[Update February 2021: Huntington Bank lowered the APY on some of their variable rate money market accounts (shown below). The APY on their fixed rate CDs remains unchanged from October of last year.]

Originally founded as The Huntington National Bank in 1866 in Columbus, Ohio, Huntington Bank has maintained its regional status over the years despite several mergers and acquisitions and hefty asset growth.

Today, Huntington Bank is the 28th largest U.S. bank by asset size with over $113.8 billion in assets and $90.7 billion in deposits.

The regional bank serves seven states in the Midwest:

• Ohio,
• Illinois,
• Indiana,
• Kentucky,
• Michigan,
• Pennsylvania,
• and West Virginia.

The holding company of which Huntington Bank is the banking subsidiary is called Huntington Bancshares. This entity trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker HBAN.

If you’re a consumer looking to earn a good rate of return on the money you deposit, this bank leaves much to be desired.

Its deposit products—CD and money market accounts, specifically—are far from competitive and even lag the national average currently.

That said, the bank has good branch and service accessibility and lets you waive account fees fairly easily, so if you can look past low APYs, there are some advantages.

In this review we’ll be looking at Huntington Bank’s CD Rates and Relationship Money market account.

Huntington Bank CD Rates + Account Details

Huntington Bank’s deposit products are insured by the FDIC up to $250k per depositor or $500k on joint accounts.

Their CD rates, while competitive in the past, are extremely low at the moment. This is on par with what we see at many large national banks today, such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo, who have very little incentive to attract new savers with high returns. I wouldn’t expect this trend to turn anytime soon, given the FEDs commitment to keep rates near zero through 2022.

We should also note that in a normal interest rate environment Huntington Bank’s deposit rates would increase with deposit size, but today all come with the same APY (annual percentage yield).

Huntington Bank CD Rates

To give these yields (above) some context, the current national average on a 12 month CD sits at roughly 0.22% APY nationally.

All Huntington Bank certificates of deposit require a minimum opening deposit of $1,000.

Interest is compounded daily and credited either monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, or at maturity. You get to choose the frequency.

Huntington Bank offers Jumbo CDs and IRA CDs as well however these all come with the same yields shown above. Certificates with balances of $100,000 are considered to be Jumbo CDs. This bank has also offered promotional deposits in the past, but is not running any at this time.

Early withdrawal penalties

If you need access to your funds prior to the maturity date of your Huntington Bank CD you will incur the following penalties:

• For terms of 91 days or less, you will owe the full term of your account in simple interest.
• For terms of 92 days to 1 year, the penalty is 3 months interest.
• For terms of 1 year to 18 months, the penalty is 6 months interest.
• Finally, for terms of more than 18 months, the penalty is 12 months interest.

The minimum early withdrawal penalty is 7 days interest.

There is a standard grace period of 10 days for Huntington Bank CDs in which you can withdraw or add funds to your deposit. All accounts are automatically renewable unless you specifically request otherwise except for accounts used for public funds or those with opening balances of $100,000 or more with a term of less than one month. These are not eligible for automatic renewal.

Huntington Bank Relationship Money Market Account Rate + Details

A Huntington Bank Relationship Money Market account offers more attractive yields than the fixed rate CDs but also comes with a significantly steeper minimum deposit requirement of $25,000.

The precise interest rate you’ll earn, however, depends on your “relationship” with the bank. And by this, they mean which other accounts you hold with them.

The rate table below shows the APY you’ll earn based on the type of account(s) you hold.

Huntington Bank Relationship Money Market Rates (including 90 day promotional rate)

To put these yields in perspective the current national average for a money market account with a balance of less than $100,000 is 0.08% APY.

That said, there are still a number of online banks with savings accounts and/or money market accounts featuring rates above 0.50% APY and minimum balances requirements of less than $1,000.

All of Huntington Bank’s money market accounts have promotional, introductory interest rates that last for 90 days before dropping down to the standard 0.05% APY (or 0.08% APY for private clients).

The MMA of a customer with a Huntington 5 Checking account, for example, begins with an interest rate of 0.05% APY. This drops back down to 0.05% after the 90-day introductory period is up and leaves you with a blended APY of 0.05% for the year.

Interest is compounded monthly and credited monthly.

Avoid Fees

These accounts have the potential to ding you $25/month in maintenance fee. Here’s how to avoid that:

1. Maintain an average daily balance of at least $25,000 (which is also the only way to earn dividends on your balance).
2. Maintain either a Huntington 5 or Huntington 25 Checking account.

A Huntington Bank MMA does have check-writing capabilities, but checks are only free if you also have a Huntington 25 checking account.

Huntington Bank Fee Schedule

Checks are also available but the cost per box varies based on design.

If you plan on using a Huntington Bank ATM card you’ll want to note that Huntington Bank charges a $3 fee for each out of network cash withdrawal on top of whatever the ATM owner charges.

Huntington Bank Account Features + Customer Sentiment

One of the noteworthy account features across many Huntington Bank accounts is the 24-Hour Grace, which is basically built-in overdraft protection.

This protection feature will give you 24 hours to make a deposit to bring your balance positive in the event of an overdraft. It is applied for free to all checking, savings, and money market accounts with Huntington Bank.

Relationship rate benefits take certain decent Huntington Bank products—like savings and money market accounts—and make them better. So if you intend to join Huntington, know that you will get the most out of this membership if you have multiple accounts with the bank.

This bank hasn’t received the best ratings from other review sites online with scores ranging between 1.5 (ConsumerAffairs) and 3.5 (WalletHub) stars. That said, the majority of the dis-satisfaction tends to reside on the loan site with mortgage and auto loan clients being the most vocal about their negative experiences.

The Huntington Bank app has a 4-star rating on Google Play and a 4.8-star rating on the App Store. This app has been praised for being comprehensive and having unique features that you don’t always see in a banking app.

You can reach customer service in a number of ways. You can call (800) 480-2265 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM ET, live chat with a representative through the Huntington website, tweet @AskHuntington, or even direct message the bank on Facebook.

Customer service isn’t the only important aspect of overall banking experience. As mentioned, Huntington Bank has great accessibility. There are over 800 Huntington Bank branches and 1,400 ATMs across Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and this bank does a good job of placing its branches strategically for maximum convenience. Case in point, if you live in the Midwest, you’ve probably even seen a Huntington Bank hub in your local grocery store.

Huntington Bank customers can make ATM and mobile deposits up to midnight with All Day Deposit.

Final Thoughts

As is often the case, you’ll have to decide whether Huntington Bank is right for you depending on what you value in a bank.

Huntington Bank isn’t going to be good for those that prioritize high interest-bearing deposit accounts, but if you’re looking for in-person banking and a regional bank culture, then Huntington Bank might be right for you.

Huntington has hundreds of conveniently located branches in the Midwest and great customer service accessibility (even if the customer service isn’t always great), which might make it attractive to individuals that just want their personal banking to be easy.