Colorado Federal Savings Bank VS Bank of the West

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 2.5 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 2.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Can open all accounts online
  • No monthly fees or required balances
  • Competitive interest rates
  • Savings has a low opening amount

Cons:

  • Limited accounts offered
  • Must link external bank account
  • Premier account requires large amount
  • CDs require a large opening deposit
  • Financial Rates: 2.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 3.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Business accounts are available
  • Direct deposit is not required
  • A variety of different lengths of CDs
  • Transfer money to others with PopMoney

Cons:

  • Low-interest rates on accounts
  • High initial required amounts for CDs
  • High required amounts for accounts
  • Products change based on states
Colorado Federal Savings Bank Review

Colorado Federal Savings Bank is an online bank. Opening an account is completed online. You do not have to mail information in or wait for the bank to send you information. All the information you need to open an account is on their website.

Colorado Federal Savings Bank accounts do not have monthly maintenance fees. The accounts are completely free. There are no fees to transfer money into the account with electronic transfers.

The interest rates for CFSB are competitive. Their rates are much higher than your typical brick-and-mortar rates. They are competitive with other online-only accounts. CFSB rates are not tiered. Any amount over the required opening deposit earns the competitive rates offered.

The high yield savings account only requires $1.00 to open the account and keep in the account. The interest rates are competitive. The only fee is if you withdraw more than six times each billing cycle.

CFSB offers limited accounts. Only an online savings account and CDs are available. No checking or money market account is available. There are no business accounts available. Only those few personal deposit accounts are available through CFSB.

To fund your CFSB accounts, you must link an external bank account. Once you link the accounts, you can make transfers between the two accounts. Electronic transfers between linked accounts are how you access your CFSB money.

CFSB has a Premier Savings account offering competitive interest rates. The minimum account balance is $50,000. To open the Premier Savings account, you must be a new customer. This means you have not maintained a CD or savings account with CFSB in the previous 60 days.

To open a CD through CFSB requires $5,000. There are six CD terms. They range from six-months to five-year terms. The only fee is if you withdraw your money before it reaches the maturity date. The interest rates for each of the terms are competitive.

Read the full Colorado Federal Savings Bank review.

Bank of the West Review

Bank of the West offers checking, savings, CDs, and money market accounts for your business. Credit cards, loans, and lines of credit are also available. Bank of the West offers payroll services and payment processing options. Foreign exchange services for business accounts are also available. Interest rates for their different business accounts are not listed on the website.

Bank of the West does not require you to have direct deposit into their checking account. There is a monthly maintenance fee, but you can waive that fee by depositing money into your account each month. You can deposit any amount by an ATM, in-branch, direct, or mobile deposit to waive the fee.

Bank of the West offers Flexible-Term CDs, Premium Money Market CD, and a Relationship CD. Within these different CD types are a variety of term lengths, except the Relationship CD. That only has a 12-month term option. To apply for a CD and get the specific term lengths and rates you have to visit a branch. You cannot apply online.

With Popmoney you can send or receive money with only an email, text, or account number. You decide where the money is deposited. You will receive an alert when the transaction is complete. There is a fee to send money overnight, and not all customers qualify to use Popmoney.

Personal banking accounts of Bank of the West do not have competitive interest rates. The rates are much less than online-only banks but similar to typical bank interest rates.

To open a CD, you must have an opening balance of $1,000 for the Flexible-Term CDs and Premier Money Market CDs. To open a Relationship CD, you must have $2,500 and a checking account with Bank of the West.

To waive the Premier Checking account fee, you must have $25,000 in qualifying accounts. The Choice Money Market account requires $5,000. CD accounts require $1,000 to $2,500 to open. The Classic Savings account requires $300. There are other options for ways to have monthly fees waived. Know the options if you cannot keep the required amounts of money in the accounts.

Bank of the West accounts are not available in all states. To apply for an account, you must have an address in one of the states listed. Interest rates and products differ between states. The name of the bank may be slightly different as well depending on the area.

Read the full Bank of the West review.

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