Citizens Access VS ableBanking

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 4.5 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
4.15%APY
Savings/MMA
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Pros:

  • No monthly maintenance fees
  • Competitive interest rates
  • Any account balance earns interest
  • Good variety of CD terms

Cons:

  • High opening required amounts
  • Must link accounts to external bank
  • No ATM or debit cards or checks
  • Limited accounts offered
  • Financial Rates: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 2.5 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Low opening required amounts
  • No monthly maintenance fees
  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • No set balance to earn highest rates

Cons:

  • Limited deposit accounts offered
  • Customer service not always available
  • Must link another bank account
  • No debit card offered for MMA
Citizens Access Review

Looking for Citizens Bank? Click here for our review on the local bank.

Citizens Access bank accounts do not have any fees. There are no monthly maintenance fees or fees to open the account. The Citizens Access savings account is completely free. The only fee with the CDs comes if you withdraw money before the maturity date.

The online savings account and each of the CD terms earn competitive interest rates. Citizens Access rates are much higher than your typical brick and mortar bank rates. They are competitive with other online accounts. To earn the most competitive rate requires a balance of $5,000 in each account.

Any account balance in the Citizens Access savings account earns interest. If the account balance falls below $5,000 the interest you earn is less, but you still earn interest. To earn the most competitive rate requires a $5,000 balance in the account.

Citizens Access offers a good variety of CD terms. Those terms range from six-month terms to five-years. Each of these CDs requires $5,000 to open. The interest rates are competitive on each term. The longer the CD term, the higher the interest rate.

To open an online savings account or CD with Citizen Access requires a large sum. Each of these accounts requires $5,000 to open the accounts. To earn the most competitive interest rate requires a balance of $5,000.

To transfer money in and out of your Citizens Access account you must link to an external bank account. That account can be a different banking institution. Once you link the accounts, you can transfer money electronically between the two accounts. To withdraw money, you could request a check.

Currently, Citizens Access does not offer ATM cards, debit cards, or checks for their online savings account. Access your money easiest through electronic transfers. You can call customer service to request a check.

Citizens Access has a limited variety of account. Only personal deposit savings account and CDs are available. No personal checking accounts or money market accounts are available. There are no business accounts offered.

Read the full Citizens Access review.

ableBanking Review

The ableBanking accounts have low opening required amounts. The money market account only requires $250 to open. The different CD terms each require $1,000 to open.

There are no monthly maintenance fees for the ableBanking money market account. The CDs have a fee if you withdraw money before the CD reaches maturity. Federal regulations allow six withdrawals from a money market account per month. There is a fee if you make more than six withdrawals.

The interest rates for ableBanking accounts are high. They are competitive with other online-only accounts. ableBanking interest rates are much higher than your typical brick and mortar rates.

Any balance in ableBanking accounts earns the highest interest rates offered. There is not a set amount required to keep in the account to earn the highest rates. There is not a required balance to keep in the accounts to avoid monthly fees.

ableBanking has limited personal deposit accounts available. The only accounts offered are a money market account and CDs. There are five different CD terms available. The terms range from a 6-month CD to a four-year CD. ableBanking does not offer checking accounts or business accounts.

ableBanking accounts are entirely online. There are no branch locations. Customer service has specific hours they are open. They are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. On Saturday, they are open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.

When you open an account with ableBanking, you must link an external bank account. You fund your ableBanking account from the external account. You cannot change the external account for the first 60 days. After that time, you may link a different account to the ableBanking money market account. You can only have one external account linked to your ableBanking account at a time.

The ableBanking money market account does not offer an ATM card. They do not have ATM locations where you can access your money. To withdraw money, you must make an electronic transfer into a linked account.

Read the full ableBanking review.

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