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Axos Bank was one of the first online-only banks. It opened for business on July 4, 2000, as Bank of Internet USA and grew steadily for nearly two decades before rebranding itself as Axos Bank in 2018.
It has a lot of options for checking and savings accounts and even has some pretty sweet options for small businesses. But, it’s not perfect and our review of the online bank shows both pros and cons.
Our Axos Bank review will give you an honest look at the bank’s checking account and savings account features for individuals, as well as its overall convenience and mobile banking features so you can make an informed decision about where to do your banking.
Let’s review the checking and savings accounts offerings, plus accounts geared to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Axos Checking Accounts
Axos Savings Account
Axos Bank Business Accounts
Pros and Cons
The following our overall impressions of Axos Bank:
Pros
Almost entirely fee-free banking
Lots of options for small business banking
Highly regarded customer service
Unlimited ATM fee reimbursement for most accounts
Cons
Some reviews claim that the app is slow or buggy
No physical branches
Interest rates are good, but they are not the best we’ve found
Axos Checking Accounts
Picking a checking account that’s right for you is personal. Among some of the most popular features for checking accounts are no minimum balance requirements and no monthly maintenance fees. No overdraft fees are also a plus. Let’s review three Axos Bank checking accounts and determine whether they’re the right fit for you. In addition to the accounts below, Axos Bank also offers basic checking accounts designed for specific ages. The Golden Checking is for the 55 and older crowd, while First Checking is designed for teens between the ages of 13 and 17. Overall, all of Axos’s checking accounts offer good benefits without getting bogged down by monthly fees.
Essential Checking
Best for Direct Deposit
Key Features
No minimum balance requirement.
Unlimited domestic ATM-fee reimbursement.
Automatic early paycheck deposit.
The Essential Checking account for Axos Bank is a free checking account that comes with a lot of perks and no fees. That means no overdraft or non-sufficient fund fees, no minimum balance requirements and unlimited reimbursement for domestic ATM charges. You can also get your paycheck up to two days early with direct deposit. The drawback? This checking account doesn’t offer interest. That’s necessarily unusual for a checking account, but Axos also offers Rewards Checking, which does earn interest.
Axos Bank Essential Checking
Rewards Checking
Best for Earning Interest
Key Features
Earn up to 1.25% APY.
Interest begins accruing immediately.
No fees or minimum balance requirements.
Get up to 1.25% APY on your balance with a few stipulations. You’ll need to sign up for direct deposit totaling at least $1,500 per month and use your debit card for at least 10 transactions each month. You’ll also need to maintain a balance of $2,500 in Axos Invest Managed Portfolios Account and an additional balance of $2,500 in an Axos Self Directed Trading Account. Finally, you’ll need to use your checking account to make a monthly payment towards your Axos loan. In other words, you need to have a lot of different Axos banking products to earn the full 1.25% APY.
Tiered Variable APY
Max interest amount
1.25%
First 0.40%
Direct deposits of $1,500+ each month
Next 0.30%
Min. 10 debit card transactions of $3+ each month
Another 0.10%
Average daily balance of $2,500+ in an Axos Self Directed Trading Invest account
Another 0.10%
Average daily balance of $2,500+ in an Axos Managed Portfolio Invest account
Another 0.10%
Monthly payment on an Axos consumer loan from your checking account (mortgage, personal and auto loans are all
Fine print
Minimum opening deposit is $50.
CashBack Checking
Best of Big Spenders
Key Features
1.00% cash back on some debit card purchases.
Pay friends directly from your account.
No maintenance fees.
Axos Cashback Checking account pays you 1.00% cash back on signature-based purchases with your debit card. The account requires a $1,500 minimum monthly balance to earn the reward. If your average daily collected balance falls below that number, you’ll earn 0.50% for that month. But there are restrictions about what purchases qualify and the list of purchases that don’t qualify is long. According to the fine print, purchases from supermarkets, super stores, grocery stores, wholesale stores, discount stores, USPS, and financial institutions are not eligible for cashback.
Axos Bank CashBack Checking
Axos Savings Account
If personal savings account options are high on your list, Axos Bank may not be the bank for you. There’s the high-yield savings account and, well, that’s it. It does, however, reward balances under $25,000 with a healthy 0.61% APY.
High Yield Savings
Best for Axos Checking Account Holders
Key Features
0.61% APY.
No maintenance fees.
Free ATM card available.
This primary savings account does not have maintenance fees or a required minimum monthly balance. It does require a $250 deposit to open the account, which is a little higher than many savings accounts at other online banks. It offers 0.61% APY (annual percentage yield) on your money for balances that are under $25,000.
Axos High Yield Savings
Axos Bank Business Accounts
Axos Bank offers four different checking accounts and savings accounts for small- and midsize-business owners. This is more than most banks offer, and the interest-bearing accounts offer higher interest than other banks we’ve reviewed. In our Axos Bank review, we found the following accounts fit for entrepreneurs.
Basic Business Checking
Best for New Small Businesses
Key Features
No monthly maintenance fees.
Unlimited credits, debits and deposited items.
First 50 checks free.
If simple is what you like for your business checking account, Axos’ Basic Business Checking should fit the bill. Axos does not require an initial deposit to open the account, and business owners can easily integrate it with Quickbooks for straightforward bookkeeping.
Axos Bank Basic Business Checking
Business Interest Checking
Best for Established Small and Medium Businesses
Key Features
1.01% APY on balances under $50,000.
100 free transactions per month.
Unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursement.
If you plan on having a little more money in your checking account, you might as well earn some interest on it. The Axos Bank Business Interest Checking account offers 1.01% for balances under $50,000. Open an account with just $100, using code NEWBIZ200, and you can get a $200 bonus if your business was incorporated after June 1, 2020. You’ll pay monthly maintenance fees of $10 unless you maintain a $5,000 minimum balance.
Axos Bank Business Interest Checking
Business Savings
Best for New Small Businesses
Key Features
0.20% APY.
Variable interest compounded daily.
$200 bonus for new business owners.
The basic Business Savings account at Axos Bank is just that — basic. It offers 0.20% APY on your money and has a pretty low bar to entry. Open an account with a minimum $1,000 deposit. You’ll pay a $5 monthly maintenance fee unless you maintain a $2,500 minimum monthly balance. Claim a $200 bonus if you incorporated after June 1, 2020, using code NEWBIZ200. Not a new business owner? You can still claim $100 when you open a new account with code NEWAXOSBIZ.
Axos Bank Business Savings
Business Premium Savings
Best for Established Medium-Sized Businesses
Key Features
0.20% interest on balances $24,000+.
No maintenance fee.
No average daily balance requirement.
If you can afford to keep a little more money in your Axos Bank savings account, you can let it work for you with the Business Premium Savings account. Balances over $24,000 earn 0.20%. Balances below that threshold earn nothing, so it only pays to go this route if you know your business account can stay at $24,000 or higher.
Axos Bank Business Premium Savings
Business Money Market
Best for Access to Business Savings
Key Features
0.20% APY.
$5,000 daily balance requirement.
$1,000 opening deposit.
If you don’t expect to be dipping into your funds too often, the Business Money Market may be for you. It offers 0.20% APY but is limited to six transactions per month. Open an account with a minimum $1,000 deposit, and get free image statements, online banking and mobile banking.
Axos Bank Business Money Market
Other Axos Products
Even as an online bank, Axos offers a pretty full menu of banking products beyond just checking and savings accounts. You can find all of these banking options at Axos:
Home loans
Auto loans
Personal loans
Investment property lending
Managed investment portfolios
If you’re comfortable handling all of these things online, it can be convenient to have your loans at the same place that handles your personal banking.
Axos Bank Customer Service
Axos Bank gets rave reviews for customer service in the app stores with a 4.4 out of 5 stars in Google and a slightly higher 4.7 stars in Apple. In the Google app store, one customer wrote, “If you need to talk to someone on the phone, they are there to help.”
That is definitely true for personal banking when representatives staff the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week with only Thanksgiving and Christmas off.
If you need help with loans, auto refinancing, small business banking and investment property lending, Axos customer service hours are more traditional banking times from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. generally Pacific Time. That makes sense because Axos is based in San Diego, California.
Messages can also be sent through your login on the website and for more general information, follow them on Twitter, @AxosBank. Messaging through social media is often a good way to get a quick response from a company.
Is Axos Bank Right for You?
Axos Bank offers a lot of benefits, but that doesn’t mean it’s the perfect fit for everyone. If you think you’re in the market to switch to an online-only bank, it’s probably worth your time to scout out Axos Bank. There’s a lot to like and not much to dislike.
See how Axos compared to the other banks on our list of the best online banks.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Axos Bank
Is Axos Bank Trustworthy?
Yes, Axos is a legitimate online-only bank. Axos Banks is a direct banking arm of the publicly-held company Axos Financial. The bank is federally chartered, FDIC insured and BBB accredited.
Is Axos Bank Still in Business?
Yes! Axos Bank was previously Bank of Internet USA and then BofI Federal Bank. It’s been known as Axos Bank since around 2018.
Who Owns Axos Online Bank?
Axos Bank is the direct banking arm of Axos Financial, the bank holding company previously known as BofI Holding.
Is Axos a Good Bank?
Axos is an online-only bank so if you like walking into a physical place to do your banking business face-to-face, it may not be for you. But, if you’re computer and smartphone savvy, Axos allows you to do all of your banking from wherever you are at any given moment. You can also access your money through a network of 91,000 ATMs with no fees.
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) has been writing and editing for online audiences since 2011, covering personal finance, careers and digital media. She is a former staffer at The Penny Hoarder. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, CNBC, The Motley Fool, Inc. and more.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.