First International Bank & Trust is headquartered in Watford City and is the 2nd largest bank in the state of North Dakota. It is also the 286th largest bank in the nation. It was established in 1910 and as of September of 2020, it had grown to 645 employees at 28 locations. First International Bank & Trust's money market rates are 14% higher than the national average, and it has an A health rating.
Solid Local Bank
FIBT is a solid local minded bank. They have all the bells and whistles of a large mega bank without the bureaucracy and overhead cost. Thus, they give better rates and truly care about their customers and employees. Definitely worth considering if you're in one of their local markets.
FYI's For Potential Customers
After reading the reviews on this website, I felt a little insight was necessary to properly gauge where these reviews are coming from. It seems as though the negative reviews are coming from people who do not understand banking or the basics of their accounts. I encourage anyone having issues or concerns to reach out to the bank directly with any questions as we are always happy to help clarify things. As far as fees go - if you are in the correct product, you should not receive ANY fees. You can switch your product at anytime with a phone call if the one you are currently in isn't working for you. Additionally, Overdraft Protection is offered to everyone with a checking account and debit card. During the account opening process, we ask if customers would like to opt in or out and explain that if you opt in, you will be charged $30 per transaction once your account is in the negative. If your account stays negative for 6 consecutive days, you will be charged one additional $30 fee. Transactions for $10 or less will not cause you a fee. If you opt in to overdraft protection, you can come in person to withdrawal up to $470 in cash and only get one fee instead of everytime you swipe your card while in the negative. There are no fees uunless your account doesn't have the the funds available to cover a requested transaction. How many financial institutions do you know of that allow every customer to overdraw their account up to $500 if they choose? It's essentially a short term loan that you only get charged $30 for. If you are constantly playing catch up and getting fees, you are not using your overdraft protection correctly. It is not meant to be used regularly. If you opt out, your card will be restricted until it has been positive for 24 hours. You can still use cash or checks during that period of time. All you have to do to get it turned back on is call in Mon-Fri 7:30am-8pm and Sat 8am-2pm. It is the account holders responsibility to monitor their account balances. Additionally, checks that are drawn off FIB&T can be cashed for the funds to be available the same day, or will just take one business day to be available as a deposit. Checks drawn off of another financial institution take 2 business days to clear. Federal regulation allows us to give customers up to $200 cash back the same day to help during the wait period. It takes time to know whether or not a check will clear. All of these disclosures are listed in your new account paperwork. A few of the advantages offered are instant print debit cards, extended customer service hours, enhanced ATM's, multiple locations, and getting to speak to a person when you have any questions.
Best Bank Ever! Period.
Ever since I transferred all my accounts from my previous bank to this one I have been happy. I use to bank with a larger bank, and whenever I would call in all I would get is the computer. Not here. At First International I call and get a friendly voice willing to help me, and even though I don't have a lot of money they treat me like family. I would suggest this bank to anyone!
Garbage Bank
I somehow overdrafted $10 the day before i got paid (even though i turned overdrafting off). The next day when my account was several thousand in the positive, my card was declined, turned off. I immediately called customer service on that Friday. They told me it would take until the following day to get my card back on and to withdraw cash instead. Push came to shove, i took out money to buy prescriptions. The next day (Saturday) I tried to buy gas and groceries for my kids but... Declined again. I was literally locked out from my own money. I tried calling customer service but they were closed already.
Now I get to go 2 days feeding my kids balogna and canned vegetables for every meal because of a $10 overdraft that shouldve never happened. Idk why they couldnt just turn the card back on.
This isnt the first time something like this has happened. Fortunately it will be MY last. Im done with this bank.
Horrible Bank
Feeling robbed?? Me too! I opened an account that charged more fees than I could afford. I was broke every payday trying to get caught up! They boast about convenience but they’re more concerned with their convenience. Don’t trust First International Bank
Just Wow.
I made an account just to warn people about this bank. Worst banking experience ever, and I thought I had it bad before they bought our accounts from Bank of the Cascades! They'll literally hold any money you put in your account for days, unless you are rich and already have that amount in the account to "cover it". We can't even cash checks unless we have enough to cover it in our account "just in case" (I.e: you have $25 bucks in your account and want to cash a check for $40, they won't let you; you'll have to deposit it and wait first, you have to have $40 minimum to cash the check). Never have I EVER heard of a bank so paranoid of its own customers. We are new customers and are already being treated like enemies. We called customer service and got NO HELP, and they made a huge hassle out of us just wanting the money we HAD. They'll even remove and hold money returned to your card/account, and then charge you for any overdraft it causes even if they remove the money a day later. Absolutely horrendous stuff going on here.
They also charge an overdraft fee ever 5 days, before you can even (hopefully) get paid generally. And it doesn't matter if you made NSF purchases, you get that charge no matter what.
They also handled the transition extremely poorly and instead of rerouting direct deposits (I know it's possible even for small banks, I was with Bank of the Cascades when they took over Bank of America branches, and they routed people's direct deposits for multiple months to give people time to transition), they made no effort to do so and therefore broke any direct deposits for customers, causing many issues. I never agreed to these new terms and conditions for the account, and we will be closing our accounts with this bank ASAP.
I can't even believe they have customers. Just wow.
Data as of Q3 2020
Learn why bank health mattersHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 10248 |
| Year Established | 1910 |
| Employees | 645 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 1.59% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 17.73% |
| Annual Interest Income | $123.7MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $4.11B$3.18B |
| Loans | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $2.85B$2.43B |
| Deposits | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $3.56B$2.80B |
| Equity Capital | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $357.1MM$308.0MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $29.2MM$24.3MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $20.9MM$15.1MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q3 2020vs Q3 2019 | $5.6MM$11.0MM |
