My Banking Direct is a service of Flagstar Bank which is a subsidiary of New York Community Bank, based out of Hicksville, New York.

New York Community Bank was founded in 1859 and is one of the largest regional banks in the country with over $90 billion in assets at the end of 2022.

Flagstar Bank has 395 branches across 9 states mostly in the midwest and the east coast. You can learn more about Flagstar and see their deposit account rates here.

My Banking Direct is an FDIC-insured, online bank with no physical branches and a handful of competitive deposit accounts available to consumers across the country.

My Banking Direct offers the following fixed and variable rate deposit accounts:

• High Yield Savings Account – Currently yielding 5.00% APY (annual percentage yield) and is among the rate leaders nationwide for online savings accounts.
• CDs (Certificates of Deposit) – Only 1 term available (5 months) and it comes with a 5.05% APY and a minimum deposit requirement of $2,500.
• Direct Checking – Comes with free debit card and access to 55k ATMs via Allpoint and Presto. $1.00 minimum to open.

To see if My Banking Direct and their deposit accounts are right for you, continue reading our review below.

My Banking Direct Pros and Cons

High Yield Savings Account

My Banking Direct’s High Yield Savings Account requires a minimum deposit of $500 to open. There are no monthly maintenance fees to worry about and the account earns the advertised APY on all balances of $1.00 or more.

The account is set up as a tiered-rate account, however, all tiers pay the same interest rate as of the time of this writing. You can see the tiers and the APY in the table below.

High Yield Savings Rates

To put this yield into perspective, the average yield for a savings account and a money market account sit at just 0.42% and 0.61% APY, respectively, according to FDIC data.

That said, the top yields from online banks and nationally available credit unions are now inching up to the 5.00% APY mark with My Banking Direct among the rate leaders.

Compounding and Crediting Interest

Interest is calculated on a simple interest basis using the daily balance method. Interest payments are credited back to your account monthly. You can learn more in My Banking Direct’s Truth in Savings disclosure forms (view PDF here).

Certificates of Deposit

As noted, My Banking Direct offers just 1 CD at the moment and the term is 5 months. It comes with a minimum deposit requirement of $2,500.

CD Rates

To put this yield into perspective, the current national average for a 6 month CD sits at 1.26% and top 6 month CD rates from online banks are between 5.00% and 5.20% APY with My Banking Direct among the rate leaders.

My Banking Direct used to offer 12 and 24 month CDs back in March of this year, but now offers just one promotional account. They also upped their minimum deposit requirement to the current $2,500 (up from just $500).

📌 Special Feature: Unlike most CD accounts, My Banking Direct allows you to make additional deposits to the 5 month CD at anytime during the term.

Grace Period and Early Withdrawal Fees

The grace period is the brief window of time (usually 7 or 10 days) upon your CD’s maturity in which you can close out your CD or modify it before it automatically renews into a new CD account with the same term and the going interest rate.

Unlike most banks, however, My Banking Direct’s CDs do not automatically renew unless you specify otherwise upon applying for and opening the CD. In the case that you do specify that you’d like it to automatically renew, then you will be given a 7 day grace period upon maturity in which you may modify it or close it out before it auto-renews.

If you do not make this specification on the front end of the CD, then 30 days prior to your CD’s maturity, My Banking Direct will send you a maturity notice. Upon the maturity of your CD, your funds will sit in a “Post Maturity Account” until you transfer or withdraw them.

If you need access to the funds in your My Banking Direct CD prior to its maturity, you will face an early withdrawal fee.

The early withdrawal fee for the 5 month CD is:

• 30 days’ simple interest on the principal amount withdrawn.

You can learn more by reading My Banking Direct’s Truth-in-Savings disclosure forms for their CDs here.

Direct Checking with Debit Card

My Banking Direct’s Direct Checking account comes with a minimum deposit requirement of just $1.00 to open it.

There are no monthly maintenance fees or service fees of any kind plus no overdraft or insufficient funds fees.

You’ll also get a free debit card which can be used for free at over 55,000 ATM locations via Allpoint and Presto‘s network of ATMs.

Another perk of using your My Banking Direct debit card for purchases is the rewards you can earn. Once you’ve requested and activated your debit card, you’re automatically enrolled in the rewards program.

With the rewards program you’ll receive $20 cash deposited to your Direct Checking account for every 2,000 rewards points you earn. You can earn up to 50,000 points per year ($500 cash in your account) plus the points don’t expire, they just carry over to the next year.

Below is an example of qualifying transactions, the points you’d earn and the cash it’s worth.

You can learn more about their rewards program here.

Some negative aspects of the Direct Checking account are:

• Outside of network ATMs may charge you for usage
• Outgoing wires are not permitted