Frequently Asked Questions

Red Capital is a free digital savings marketplace that connects savers to federally insured partner banks and credit unions offering their best digital-only rates and products. With a single Red Capital login, you can fund and manage multiple products from multiple financial institutions, helping you get more out of your cash savings. Red Capital is not a bank. It is a digital savings marketplace where you can fund federally insured deposit products with a wide range of maturities and APYs (annual percentage yield) offered by our partner banks and credit unions, allowing you to design a savings strategy customized to your earning and liquidity needs.

Your Red Capital account offers you access to savings accounts and certificates of deposit offered by an exclusive selection of banks and credit unions—all with the security of federal deposit insurance up to institutional limits. These products include: High-Yield Savings Account (HYSA). As its name indicates, this account type functions like a traditional savings account, with no restrictions on deposits or withdrawals. However, it earns interest (or dividends in the case of credit union savings products) at rates that are higher than the national average for standard savings accounts. Money Market Deposit Account (MMDA). Also known as a money market account or MMA, this type of savings account offers a varying rate that allows you to earn interest (or dividends) on your funds with maximum flexibility for withdrawals. Like a HYSA, an MMDA offers features of a traditional savings account with typically higher returns. No-Penalty CD. Through the flexibility of a No-Penalty CD, you can lock in a competitive rate for a fixed term with the option to make a full withdrawal without having to pay a penalty for the early termination. Terms and conditions may vary by product. Please see specific product terms for more details. Fixed-Term CD. With this savings vehicle, funds are held for a fixed term, and a competitive APY (annual percentage yield) provides safe, predictable earnings. In contrast to No-Penalty CDs, typically you are charged a fee if you do not complete the full term of the Fixed-Term CD.

Yes! You can deposit money in a range of savings products from one of our partner banks and credit unions once you are a Red Capital customer. If you would like to see these or other features added to Red Capital, let us know by emailing us at support@redcapital.partners.

Red Capital customers’ funds are held in a custodial account with the bank or credit union that is providing your selected savings product(s). All financial institutions on the Red Capital platform are insured by either the FDIC or NCUA, so your funds are held at a federally insured institution at all times and are eligible for deposit insurance up to institutional limits (typically $250,000 per depositor, per institution).

To ensure the Red Capital platform is as safe and secure as possible, we work with federally insured banks as the custodians of your funds. These custodial banks establish accounts at each bank or credit union on our platform and hold the funds there for the benefit of customers. This allows you to open one single Red Capital account while funding multiple products at different financial institutions if you so choose. Red Capital never touches your funds and they are always held with a federally insured institution for your safety and security. Additionally, your money is associated with your unique Red Capital ID, ensuring clear distinction and security for your savings in the custodial accounts. The current custodial banks are Central Bank of Kansas City, Lewis & Clark Bank and Starion Bank. All are Members FDIC.

Although Red Capital customers’ deposits are pooled in omnibus custodial accounts, there is no impact on the eligible deposit insurance coverage you receive from the financial institution holding your savings. This is because the government entities providing federal deposit insurance — the FDIC for banks and NCUA for credit unions — permit pass-through coverage. So your money has the same coverage in a custodial account as if it were held in an individual account in your name.

Red Capital does not charge our customers any fees — seriously. The only fee you may encounter on the Red Capital platform is an early withdrawal penalty on a fixed-term CD, as outlined in that product’s terms.

Our partner banks and credit unions pay fees to Red Capital in return for marketing their products to savers across the United States. This allows us to provide our platform and services free to our valued customers! That’s a win-win!

Interest (or dividends in the case of credit union savings products) is compounded daily and posted to your account monthly.

The short answer is yes! Red Capital exclusively partners with FDIC-insured banks and NCUA-insured credit unions. For Red Capital customers who hold savings products offered by one of our partner banks, funds are insured by the FDIC up to the maximum amount in accordance with and as permitted by law at each bank holding their funds. The standard deposit insurance coverage limit is $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, per account ownership category. Ownership categories as defined by the FDIC include single bank accounts (owned by one person/depositor) and joint bank accounts (owned by two or more persons/depositors). Revocable trust accounts and some types of retirement accounts (e.g., IRAs) are among the other ownership categories covered by FDIC insurance. All deposits you have at a bank — whether made through Red Capital or otherwise — count toward the deposit insurance limit. If funds held at a bank in a certain ownership category exceed the coverage limit, then the amount in excess of the limit will not be insured. For Red Capital customers who hold a savings product offered by one of our partner credit unions, funds are insured by the NCUA through its Share Insurance Fund. According to the NCUA, each credit union member has at least $250,000 in total coverage. The Share Insurance Fund insures individual accounts up to $250,000. Additionally, a member’s interest in all joint accounts combined is insured up to $250,000 per co-owner.

At Red Capital, cybersecurity is a top priority. Red Capital is a SOC 2 certified platform, meaning it has been validated by outside auditors across five (5) key information security principles. We also use a variety of measures to protect our customers' data, privacy and transactions, including: • User authentication. The Red Capital platform uses multi-factor authentication combined with leading authentication technology to validate our customers’ identities. • Data encryption. Your personal information is encrypted in-transit and at rest using advanced cryptographic security algorithms. • Site protection. Cloudflare™ advanced internet protection technologies are implemented to protect Red Capital.com from malicious actors, botnets and denial of service attacks (DDOS). • Monitoring. An always-on information security monitoring platform detects and alerts us to information security events. • Assessments. Our platform undergoes vigorous security assessments and testing throughout the lifecycle of application development, from architecture planning to production phases. For more information on Red Capital's data protection, please click here. Cloudflare™ is a registered trademark of Cloudflare, Inc.

We partner with banks that offer consumers competitive interest rates and with credit unions that offer industry-leading dividends. However, the institutions behind these deposit products set the rates for the products they offer independently and may take into consideration factors like market conditions or their individual funding needs. Please note, rates may be subject to change.

Banks and credit unions choose to partner with Red Capital! Community and regional financial institutions may not have the resources that larger banks have to promote their products to customers at a larger scale. Instead, they rely on Red Capital’s expertise in digital deposits to offer their products online to our customers. Best of all, these federally insured financial institutions pay Red Capital fees in exchange for our services, meaning Red Capital customers pay no fees to save with them.

Red Capital only partners with banks and credit unions that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or National Credit Union Administration, respectively. Federal deposit insurance protects depositors’ funds against loss in case of bank or credit union failure up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per account ownership category. Saving money up to this limit with a federally insured financial institution remains a relatively safe way of storing savings. Both agencies report that no depositor has ever lost a penny of insured funds in instances of institutional failure or insolvency.

Check the Explore Products page to see the partner banks and credit unions in our network.

Opening a Red Capital account is easy, requires no credit check, and typically takes less than five minutes. Here’s how: 1. View the offers on our savings marketplace and select your preferred product. 2. Follow prompts to enter your email and create a password. 3. Complete our simple online application and, after successful identity verification, link a bank account from which to fund your first deposit. 4. Start earning interest as soon as your money is received by the bank or credit union offering the savings product you selected. Any questions or concerns? Email us at support@redcapital.partners

All deposits and withdrawals are completed within one to three (1-3) business days. After the initial deposit, you may encounter a withdrawal limitation for the first few business days. Business days are Monday through Friday excluding U.S. bank holidays. Limitations and fees on transfers are product-specific. For high-yield savings accounts or money market deposit accounts, there are no limits on deposits to or withdrawals. For certificates of deposit, no further deposits can be made after a CD is opened and withdrawals before account maturity may incur penalty fees. Consult your specific product’s terms for more details. For no-penalty certificates of deposit, no further deposits can be made after the no-penalty CD is opened and only complete withdrawals are possible. There are typically no fees for withdrawal, however there may be a minimum period to have your funds deposited. Consult your specific product’s terms for more details.

Your routing number and account number are displayed at the bottom of your personal check (see image). If you don’t have a check, you can log in to your account online or through your mobile banking app to locate this information. Otherwise, contact your bank by phone or by visiting a branch.

Currently, our platform allows customers to add deposit products to their Red Capital account with a joint owner. We hope to offer other account types in the future.

For products offered by banks, all necessary registration is handled when you become a Red Capital customer. One of the many benefits of our platform is that, by opening a Red Capital account, you are able to deposit money and earn competitive interest rates from any of the financial institutions in our network. When you select and fund a savings product offered by a credit union, there is an additional step of becoming a member. Red Capital makes that process quick, easy, and free. For any savings accounts or CDs opened through the Red Capital platform, your funds are held at your chosen bank or credit union and are insured up to institutional limits. However, your relationship is solely with Red Capital and our custodial bank.

Yes! We offer up to $1,000 in bonuses when customers refer their friends and family ($50 per referral, up to a maximum of 20 referrals). Referred customers are eligible to earn up to $125 in bonuses based on program eligibility requirements. For complete details, please click here.

If you’re only seeing a button to withdraw funds, it is likely because you are a secondary account holder. Currently, only primary account holders are able to deposit funds directly.

Yes! It’s easy to open a joint account with Red Capital. For step-by-step instructions, click here.

If you are unable to add an external account to your Red Capital profile, it is likely because you are a secondary account holder. Currently, only primary account holders can add an external account to their profile.

If you are a secondary account holder on a joint account, you will be unable to view tax documents directly. Currently, only primary account holders have access to this feature.

Please email us at support@redcapital.partners.

If your per-institution balances via Red Capital are all below the maximums, then you should encounter no major changes in your day-to-day use of the Red Capital platform. The only thing you may notice is an alert if you attempt to initiate a deposit that would put you over the per-institution limits of our platform.

If you currently have deposits at an institution or across any of its brands that are above these limits, there will be no change to how your funds are allocated and the new limits will not require you to move any funds out of these accounts. For funds currently deposited in certificates of deposit, please remember that any changes you wish to make remain subject to any early withdrawal penalties as outlined in your product terms. For funds currently deposited in high-yield savings or money market deposit accounts, please note that you will not be able to make further deposits to accounts in excess of these limits and, instead, will need to make the deposit into an account with a new institution. It is easy, however, to make deposits into new products offered by other institutions. If you would like to deposit additional funds, please go to “Explore products”, select a product offered by a different institution, and follow prompts to deposit. As a reminder, there are no fees for funding additional savings products with your Red Capital account.

Because of the rates our partners offer, there is a chance that you may deposit funds that are above our per-institution maximums of $250,000 for individual and $500,000 for joint accounts. For high-yield savings or money market deposit accounts that reach per-institution limits due to interest earned, you will no longer be able to deposit additional funds to these accounts. However, you can easily withdraw funds to deposit into a product offered by a different institution. For certificates of deposit, please remember that any changes you wish to make remain subject to any early withdrawal penalties as outlined in your product terms.

If your certificate of deposit automatically renews and the new balance is above our per-institution limits, please note that funds in excess of per-institution federal deposit insurance limits are not covered. As always, you have a seven-day grace period to cancel a CD rollover with no penalties.

Federal deposit insurance limits are per institution and include all funds our customers have on deposit, both through their relationship with Red Capital and outside of Red Capital. As further detailed in our Terms of Service, it remains your responsibility to monitor your funds and respective deposit insurance coverage.

No, Red Capital does not engage in any monitoring of per-institution balances. While Red Capital can make it easy for you to maximize your federal deposit insurance, it remains your responsibility to regularly check your account and to decide what you would like to do with any funds in excess of the deposit insurance limits. Please monitor the amount of funds you have on deposit at each partner bank and/or credit union, both through your relationship with Red Capital and outside of Red Capital, in order to stay within federal deposit insurance limits.

Please email us at support@redcapital.partners

To ensure the Red Capital platform is as safe and secure as possible, we work with federally insured banks as the custodians of your funds. These custodian banks establish accounts at each bank or credit union on our platform and hold the funds there for the benefit of customers. This allows you to open one single Red Capital account with the custodian banks while funding multiple products at different financial institutions if you so choose. Red Capital never touches your funds and they are always held with a federally insured institution for your safety and security.

Yes, you will receive a consolidated Form 1099-INT for all products where your aggregated earned interest per custodial bank is equal to or higher than $10.

Many of our customers hold multiple savings products on our platform. In order to minimize your paperwork, we are now issuing 1099s per custodian bank, rather than one per product.

The interest income field is populated with the aggregated capitalized interest earned across all products during the 2023 financial year. Forms will be aggregated by custodian banks. You can view a breakdown by account level calculations by logging into your Red Capital account and viewing the documents section.

Yes. IRS regulations require that all the accrued interest income from the last year must be reported as interest income, irrespective of the product category. Further IRS guidance can be found here: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099int

1099-INT Forms will be issued to the primary account owner. The primary account owner is the first name and taxpayer identification number listed on an account. Only the primary account owner’s name and taxpayer identification number are included in the submission to the IRS, regardless of any secondary account owners.

Each partner bank is mapped to a specific custodial bank (details of this mapping can be found here). For reporting purposes, Red Capital aggregates the interest you earned across a group of institutions under each custodian. For example, if you earned: $15 from XYZ Bank, associated with Lewis & Clark Bank $20 from ABC Bank, associated with Lewis & Clark Bank $25 from DEF Bank, associated with Central Bank of Kansas City You will receive 2 Form 1099-INTs: One form with Lewis & Clark Bank listed as the payer with an aggregated interest income of $35 ($15+$20) One form with the Central Bank of Kansas City listed as the payer with an aggregated interest income of $25

Your Red Capital tax documents can be accessed through your Red Capital account. Log into your Red Capital account Click Documents at the top of the page. You will first see your monthly statements. From here, click Tax Documents. You will be brought to the most recent tax year. If you are looking for documents from a previous tax year, click the drop-down menu in order to select the year you need. Click on this icon to download each 1099-INT Please note that you may not have tax documents for all years available in the drop-down menu. You will only receive tax documents for years during which you earned $10 or more in interest via Red Capital. If you have a joint account, only the primary account holder is able to access tax documents for any shared accounts.

No, only the primary account holder will receive tax documentation.

A 1099-INT form is a tax form used in the United States to report interest income earned from various sources. The form is typically issued by banks and other financial institutions to individuals who have earned interest income on their accounts throughout the tax year. It includes information such as the total amount of interest earned and, if applicable, any associated taxes that were withheld.

Yes, you generally need to report the information from your 1099-INT on your tax return. The interest income you receive is considered taxable income, and the IRS requires you to report it on your federal income tax return. Even if you don't receive a 1099-INT, you are still responsible for reporting all your interest income.

The entire amount of interest income you receive is generally considered taxable. However, there are some exceptions and specific situations where certain types of interest may be tax-exempt. It's important to review the instructions that come with your 1099-INT and consult with a tax professional to ensure you accurately report and calculate your taxable interest income.

In the event a Red Capital partner bank fails, your funds deposited with that institution remain insured up to the FDIC limit, respectively. This is typically up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured institution, per account ownership category. Keep in mind that all deposits you have at a bank — whether made through Red Capital or otherwise — count toward this deposit insurance limit. In the event of a failure, your funds would likely be temporarily frozen while the FDIC works toward resolving the failure, either through issuing payment to the depositor directly by check up to the insurance balance in each account (typically within a few days of the bank closure) or through the purchase of the failed bank by a healthy bank. In the event a Red Capital partner bank is sold, you would still have access to your funds; they would just be deposited at the assuming bank. You would be able to then deposit or withdraw your funds as needed.

Because Red Capital is not a bank and your money is always handled by a federally insured financial institution, in the unlikely event that Red Capital goes out of business, our FDIC-insured custodian bank would simply return any funds you have in our platform to your external linked bank account. Our custodian banks keep records of all funds held in our platform for added security.