Ivy Bank Review: Savings and CDs

Ivy Bank’s High-Yield Savings Account earns a highly competitive rate. It has a minimum opening balance of $2,500, which is high compared with that of other online savings accounts with similarly competitive rates. There is no monthly fee, but you don’t want your balance to drop below $2,500. If it’s below that amount, you earn only a 0.05% annual percentage yield. If your balance goes below $10, your account won’t earn interest.

Just be sure you’re okay with an online-only account: With no ATM network available, you can’t deposit or withdraw cash. To access your money, you’ll need to set up a transfer to an external account. In addition, you can only withdraw money to a linked account that you own — don’t expect to be able to send funds to friends and family via a service such as Zelle. Ivy Bank also imposes a limit of six withdrawals per month, and international transactions are not available.

Note that if you want to open a joint account, you’ll need to say so at the time of opening. If you own the account but later want to add someone to it, you’ll need to open a new one instead (other institutions let you add joint owners to existing accounts).

Ivy Bank offers a one-year CD that has a competitive rate. The $1,000 minimum opening deposit is somewhat high compared with that of other online banks. Note that when you open a CD, you generally can’t touch the deposit until the term ends. Read more about how CDs work.