Boost Your Marcus Savings Yield With a Referral

Earn up to 5.4%, risk free and liquid, with a Marcus referral bonus.

For a while, Marcus (an online savings account by Goldman Sachs) has been offering a rate bump for three months when you refer someone to Marcus.

The current APY is 4.4%.

With this Marcus refer a friend offer, though, you’ll earn an extra 1.0% on your rate for 3 months , and so will your friend. Of course the value of this depends on how much you each have in savings. At the max $250,000 for FDIC, you’d each earn an extra $625 per 3 months.

That said, there are other banks that offer a higher base rate than Marcus, meaning it doesn’t drop a full 1% after 3 months.

For example, instead of Marcus at 4.4% with an extra 1% for 3 months, you could choose the online bank UFB Direct.

UFB Direct offers 5.25% via this link (APY as of Apr 4, 2024 – rates subject to change – confirm before applying).

While of course that rate can change with market conditions, it’s reasonable to assume that their base rate will exceed the Marcus base rate for the foreseeable future. Right now it’s 0.85% higher. In fact, Marcus just dropped their rate 0.1% (during a period where overall rates are unchanged) while UFB maintained their 5.25%.

All of that said, if you prefer to stick with Marcus and get a 1% yield bump for 3 months, here is my referral link)

More online bank options:

(And yes, while it’s not miles related, there is a ton of overlap between miles and personal finance and I do like to alert readers to these opportunities!)

To refer a friend from your own Marcus account, you can just sign into your Marcus account and look for the referral center to generate a link. You can refer up to 5 people per calendar year and each referral will add another 3 months to your yield bump.

Note: Your the person you refer cannot have had a Marcus savings or CD product in the last 12 months to qualify as new.

Recap on Marcus Refer-a-Friend:

If you are new, you can earn 1% over the normal rate for 3 months (which as of now is 4.4% – increased to 5.5%), by using my referral link. You can also stack AARP on top for an extra 0.10% yield bump, though that only lasts for two years.

However, as noted above, since it’s only for 3 months, you may be better suited with an account that has a significantly higher standard rate that will outlive your 3 month bonus – like UFB Direct or even a money market account. 

Questions?

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New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.