If you’ve been thinking and reading about personal finance, there’s probably a term you’ve heard thrown around at least a couple times: Financial Freedom. It’s what you get when your assets make enough money to pay for your expenses and eliminate the need for you to continue working a day job. The first step, and one of the core pillars, of achieving financial freedom, is saving. The faster you’re able to save money, the sooner you can become financially free. Easier said than done, I know. That’s why Tellus Boost helps your savings earn more, so every dollar you save gets you even closer to your financial goals.
What is Tellus Boost?
Tellus Boost is a high-yield savings solution that allows you to earn more and worry less. We pay an industry-leading 3% APY as a baseline rate. That means that the minimum you will make in a year is 3%. However, since we pay and compound interest every day, you’re actually earning even more, and every deposit starts earning interest right away.
Tellus Boost is not a savings account and we are not a bank, so you can expect a few major differences. First, the interest you earn is real. No more dealing with pennies per month (if you’re lucky), since we pay interest and credit your account every day. Another added benefit is that you can manage your account through our mobile app with plenty of extra features, including boosts that increase your interest rate even further. If you’re tired of the clunky mobile experience you’re accustomed to with your bank; you’ll understand how big of a deal this can be. Finally, we offer live chat with our customer support team who is dedicated to helping you solve any problems and answer any questions you might face. No more sitting on hold and waiting to be transferred to the right department; just chat with a real person.
How does it work?
Tellus is built for two types of people. Savers, who use our high-yield cash account to earn a better return than they would get from their bank, and Owners, who use our suite of property management tools to manage their rental properties with ease. Funds that are deposited in the Tellus Boost account by Savers are used to issue loans to Owners. These loans are secured by their property or real estate, the same way that your typical bank might issue a mortgage to its clients. Tellus sits in the middle, and Savers don’t have any direct real estate or loan exposure. By servicing both sides, we’re able to have full control over the process from start to finish. This helps reduce the level of uncertainty and instability you may have come to expect from mainstream interest rates.
How is the rate so high?
When an Owner takes out a loan with us, they’re required to repay the loan over time, usually in monthly installments. Our loans typically have interest rates that exceed the amount that we pay Savers for those funds. The difference between these rates is how Tellus makes money, and more importantly, how we can afford to pay you a rate that’s so much higher than our competitors! Most traditional savings accounts as well as “high-yield” savings competitors out there have rates that fluctuate greatly over time. We offer 3% APY year-round, while many of our closest competitor’s rates often drop below even 1% APY.
What are boosts?
Tellus Boost gets its name from a unique opportunity we give Savers that you won’t find anywhere else. Despite offering 3% APY, one of the most competitive fixed rates available right now, we don’t stop there. Boosts allow you to increase your rate even further. Each boost has a varying effect, ranging from a simple additive increase to your rate, all the way to a multiplier that doubles your rate to 6% APY! Boosts have a limited duration, which means you might only have that rate for a day, but as long as you’re using boosts frequently, you can make a sizable impact on the total return you’ll get over the course of an entire year.
There are a few ways that you can get started earning boosts. The simplest and easiest way is just to log in to the Tellus app every day. You’ll have a free boost waiting for you to claim it and a daily quiz that you can answer for a chance at another. These boosts usually only last for one day, so you can pick the one you want to apply and put it to use. If you’re looking for some longer term boosts, we will occasionally offer promotions for boosts that can last anywhere from 7 to 30 days, so keep checking in so you don’t miss out!
Is it safe?
A question we get all the time is whether Tellus Boost is FDIC insured. In short, the answer to that question is, “No”. We are not a bank. And since FDIC insurance is only available to member banks, it is not available to us. However, that does not mean that Tellus Boost is an unsafe alternative to traditional banking. Banks are limited in the types of investments that they can make, which would make our current system (as described in the “How does it work?” section above) impossible. It’s simple, it works, and we strongly believe in its merits.
We also don’t think FDIC insurance is all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, you may not even need it. This thought likely flies in the face of a lot of financial advice you’ve gotten up to this point, but hear us out. At the end of the day, FDIC insurance only kicks in if your bank fails, and if that happens, you probably have bigger fish to fry. If you’ve ever held any amount of money in a brokerage account, you were likely exposing yourself to more risk than you would with Tellus.
Any money you have deposited in a Tellus Boost account is protected by real estate assets with a significant enough cushion built in to survive even the worst housing crises in US history. Even those events were incredibly rare and infrequent blemishes on the otherwise clean record of one of the most historically stable markets of the modern era. Regardless of your faith in the real estate market as a whole, that risk falls on our shoulders and ours alone. In other words, the money in your Tellus Boost account is not at risk when real estate markets rise or fall.
Is there customer service?
The most common compliment we receive is how helpful and responsive our support team is! Monday through Friday from 9-5 PST, you can chat live with one of our support specialists. No matter what your concern is, whether you’re having an issue with the app or you simply have a question about how to get the most out of your boosts, our support team is ready to help you out in any way possible.