Axos Bank review: Earn high interest rates and use a great rewards checking account

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Overall bank rating

Pros and cons

Axos High Yield Savings Account

Axos High Yield Savings is a solid savings account, provided you can afford the Axos High Yield Savings Account minimum opening deposit. 

Axos Bank Rewards Checking

Axos Bank Rewards Checking is a great option if you want to earn a solid interest rate on your checking balance. Not all checking accounts pay interest, and those that do typically pay relatively low rates. But with Axos, you can earn a relatively high rate.

With the Axos Bank Rewards Checking account, you earn interest in stages — with each goal you accomplish, you earn a little more interest. Here are the goals, which earn increasingly more interest as you advance:

1. Receive at least $1,500 in direct deposits in a month. You have to meet this requirement to be able to earn any additional interest.
2. Make 10 debit card transactions in a month (minimum $3 per transaction) or you need to sign up for Account Aggregation/Personal Finance Manager.
3. Keep at least a daily average of $2,500 in an Axos Managed Portfolios Invest Account monthly.
4. Keep at least a daily average of $2,500 in an Axos Self Directed Trading Invest Account monthly.
5. Make a monthly Axos consumer loan payment with your Reward Checking account.

If you accomplish all goals in a month, you earn the maximum available APY.

If you aren’t necessarily looking for a high-interest checking account, then you can check out one of Axos’ several other checking accounts.

Axos Certificate of Deposit

The Axos CD is fine, but it’s not nearly as strong as Axos’ other accounts. Axos pays better rates than brick-and-mortar banks, but if you want to bank online, you can find higher rates elsewhere. You’ll need Axos Certificate of Deposit to open a CD with Axos. Some banks require more, but some ask for less. Axos charges relatively high penalties for withdrawing funds before your CD matures, especially for longer terms.

Axos High Yield Money Market Account

The Axos High Yield Money Market Account pays a solid APY and is a strong option if you have Axos High Yield Money Market Account to open the account.

One advantage of a money market account over a savings account is that the former usually makes it easier to access your savings. Axos offers a debit card with both its savings account and money market account, but the money market account also includes free paper checks.

How Axos Bank works

Axos Bank is an online bank that offers a high-yield savings account, money market account, CDs, and a variety of checking accounts.

To speak to a customer service representative, you can call Axos 24/7. You can also chat online with the automated representative, Evo, which will direct you to a live agent if it can’t answer your question.

There are fewer than 1,000 reviews of the mobile app in the Apple and Google Play stores. The existing reviews have resulted in 4.7 out of 5 stars in the Apple store, and 3.5 out of 5 stars in the Google Play store.

Your deposits are FDIC insured for up to $250,000, or $500,000 for joint accounts.

Axos Bank trustworthiness and BBB rating

The Better Business Bureau has given Axos an A+ rating. A great BBB rating signifies the company is transparent in how it handles business, has honest advertising, and responds effectively to customer complaints.

Not all banks have great BBB ratings. For example, Ally has a C because it has numerous customer complaints and hasn’t marked all of them as “closed.” More alarmingly, Wells Fargo used to have an F, possibly due to its history of predatory lending to racial minorities and creating fake bank accounts. (Wells Fargo isn’t rated by the BBB right now as there’s an ongoing investigation of the bank’s profile.) 

But Axos doesn’t have any public scandals, and it’s closed a high percentage of its online customer complaints.

Make sure to also hear from friends and family to see if a bank will be a good fit. Online reviews can also be very helpful. 

Axos Bank review vs. Discover review

We’ve compared Axos to two other online banks that have high-yield savings accounts and rewards checking accounts: Discover and LendingClub Bank.

Axos and Discover both have strong rewards checking accounts, but the accounts’ structures are different.

With Axos, you can earn interest on your checking balance. You won’t earn any interest on the Discover Cashback Debit Account, but you will earn cash back when you make a purchase with your debit card. You’ll earn 1% cash back on up to $3,000 in purchases. One type of rewards account isn’t necessarily better than the other — it depends on what you want out of a checking account, and whether you make purchases with your debit card.

Your choice between Axos and Discover could also come down to whether you can afford the minimum deposits. Discover doesn’t require any money to open a savings or checking account, while Axos does. But Discover requires $2,500 to open a CD or money market account, and Axos only asks for $1,000.

Axos Bank review vs. LendingClub review

The LendingClub Rewards Checking Account is a good rewards account if you can maintain a $2,500 balance — you’ll need $2,500 to qualify for the 0.10% APY and to earn cash back. If you can keep that much in your account, then you’ll earn interest and 1% to 1.5% cash back on an unlimited amount in purchases, which can be a good deal. If you can’t keep a $2,500 balance, then you’re better off going with Axos.

Banking with LendingClub can be a good way to get the best of both worlds with your checking account: interest and cash back. But if you care more about earning interest, then you might prefer Axos, which is currently offering a significantly higher interest rate. Axos also compounds interest daily, but LendingClub only compounds it monthly.

See Insider’s list of the best savings accounts »