FNBO Direct Online Savings Account - Product Review

The FNBO Direct Online Savings Account is an online savings account offered by the First National Bank of Omaha. Online savings accounts link to your existing checking or savings account and allow you to transfer money between your existing checking or savings and the new online savings account. Online savings accounts have been around for several years now and offer much higher interest rates on your deposited savings. From FNBO Direct's website, FNBO Direct can pay such a high interest rate on deposits "due to the lower costs associated with a pure online bank...No paper. No branches. No mailed applications. All applications must be submitted online." This account is easy to open and is available to anyone in the U.S. It has no minimum balance required to open or maintain. According to their website, it currently offers a high 1.50% interest rate on all deposits, not just on large amounts like the majority of brick and mortar banks.

I set up my online savings account with an initial deposit of $50 from my checking account at another bank. The process to set up an online savings account with FNBO Direct was very quick and easy. One limitation of all savings accounts is that if you aren't allowed to make more than six withdrawals per month from a savings account per federal law. You can get around this by either making withdrawals via ATM, or by opening up a secondary Online BillPay account through FNBO Direct. The Online BillPay account pays slightly less interest, currently paying 1.25%, but functions like a digital checking account and allows you to transfer money in and out of your online savings account.

After it was opened, I could easily use FNBO Direct's customer interface to check my balances and transfer funds between FNBO Direct accounts. You can quickly add additional funding accounts to your FNBO Direct Online Savings account by following the on screen instructions. There is however a delay of one to two business days, however, because they have to verify that you have access to the other account. They do this verification by making two small deposits into your checking account after you give them information. When you see them appear in your checking account, you input the amounts into FNBO Direct's account verification page, and voila, you're ready to transfer from or into that checking account.

Online savings accounts are great for building up savings, and most importantly, you still have 24 access to your money. A money transfer from or to your FNBO Direct Online Savings Account takes between 2 and 3 business days to complete. But, if you need your money faster, you can have it wired, or use the FNBO Direct supplied ATM card to access your online savings account, or Visa Check Card to access your Online BillPay account. Because it is a federally insured bank, your deposits are currently insured for up to $250,000 by the FDIC, just like any brick and mortar, traditional bank.

Once in the website, you can quickly access your balances, transaction history, and interest paid. Because it's online, you don't get paper statements. In the year that I've had the account, I've never seen it go down, and I access it several times a week. One feature for the FNBO Direct Online Savings account that I would like to see is a current month interest field. Interest isn't credited to your account until the end of the month, but you don't have any idea what this amount is going to be until then. As a banking industry IT guy, I know they have access to this information!

Overall though, the FNBO Direct Online Savings account is a great product. Compared to some others I've tried, their security is just right, their website is easy to use, and my overal experience with them has been great.

https://www.fnbodirect.com/01d/html/en/