BIG offers 4% TAE on 6-month deposit with Spanish IBAN and Portuguese FGD

BIG's 4% TAE six-month offer: the deal that was paid for in paperwork

The sign said 4%. The calendar said six months. And the bank, Portuguese. Banco de Investimento Global (BIG) put on the Spanish shop window, in May 2023, two term deposits that shone in an anaesthetised market: a 3.5% TAE three-month and a 4% TAE six-month, with Spanish IBAN, withholdings that appear on their own in the draft income tax return —without Modelo 720— and the Portuguese Deposit Guarantee Fund as a safety net. On paper, the best return at the time. In practice, the small print and the app would soon take their toll.

The conditions behind a 4% TAE six-month deposit

The 4% tranche accepts between 10,000 and 75,000 euros. The 3.5% one goes from 1,000 to 50,000. Each customer can have a maximum of two deposits and only one per term. According to the information circulated in the promotion, account opening is done only from the app, with location permission and data consent, they do not accept two holders and are excluded for tax residents in Navarra or the Basque Country. Interest is paid at maturity, the cut-off time is 16:00 and the account is cancelled if 24 months pass without movements or if 100 euros are not deposited in the first three months.

In exchange for opening the account, the bank opens a non-remunerated current account, a "Gran Cuenta" at 0.10% and a securities account that is actually the cash to trade with the bank's broker; the actual custody rests with Saxo Bank. If that account stays at zero and unused, it never generates a fee. If it has liquidity and accumulates a year without movements, 36 euros plus VAT. Transfers are free up to 50,000 euros per day; above that, 30 euros cost. Immediate transfers, none.

Is it 4% annual or 2% in total?

Here consensus broke. TAE is an annual rate and the deposit lasts half: on 100,000 euros, six months at 4% leaves 2,000 euros gross, not 4,000. Hence some of the public read the offer as a "real 2%" and others replied, with impeccable arithmetic, that that 2% only exists if someone leaves the money idle for the remaining half-year, which no one is obliged to do. If after six months the capital is collected and placed at the same rate in another institution, the annual return is again 4%. If it is parked at 0%, it effectively becomes 2%.

The discrepancy was not financial, it was about time horizon. Underneath lurked a more uncomfortable suspicion: what will happen in six months? No one signs today the rate the market will offer in the next round, and that is where the conservative saver's argument crosses with that of the promotion hunter.

How much is left net for the maximum tranche

According to the breakdown that circulated in the thread, the 75,000 euro cap of the 4% six-month deposit produces 1,500 euros gross; after applying the 19% withholding, 1,215 euros net remain. Whoever also took out the second deposit, the 3.5% one, added another tranche of interest, with the detail that amounts exceeding the Portuguese fund's coverage go without a net. The full calculation, broken down tranche by tranche, is where the conversation got most tangled.

Facto, EBN and RenaultBank: who it competed with

The most cited alternative was Cuenta Facto, which raised its offer to 3.55% from six months and paid 3.03% for three. EBN Banco offered 3.20% TAE for twelve months (3.16% nominal) and 3% for six, RenaultBank 2.27% with no balance limit and MyInvestor 2% up to 50,000 euros. The comparison left BIG ahead in immediate return and behind in convenience, and that is exactly the dilemma that was repeated throughout the thread.

The problem was not the interest: it was validating the account

On paper, the contract was immediate. The real times that accumulated: three days, eight, ten, twelve and up to 19 days with the app repeating that the account was still "activating". IBAN delivered, operations blocked, and deposits expired along the way. Several applicants directly requested cancellation without having transferred a single euro, and some discovered that cancellation was not processed quickly either. For a product that lives on the time window, the bottleneck was exactly where it hurt most.

From 4% to 1%: the cut that closed the story

In the end the offer deflated. The rates that remained in the bank's shop window: twelve months at 2.35%, six months at 1.75% and three months at 1%. The 4% that had attracted all the attention no longer appears on the website, and the conversation drifted towards the usual: whether it is worth locking in a short term in case the market improves, or staying put rather than repeating an account opening that drags on forever.

How many of those deposits would have actually been taken out if the account had been validated in three days instead of nineteen? The question remains unanswered, and the 4% is no longer in the shop window.