Bell Bank is headquartered in FARGO and is the largest bank in the state of North Dakota. It is also the 123rd largest bank in the nation. It was established in 1966 and as of March of 2025, it had grown to 1,891 employees at 32 locations. Bell Bank's money market rates are 8X the national average, and it has an A health rating.
Unmatched Customer Service
Bell Bank has to be the best bank in North Dakota and Minnesota. Their customer service is outstanding. Every single employee I've encountered was extremely nice and willing to assist. Their employees are very respectful and professional. If you're looking at opening another checking account or switching to another bank, I'd recommend checking out Bell Bank. You won't be disappointed.
Bell Bank Discriminates Based On Tabloids
On Tuesday, July 19th I went online to my Bell Bank account to pay a bill and to my surprise, didn’t have access . I called the bank's customer service and spoke with two people who couldn’t tell me why, I was finally transferred to a supervisor who told me my accounts were in a status three. I asked what that meant and he said the bank closed my accounts and he didn't know why but he would have someone call me back within the hour with the answer. About a half hour later a news article came out of the Forum, which is a local newspaper, and the article talked about investments my husband had made for his clients in medical marijuana which is legal in North Dakota. Several hours later, my husband found out from a friend working at Bell Bank that our accounts were closed due to the newspaper article saying he was invested in cannabis. There was never a phone call notification to us from Bell Bank, no validation done to see if what the Forum was saying was even true. And it wasn’t true. My husband's investors are in cannabis but he is not and me and our kids are not invested in cannabis. Upon seeing a tabloid, Bell Bank just made the decision to discriminate against us and locked our accounts so we couldn't access our money anymore based on hearsay. How is this legal for a bank to do to customers that didn’t break the law? Two days later, Bell Bank sent us a letter to say they had closed all our accounts and they took our monies including the money from our kid's accounts that they worked really hard for at their jobs and their dad is not even a signer on their accounts, and Bell Bank applied all their monies to a loan my husband had with them! How is that legal or right? After closing our accounts without notice, bell bank continued to accept auto payroll deposits into my daughter’s closed account and made it difficult for my daughter to get her money back. They also continued to send payments to creditors on my closed account so I was assessed fees and finance charges by the creditors. Bell Bank is a horrible. They consider themselves judge and executioner based on sensationalized dribble from non reputable news sources. Stay away from Bell Bank!
Data as of Q1 2025
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 19581 |
| Year Established | 1966 |
| Employees | 1891 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 0.54% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 5.79% |
| Annual Interest Income | $169.9MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $14.5B$13.74B |
| Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $11.79B$12.26B |
| Deposits | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $12.68B$12.19B |
| Equity Capital | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $1.37B$1.3B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $124.8MM$124.2MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $54MM$63.1MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $291K$0 |
