With so many online banks to choose from, it can be difficult to decide where to park your cash.

Bask Bank, an online division of Texas Capital Bank, is a relatively new one that launched in January of 2020. Their original product was the Mileage Savings Account which is an exclusive offering for American Airlines flyers. Today, however, they have added a number of competitive FDIC-insured deposit accounts to supplement their original offering. Bask Bank’s current product suite consists of the following:

1. Interest Savings Account
2. Certificates of Deposit (Terms 6 to 24 months)
3. Mileage Savings Account

The Interest Savings Account is Bask Bank’s newer product and comes with a very competitive yield. As of January, 2023 it has an APY (annual percentage yield) of 4.15%. It also comes with zero minimum balance requirements and has no monthly maintenance fees.

The most recent addition to Bask Bank’s product suite is their CDs (certificates of deposit). They only offer CDs with short terms ranging from 6 months to 2 years at the moment, but the yields are fairly competitive.

If you’d prefer to have your interest paid in miles rather than dollars then you can opt for the Mileage Savings Account.

The account pays AAdvantage miles instead of interest, giving you two miles for every dollar you deposit in a year. The account used to pay just 1 mile for every dollar annually, but Bask Bank upped the ante as rates rose in 2022.

The most recent addition to Bask Bank’s product suite is their CDs (certificates of deposit). They only offer short terms from 6 months to 2 years at the moment and their yields, while mostly flat across all terms, are still quite competitive.

To see if any of these accounts are right for you, continue reading our review below.

Interest Savings Account

Bask Bank introduced their interest savings account back on February 9, 2022. The account is FDIC-insured through their parent company, Texas Capital Bank.

The account has no monthly balance requirements to earn the advertised APY and comes with zero monthly maintenance fees.

The rate is variable and can change at any time without notice.

Bask Bank Interest Savings Account

To put this yield into perspective, the current national average for a savings account sits at just 0.30% APY, according to recent FDIC data.

This APY puts Bask Bank’s Interest Savings Account among the best high yielding savings accounts on the market currently.

CDs (Certificates of Deposit)

Bask Bank’s CDs require a minimum deposit of $1,000 to open. They are FDIC-insured up to the applicable limits and can only be opened online.

CD Rates

To put these yields into perspective, the current national average for 12 month and 24 month CD sit at just 1.07% and 1.09% APY, respectively, according to FDIC data.

Grace Period and Early Withdrawal Fees

Bask Bank will send you a notice 30 days before your CD matures to let you know in advance. Upon maturity, you will have a 10 calendar day grace period in which you may add funds, withdraw funds or close out the CD entirely without incurring any fee. If nothing is done during this 10 day period, your CD will renew into the same term at the going rate at that time.

If you need access to the funds in your Bask Bank CD prior to its maturity, you will incur an early withdrawal fee. The fee structure is based on your CD’s term. See below.

You’ll be able to monitor your earnings and interest payments on your Bask Bank CD as statements are provided monthly.

Mileage Savings Account

With Bask Bank’s Mileage Savings Account you earn American Airlines miles (or AAdvantage Miles) rather than interest – to the tune of 2 miles for every $1 in your account annually.

Normally, frequent flyer miles are awarded on the spending side rather than savings. Customers are used to racking up miles when making certain purchases or booking flights with their credit card, but this account turns that model upside down.

With Bask Bank, the more money you save, the more miles you earn—no strings attached. It’ll keep your AAdvantage account active with a steady trickle of miles, plus you can earn unlimited miles and never have to worry about spending on a particular travel card or making purchases you don’t want through an online portal.

Keep in mind that like any other savings account, the rate of miles earned per dollar is variable and therefore subject to change at any time without notice. Miles are given based on your average monthly balance per month.

How Are Miles Calculated and Deposited

According to NerdWallet, a single American Airlines mile comes out to a value of about $0.01. This means that for every $100 you save, you will nab $1.00 worth in American Airlines Miles at the end of the year.

Miles are earned every day that your account is active with funds in it. Miles are deposited directly into your AAdvantage account monthly.

If you’re a member of the American Airlines loyalty program but aren’t yet familiar with it, AAdvantage miles can be used on many different expenses. From upgraded flights to merchandise, they can be used to pay for just about anything related to travel through American Airlines. 

American Airlines also partners with hotels and rental car agencies, and frequent flyer miles can be put toward these expenses as well. Redeem miles at any time—they’ll expire after 18 months of inactivity, but this expiration period resets every time Bask makes another deposit into your AAdvantage account, so you probably won’t need to worry about this. 

How to Set Up a Mileage Savings Account

To open an account with Bask Bank, you’ll first need to be a part of the American Airlines frequent-flyer program. If you are not, this account will be of little use to you.

Assuming you are a member and you want to earn points via saving rather than spending, then click on the orange “open an account” button in the upper right on the Bask Bank website.

From here it will be a 4 step process that finalizes with transferring funds to the account.

The whole thing can be completed in minutes. The steps are as follows;

1. Get started. You’ll need an email address and mobile number.
2. Submit application. Here you’ll need things like your name, social security number, birthday and address.
3. Create Login. Simple login creation (username and password).
4. Transfer Funds. There’s no minimum deposit requirement or ongoing monthly balance requirement, but there are bonuses associated with deposits. We discuss this further down.

Bask Bank Customer Support and Consumer Sentiment

The Bask Bank website is clean and simple and about as easy-to-use as it gets. Customers leave high marks on review sites citing the ease of use of their website and having high savings rates.

Their apps perform about average in terms of ratings with their ios app receiving 3.5 stars out of 5 and their android app scoring 3.2 stars out of 5.

Because Bask Bank does not have any physical branches, you will need to open your account and manage your finances online or through the mobile app. This can be downloaded through the App Store or through Google Play (links to apps provided above).

If you struggle to set up or service your account, you can contact customer service at (833) 260-4320 or customersupport@baskbank.com.

The phones are open Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM and Saturday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Standard Time.

About Bask Bank

Bask Bank is a division of Texas Capital Bank (member FDIC) which has been around since 1999 and has been a long-standing partner of American Airlines.

Texas Capital Bank was also a pioneer in digital banking back in the late 1990’s. To create Bask Bank, they leveraged both their digital banking expertise and their strong partnership with American Airlines.