Accounts at CommunityWide FCU offer competitive interest rates. The rates are competitive with other online accounts. CommunityWide rates are much higher than typical bank rates. Their rates are not tiered. Any balance above the required amount earns competitive interest rates.

CommunityWide accounts have low opening required amounts. The savings accounts require $5 to open. The checking account requires $15 to open. The CD terms each require $1,000 to open. The CommunityWide FCU checking and savings accounts do not have a monthly fee. If you only open a savings account and the account does not have any activity, there is a $5 dormant account fee. That fee applies for each month with no activity.

CommunityWide offers a wide variety of savings accounts. The accounts offered include:

• Personal savings account
• High-yield savings account
• Funds savings account
• CD terms from six months to five years
• IRA accounts

A Funds savings account is available through CommunityWide FCU. This account acts as a savings account but earns a higher interest rate. Members can only withdraw money deposited in the account at specific times. You can choose whether to withdraw the money monthly or quarterly. Money can be deposited into the Funds savings account anytime.

Before you can open an account with CommunityWide, you must become a member of the credit union. To be eligible to join, you must have worked for a certain company or be a spouse of someone who has. Members of certain organizations are eligible. Immediate family members of CommunityWide members qualify to open an account. Once you qualify, you must show a valid government-issued ID and your Social Security Number.

CommunityWide Federal Credit Union does not offer ATM fee reimbursements. They offer over 30,000 ATMs free for members to use. If you make a transaction with another ATM, not in their network, you may be charged a fee. CommunityWide will not reimburse you for those fees.

CommunityWide FCU offers many accounts, but only one checking account. The checking account earns interest for balances over $1 and requires $15 to open. It is the only checking account available through CommunityWide FCU.

The early withdrawal fee for CommunityWide FCU CDs can be higher than other CD fees. CommunityWide FCU uses a specific formula to determine the penalty. First, they take the withdrawn amount times the remaining days at twice the current APR. They then divide the amount by 365. There is not a set penalty based on term length.

Read the full CommunityWide FCU review.

WaFd Bank offers a good variety of accounts. Those include:

• Savings account
• Savings account for minors
• Checking accounts
• Money market accounts
• CD terms from three-months to five-years
• Retirement accounts
• Lending options
• Credit cards
• Small business accounts
• Commercial options

The opening required amounts for WaFd accounts are low. Most savings and checking accounts only require $25 to open. A savings account for minors requires $10 to open. The Stellar Plus checking account requires $100 to open. The money market accounts require $100 to open. All CD terms require $1,000 to open.

WaFd Bank offers business accounts along with personal accounts. Those accounts include small business checking and savings accounts. They also offer some commercial business accounts. To open those accounts, you need to contact a commercial banker.

The WaFd Gold Money Market account has competitive rates. These account rates are the most competitive rates offered at WaFd. They are lower than other online money market accounts but still competitive. The seven-month and 13-month special CDs also earn higher rates than other WaFd CDs.

WaFd accounts besides the Gold MMA and special CD terms have low interest rates. These rates are similar to other brick-and-mortar bank rates. They do not compare to other online-only accounts.

Some WaFd accounts have tiered interest rates. To receive the highest rate for the Stellar Plus checking account requires a $10,000 balance. The regular money market account requires $90,000 to earn the best rate. Even the highest interest rate for these accounts is low.

Specific WaFd accounts require you to open other eligible accounts. To earn the best rates on the special CD terms, you must have an eligible checking account. The rates are only 0.05% higher if you have the checking account.

Most WaFd Bank accounts have monthly fees. The checking account fees range from $0-8 per month. The savings accounts have monthly fees from $3-10 per month. There are ways to waive some of the monthly fees. Those include keeping a set account balance. That balance ranges from $100-$20,000, depending on the account.

Read the full WaFd Bank review.