I jumped through all their hoops to start an account (took over a week to get everything reviewed and approved. Nothing instantly approved on the web) only to find that they have a $2000 a day or $5000 a month limit on external account transfers. The only way you can transfer more than $2000 is to link an external account and make the transfers from there or write a check. I cannot link an external account to my checking account and dealing with paper checks is not acceptable. Be careful of starting an account if you need to transfer more than $2000 at a time or more than $5000 a month.
I recently opened a checking/savings account with them because of their airline miles along with their high 1.3% savings rate. After reading their website, they are FDIC insured up to 250K per account. So I'm insured upto 500K combined.
Now I'm getting concerned. I am with UFB and have contacted them a few times about this since reading these reviews. I asked before opening the accounts with them, and they informed me that all accounts are held at Bank of the Internet through them, and you're covered up to a combined 250k FDIC through them. This includes the accounts from BofI plus UFB Direct adding up to no more than that to be fully insured. But it's true I only found this information out through their reps. I'd like to make sure of this, since I have accounts elsewhere and am really thinking of pulling all balances I have at the UFB accounts to them.
I recently opened a UFB MM a/c but find the very low EFT transfer limitation (confirmed in the following excerpt from an email) unacceptable.
"Thank you for contacting UFB Direct. Our external banking limits are $2000 daily/ $5000 monthly. However, if you initiate the transfer through another other financial institution you would be subject to their transfer limits; which may be higher".
Lou Sw
Previous poster wrote that he has two accounts at the bank (a checking and a savings), so he thinks he's insured upto $500K combined.
This is PROBABLY NOT true. $250K FDIC insurance is per BANK, not per account.
It's kinda complicated, but per the FDIC website: "...a bank customer who has multiple accounts may qualify for more than $250,000 in insurance coverage if the customer’s funds are deposited in different ownership categories and the requirements for each ownership category are met." But different accounts are NOT automatically considered being different ownership categories.
For more, see:
http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insured/ownership1.html
and
http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insured/basics.html
-J
So, UFB says their accounts are FDIC insured. The FDIC says they are not. They FDIC says B of I Federal Bank is FDIC insured, but they say that they have no record of UFB Direct - so they cannot guarantee that any deposits made at UFB Direct are FDIC insured. I guess one could take UFB's word for it, but it would not be nice to have them fail and then discover that the anonymous person one spoke to at UFB Direct was either lying or misinformed. If the FDIC cannont guarantee that deposits made to UFB Direct are FDIC insured, then who can? Could the moderator please explain how they have confirmed that UFB Direct is FDIC insured, so we can confirm this ourselves? Thanks!
this just means that if you have accounts at separate divisions, you are not "separately" insured -- ie, you are limited to the fdic limit coverage for a single institution.
UFB Direct would rather insist on collecting a $25 fee for a simple oversight which I immediately corrected, than retain a long-time customer.
Had I known they offer linked accounts and overdraft line of credit, I would have set those up to avoid being subject to the fee. I do not recall ever being offered those services, it was only upon inspection of their fee schedule that I became aware they even offer those options.
Nonetheless, customer-no-service was unable to provide any fee forgiveness and allowed me to close all accounts without any concern for losing a five-year customer (I was a UFB Direct customer back when they were Huffington, and applied for a new account as soon as they re-opened under Bank of Internet).
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted - Enjoy your $25 fee, UFB Direct.
Insured or not, this thing is terrible. I wish I had never found this site which led me to put my money into this crap.
Why would you create this product with such a low transfer limit??
This bank is a division of the Bank of the Internet...Bofi. As such, I believe it is FDIC insured, and I have asked that the certificate be forwarded to to me, as I plan to make use of these excellent savings rates.