When I began my journey to turn around my finances back in 2016, one of the common tips that I heard from Financial experts was to create an emergency fund. Popular Financial Guru Graham Stephan recommended looking into online banks for your emergency fund because they offer a much higher interest rate of return on your money versus traditional Banks.
I decided to do my own research and found this to be true as well.
I thought that I was getting a pretty decent return with my local credit union, but boy was I wrong. Currently, my local credit union offers 0.05% APY while other online banks were offering much higher rates of return.
The more research I did, I found a local San Diego online bank called Axos offered a significantly higher rate than noy only my credit union, but also most national banks.
Not only does Axos offer a higher rate in savings and checking accounts, but they also offer a wealth of other financial products and services.
So if you’re wondering if Axos Bank is legit, the answer is yes. Here’s my Axos Bank Honest Review.
Is Axos Bank Legit?
Since Axos is a smaller, lesser know bank, some people are asking if Axos is a legitimatize bank.
The answer is absolutely yes. I’ve been using Axos for the past 5 years and I have very little to complain about regarding how they manage their bank. With that said, here are some of there best services.
Axos Banking Services
Axos’ online banking services offer a modern and simple interface that most people should have no problem using. I’ve been banking with Axos for over 5 years now, so here are my thoughts on the services I’ve been using.
High-Interest Savings
In my research Axos’ once offered one of the highest yield savings account offers the best interest rate I could find online. However, that has since changed (Ally Bank offers a much higher rate on their savings account.
With that said, Axos’ high interest savings offers no monthly maintenance fees, no minimum balance requirements, and a free ATM card.
Another feature of the High Interest Savings that I really like is that interest is compounded daily versus monthly like other banks.
If you’d like to sign up for Axos’ High Yield Savings Account, click the link here.
Axos Essential Checking
Axos Essential Checking is a great option for a general checking account. You get early direct deposit from your employers, unlimited ATM fee reimbursements, and even referral bonuses when you refer friends and family.
If you’d like to sign up for Axos Essential Checking Account, you’ll get $50 when you sign up and set up direct deposit of at least $1,000 in your 1st 90 days. Who doesn’t like free money right?
Axos Bank Money Market
When comparing to my credit union’s money market account, it really is a night and day difference once again. For example, My credit union offers 0.03%-0.05% APY while Axos’ money market offers 0.25% APY.
Axos does require at least $1,000 to open a money market account, but my credit union requires $5,000. So in this case, the cost of entry is much less, and you get a much higher rate of return.
If you’d like to sign up for Axos’ Money Market Account click the link here.
Axos Bank CD
Honestly, I can’t really recommend the Axos Bank CD. It is not very competitive like their checking and savings accounts are. In my opinion, you might be better off just using a savings account since you’ll get more return on your money and be able to withdraw funds without penalty
Axos Bank Investing Services
Axos also offers a few different investment products. For those who are not as stock savvy, Axos can help you make the right investments with low cost fees.
Managed Portfolios
If you’re not very investment savvy, then you might want to use a managed portfolio for your investments. One of the main drawbacks of using a managed portfolio is broker fees. Luckily, Axos Managed Portfolios has some of the lowest fees among the top brokers. Just take a look at the comparison chart
If you’d like to get more information about Axos Managed Portfolio Service, click the link here.
Self Directed Trading
If you’re like me and want a more hands on approach to investing, I think Axos’ self directed trading service is a great option. They have 0 fees for stock and ETF trades, with options costing only $1.00 and mutual funds costing only $9.95 per trade.
Here’s a full schedule of their current investing fees
If you’d like to get more information about Axos Self Directed Trading Service, click the link here.
Pros And Cons of Axos Bank
Dislikes
Other Axos Bank Services
Axos offers a wealth of other services such as loans and other accounts for Small Businesses.
I can’t give a review on these services since I haven’t used them, but since I’ve had great success with Axos’ other products, I can assume these would be the same level of quality.
You can find out more information about these products by clicking the links below if you’re interested.
- Mortgages
- Auto Loans
- Personal Loans
- Business Checking
- Business Savings
- Business Money Market
Axos Bank Online Alternatives
While Axos does offer a wealth of great financial products, there are a few alternatives that I would like to recommend, especially when it comes to High Yield Savings Accounts.
The first is Ally Bank. They offer a significantly higher APR for their standard no fee high yield savings account. Remember that APRs are constantly fluctuating depending on the FED rates, but currently Ally offers 4.20% APR compared to Axos at 0.61%.
However, Axos does offer higher rates for other Savings accounts, so keep that in mind when you make your decision.
Another online bank I recommend is SoFi. They also offer a wealth of financial products and services with very competitive rates. They currently offer 4.60% APY on their savings account and 0.50% APY on checking.
Final Thoughts About Axos Bank
Axos Bank offers a large number of financial services, but the main one people will be using is their high yield savings and checking accounts. It is what led me to Axos bank as well as many others.
If you’re like me and putting your hard earned savings into a traditional bank with a low interest rate, you could be leaving a lot of profit on the table like I was.
Here is a quick comparison to show you the difference
| Local Credit Union | Axos Bank |
| 0.05% | 0.61% |
Using my Local Credit Union again as an example, if you deposited $10,000 after 1 year you would make only $3.00 in interest!
If you deposited that same $10,000 into Axos high yield savings account, you would get $61.00!
The difference is night and day which is why I put all my savings and emergency accounts into Axos Bank. It’s not a ton of money, but it certainly beats local banks and credit unions by a long shot.
You can get 6 times the national average APY on your money by switching to Axos’ high yield savings account here
However, because other banks like Ally and SoFi offer significantly higher rates than Axos, I can’t recommend them for anything other than their standard essential Checking Account until they increase their rates.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or email me directly at successinsteadofstress{@}gmail.com.
Thanks for reading,
Nick Hazleton