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Review |
Published: Nov 25, 2022 Updated: May 15, 2024 |
Juno (CapitalJ Inc.) was founded in 2020 as a cross border neo bank with a focus on crypto. Juno is not a bank, but they partner with Evolve Bank and Trust (Bank ID 592448, FDIC Certificate # 1299) to offer banking services including the standard $250,000 deposit insurance. At first, we avoided Juno because their main focus is crypto. When they raised their interest rate to 5%, we decided to give them a try. As of May 15, 2024, Juno no longer offers an interest rate or cash back on debit purchases and the redemption value has been significantly reduced for gift card rewards.
Bottom Line Up Front: Take advantage of the 5% interest and 5% cash back while they last. We no longer recommend using Juno.
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Checking/Savings
Juno combines checking and savings features into one account. Their interest rate structure has changed multiple times in the past few year and now offers a 5.12% annualized bonus on balances up to $5,000. As of April 1, 2024, there is no interest paid for deposits greater than $5,000. Deposit bonuses are accrued daily and distributed monthly in the 1st week of every month.
Juno is very transparent when it comes to your interest payments. Total lifetime interest (they call bonus) is displayed in several places along with a graph by month so you can see the progress of your savings. Juno allows you to track all the details for your monthly interest payments by displaying daily and monthly interest earned, daily closing balance, and the exact amount of interest you are on track to earn in the current month if your balance remains the same. We think these features provide great incentives to grow your savings.
Instant Debit Card Funding
Juno recently introduced the option to add funds to your Juno account instantly from your debit card with another bank. This service is offered through their partner Astra and currently works with Visa and Mastercard only. Transfers will be charged a fee of 2% and $0.30 per transaction, but the first three transactions are free. These options provide more flexibility compared to the standard ACH (automated clearing house) bank transfers which take up to 3 business days.
Debit Mastercard
The Juno account comes with a virtual debit Mastercard that has no foreign transaction fees. You can use this card anywhere Mastercard is accepted. You can request a physical card also, but there may be fees for this if you don't maintain a monthly deposit. You can also get more benefits if you upgrade to the Metal card by maintaining a $250 monthly direct deposit. Note that if you request a Metal card and are unable to maintain the $250 direct deposit for 3 months, you may be charged a fee.
The Juno debit card can be used for free at ATMs on the MoneyPass and Allpoint networks. This includes over 85,000 ATMs at stores such as Walgreens, CVS, 7-Eleven, Dollar General and Circle K. Juno also offers 1 free out-of-network ATM withdrawal per month. Metal users will receive 3 free out-of-network ATM withdrawals per month.
Every month you can select 10 merchants to earn 5% cashback with. Basic Users earn a 5% cashback reward on purchases up to $500 each year for a maximum annual cashback reward of $25. Metal users earn cashback rewards on annual purchases up to $10,000 with a maximum annual cashback reward of $500. Cashback is only available with the merchants you choose. Once the cashback limit has been reached, there will be no additional cashback rewards on card purchases.
Pay Anyone
Juno has its own pay anyone feature similar to Zelle, CashApp or Venmo. With Juno, you can send money within the U.S. for free whether the other person has Juno or not. You access this feature by using the bank transfer option within the U.S. "Send Cash" option. For the first transaction you make with each person, you will need to enter the recipient's legal name, bank account type, routing number and account number. After the first transaction, each contact's information will be saved in your local recipients to make future transfers much easier. You can enter an optional note for each transaction and the funds will appear in the recipient's account within 3 business days. There are no instant transfer options at this time.
Gift Card Rewards
On February 7, 2023, the Juno gift card rewards program went live after being advertised for months! To activate gift cards in the Juno Store, you will need to first accumulate at least 5,000 JCOIN. JCOIN is Juno's crypto token used for its customer loyalty rewards program. You earn 1 JCOIN for every dollar of direct deposit and every dollar of Juno debit card spending. Metal users earn 2 JCOIN per dollar. You can also earn 10,000 JCOIN for successful referrals. Juno occasionally offers special events to earn more JCOIN. There are other options for redeeming JCOIN, but we will focus on the gift cards.
You can choose gift cards from over 20 popular partners and the redemption values have been simplified to 5,000 JCOIN per $5 with a 10% discount on a $50 gift card. If we consider earning JCOIN for only direct deposits, then basic users will receive a benefit of $1 in gift cards for every $1,000 in direct deposits. Because Metal users earn double JCOIN, Metal users will receive a benefit of $1 in gift cards for every $500 in direct deposits. While these amounts are not huge, very few banks will essentially pay you for your direct deposit.
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