Best Online Banks of 2023-2024

Online banks have become one of the most popular ways consumers manage their financial transactions. The ability to bank 24/7 means you can transfer funds, pay bills and monitor your accounts whenever it’s convenient. However, the benefits of online banking extend beyond round-the-clock availability. Without the need to maintain brick-and-mortar locations, digital banks have lower overhead costs and can pass those savings on to their customers through zero or low fees and higher interest rates.

Here are our picks for the best online banks of 2023-2024.

• Discover Bank – Best Overall
• Vio Bank – Best Money Market Account
• Sofi – Best combo checking/savings accounts
• Axos Bank – Best for relationship rewards
• Quontic – Most innovative
• Bank5 Connect – Best for high-yield checking
• Bread Financial – Best for high-yield savings
• Everbank (formerly TIAA) – Best interest rates
• Ally Bank – Best customer service
• Barclays – Best for low fees

We chose Discover as the best overall online bank because of the high interest rate paid on its savings accounts and certificates of deposit (they all earn over 4% APY, the low opening balances and the general lack of fees. Plus, you get free overdraft protection and can earn up to 1% cash back on debit card purchases per month when you open a Discover Cash Back debit account. There’s no minimum balance required to open an account, and you’ll have access to over 60,000 fee-free ATMs.

If you’re looking for an account that will pay high dividends on your deposits, Vio’s Cornerstone Money Market Savings account pays 5.25% — the highest of all the money market accounts we considered and making it our top pick. The account has a low opening balance of $100 and there are no monthly service fees either. Plus, Vio won’t charge you if you have a negative balance in your account.

SoFi’s High-Yield Checking account (it comes with a savings account) is our pick for best checking/savings combo because of the high interest rate and other perks offered.

Earn 0.50% APY on the checking portion of the account (well above the industry average) and 4.5% on the savings portion. You can also earn up to $250 in cash bonuses when you sign up for direct deposits and meet account balance requirements, and get 15% cash back on SoFi debit card purchases.

Our pick for the online account with the best relationship rewards is Axos Bank’s Rewards Checking. You start by earning a very good 0.40% interest rate, but can bump that up to as high as 3.3% APY when you enroll in direct deposit, use the free Personal Finance Manager service and have personal loans or investment accounts. The more relationships you have with the bank, the higher the rate.

Plus, you’ll get unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursements and can earn a $300 welcome bonus if you meet account balance and .

Quontic is once again our choice for the most innovative bank due to its cutting-edge products and services. Open a checking account, and you’ll not only earn a very good 1.1% APY (when meeting transaction requirements), but you’ll also have access to the bank’s Pay Ring, which allows you to easily make purchases by just tapping your ring on the payment terminal. Quontic’s High yield Savings account is pretty good, too, paying 4.5% APY.

Bank5 Connect’s High Interest Checking account is our choice for the best high-yield checking account. You’ll earn 2.7% APY on balances over $100 without the need to open multiple accounts or establish relationship banking. You also have the option to earn cash back when you enroll in the Purchase Rewards program. Other account perks include up to $15 of other banks’ ATM fees reimbursed per statement cycle (and no Bank5 Connect out-of-network ATM fees).

If all you want is a savings account that earns a great interest rate, then Bread Financial’s High Yield Savings account is for you. It pays a 5.15% interest rate, the highest among the online banks we considered. The opening balance is $100, and there’s no monthly service fee. You’ll also get a very nice 5.6% APY on Bread’s 1-year CD.

While we’ve chosen individual bank checking and savings accounts as the best for earning a high interest rate, Everbank stands out because it pays higher than usual APYs on all its deposit accounts. In fact, the bank pledges to keep interest rates within the top 5% of competitive accounts.

You can earn a decent 0.25% when you open a Yield Pledge Checking account, and an introductory rate of 5.15% on the Yield Plus Savings Account (after one year the rate drops to 4.75%, which is still very good). There aren’t a lot of fees, either — not even for overdrafts or insufficient funds.

Ally Bank ranks in the top three in J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Direct Banking Satisfaction Study for their checking and savings accounts, making it our top pick for customer service. But Ally won’t just treat you well; it also pays an excellent 4.25% APY on its Savings Account.

You can also use Ally’s “boosters” to amp up your savings: Set up recurring transfers from your checking account, round up your purchases for automatic deposits and get pleasantly surprised when Ally finds extra cash in your checking account that can be safely transferred to savings.

Barclays wins this year for the best bank with low fees. The Online Savings Account has no monthly or annual fees and the fees it does have are very low. Returned deposit and insufficient funds fees are just $5 per item, much better than other banks we considered. In addition to very few fees, you'll earn 4.35% APY on your savings account.

How we chose the Best Banks of 2023-2024

To determine our list of Best Banks for 2023-2024, Money staff evaluated 273 of the largest retail banks, credit unions, regional and state banks, ranked by assets, and 20 of the most popular online banks. We then compared opening balance requirements, interest paid, fees and features to determine our top picks. You can read our full methodology here.

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