance because they had  

multiple partner banks who were each able to offer  $250,000 of FDIC insurance. However since SoFi  

is now their own bank, they are only able to  offer the standards $250,000 in FDIC insurance  

so again not really relevant unless you have a  ton of cash sitting around but just something I  

wanted to mention. It does also say that members  who do not have direct deposit will only earn  

0.25% on their account balances so this probably  goes without saying but you definitely want to  

set up direct deposit through your SoFi account  for a number of reasons including earning that  

higher interest rate. Thankfully doing this  is super easy and can be done right from your  

smartphone so let's hop inside these SoFi app  and I'll show you how to set up direct deposit.

There we go it really is just that easy and you're  now able to automatically budget your direct  

deposit funds, get paid early, and earn 1% APY  once that update is made available to the public.  

On SoFi’s blog they also mention that they'll  be adding a new automated savings features and  

a better banking and user-friendly interface  so it's a little unclear what exactly that will  

look like at the moment but it looks like they're  planning on rolling out these features pretty soon  

so it definitely keep an eye out for an update  to the SoFi app and again if you haven't signed  

up for SoFi be sure to use the link down  in the description below and set up direct  

deposit so that you can take full advantage  of all of these fantastic updates. That's  

everything that's SoFi has announced for the  time being but their strategic acquisition of  

Golden Pacific Bank Corp which is a small  local bank that SoFi acquired last year  

shows that they are operating in the fast lane  and the fact that they were able to get regulatory  

approval in such a short time period is really  impressive and I don't think they're going to wait  

very long to start launching these new features  and possibly other features that they haven't even  

announced yet. I've said this before but I would  love to see them add a business banking option  

but again with these new changes the sky is really  the limit for SoFi and I cannot wait to see what  

they come up with next. So I'd love to know  what you think of these updates and SoFi’s new  

national banking charter down in the comment  section below and what features you would like  

to see them add going forward. Again  if you do not yet have SoFi and you  

want to sign up I will leave that link in the  description below where you can sign up and get  

$50 for free when you open and fund your account  and sometimes they're also offering cash bonuses  

for setting up direct deposit so again be sure  to take care of that and who knows you might  

get some free money from that as well. As always  if you did get value out of this content and you  

want to help support me the easiest way  to do that is by checking out some of my  

favorite financial tools down in the description  below and of course be sure to hit like button  

and subscribe the channel for more content like  this in the future. As always thank you so much  

for your time I really do appreciate it so much  take it easy and I'll see you in the next one!