Banking Savings Are Online Savings Accounts FDIC-Insured? 2 people contribute to this content Written by Timothy Moore, CFEI® Written by Timothy Moore, CFEI® Expertise: Bank accounts, taxes, personal loans, debt management, student loans, auto loans, budgeting, money management, home equity Timothy Moore is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®) specializing in bank accounts, student loans, taxes, and insurance. His passion is helping readers navigate life on a tight budget. Learn more about Timothy Moore, CFEI® Edited by Kristen Barrett, MAT Edited by Kristen Barrett, MAT Expertise: Student loans, mortgages, personal loans, home equity, investing Kristen Barrett is a managing editor at LendEDU. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her wife and their three senior rescue dogs. She has edited and written personal finance content since 2015. Learn more about Kristen Barrett, MAT Written by Timothy Moore, CFEI® Written by Timothy Moore, CFEI® Expertise: Bank accounts, taxes, personal loans, debt management, student loans, auto loans, budgeting, money management, home equity Timothy Moore is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®) specializing in bank accounts, student loans, taxes, and insurance. His passion is helping readers navigate life on a tight budget. Learn more about Timothy Moore, CFEI® Edited by Kristen Barrett, MAT Edited by Kristen Barrett, MAT Expertise: Student loans, mortgages, personal loans, home equity, investing Kristen Barrett is a managing editor at LendEDU. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her wife and their three senior rescue dogs. She has edited and written personal finance content since 2015. Learn more about Kristen Barrett, MAT show more Dec 23, 2025 Yes, legitimate online savings accounts are generally FDIC-insured, and that’s important. FDIC insurance protects your money across your deposit accounts at banks (and NCUA insurance does the same at credit unions). Although online-only banks offer a digital-first experience that differs from banks with physical branches, they should still offer the same great protections as brick-and-mortar financial institutions. Below, we’ll walk you through how to verify that your online savings account has FDIC (or NCUA) insurance, how the insurance differs from insurance at brick-and-mortar banks, and how much coverage you’ll get. Table of Contents How to check 1. Verify on the FDIC website 2. Determine your level of insurance 3. Check your bank’s website, but follow up What about NCUA insurance for credit unions? What makes FDIC insurance different for online banks? How much insurance do online banks offer? Are there any online banks without insurance? Are online banks safe? How to check whether your online savings account is FDIC-insured Insurance through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a crucial feature of any savings account, just in case the unthinkable happens … and it can happen. In 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, a physical bank with a large online presence, failed. Luckily, accounts with Silicon Valley Bank were FDIC-insured, meaning people who had money at the bank didn’t lose any cash, up to $250,000. So how do you know if your online savings account has FDIC insurance? 1. Verify on the FDIC website The first step to checking your bank’s FDIC insurance status is to use the BankFind Suite on the FDIC website. You can enter your bank’s name into the tool and then examine the results. If your bank is there, you’re good to go. We’ll cover what to do if your search doesn’t turn up results for your online bank in step 3. 2. Determine your level of insurance Typically, banks carry $250,000 per depositor (person) per ownership category (type of account, such as single bank accounts, joint accounts, and retirement accounts). However, some banks may offer different levels of coverage. You can customize a report to determine how much FDIC insurance you have using this FDIC calculator. 3. Check your bank’s website, but follow up Just because you don’t find your bank using the BankFind Suite doesn’t mean your online savings account doesn’t have FDIC insurance. Some financial technology companies (fintechs) aren’t true banks, but offer banking services through partner banks. If those partner banks are FDIC-insured, your account is likely FDIC-insured. Read a fintech’s fine print to determine whether its online savings account offers FDIC insurance through a partner bank. But don’t stop there: Confirm that the partner bank is, in fact, FDIC insured using the BankFind Suite tool, and confirm that the fintech is truly affiliated with that bank by visiting the partner bank’s website. A good example is Chime. Chime is one of the most popular “neobanks,” a fintech offering core financial services (like checking and savings accounts) entirely online. Though Chime is not a bank, it offers banking services (and FDIC insurance) through The Bancorp Bank, N.A., or Stride Bank, N.A. What about NCUA insurance for credit unions? Credit unions have similar deposit insurance for members, in the event that the credit unions fail. Instead of the FDIC, that insurance is provided by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). You can verify that your physical or online credit union is federally insured through the NCUA by using the NCUA’s credit union locator. Worried about keeping your money safe? Find the safest banks in the United States. What makes FDIC insurance different for online banks? Some online banks are true nationally chartered banks that carry their own FDIC insurance, such as Capital One and SoFi. Their FDIC insurance works exactly the same as it does at brick-and-mortar institutions. Some fintechs offer online banking services through partner banks, but they aren’t banks themselves. Some common examples include Current, Chime, and Albert. Although these fintechs do not directly carry FDIC insurance, their partner banks do, meaning customers get the same protection. There’s no visible difference to you as the consumer. How much FDIC insurance do online banks offer? The standard level of FDIC insurance offered by banks—big banks with a physical presence, local banks with a community presence, and online-only banks—is $250,000 per depositor per FDIC insurance category. Those categories include: Single accounts Joint accounts Certain retirement accounts Trust accounts Employee benefit accounts Business accounts (corporation, partnership, unincorporated association) Government accounts If you have a checking and savings account at the same bank, you’d have $250,000 in FDIC insurance across both accounts. But if you have a savings account, a separate deposit account that is joint (with a spouse or loved one), and a retirement account, each of those is insured up to $250,000 separately. While $250,000 is the standard level of FDIC insurance, some banks offer more. SoFi, for instance, offers up to $3 million in additional FDIC insurance through its network of participating banks. Are there any online banks without FDIC insurance? Generally, all legitimate banks, whether online or in-person, offer FDIC insurance. As we’ve seen above, even fintechs that aren’t themselves banks do offer insurance through partner banks. Similarly, credit unions should and do qualify for NCUA insurance. However, in today’s digital world, there are alternatives emerging that may not offer the same protections you’re used to. For instance N3XT, a new blockchain-based B2B payments company, does not carry FDIC insurance. Are online banks safe? The best online savings accounts are very safe—just as safe as an account from a brick-and-mortar bank. They carry the same type of FDIC insurance to protect your money against bank failure, and they typically offer a wide range of digital security features, such as: Multifactor authentication Encryption Real-time transaction alerts Fraud monitoring Most online banks have a page on their website dedicated to their security features; review these to make sure your money is safe in the bank before opening an account. You can also make your mobile banking experience safer by adding a strong password to your phone and opting in to all the optional security features your bank offers. Your online bank account should also have a unique, strong password you aren’t using anywhere else. Article sources At LendEDU, our writers and editors rely on primary sources, such as government data and websites, industry reports and whitepapers, and interviews with experts and company representatives. We also reference reputable company websites and research from established publishers. This approach allows us to produce content that is accurate, unbiased, and supported by reliable evidence. Read more about our editorial standards. FDIC, Understanding Deposit Insurance FDIC, Is Digital Banking for Me? FDIC, Calculator FDIC, BankFind Suite NCUA, Credit Union Locator Chime, Fee-Free Banking Capital One, Capital One FDIC Coverage SoFi, SoFi Checking and Savings Current, Save Albert, Saving N3XT, A New Standard for B2B Payments Investing, Former Signature Bank Executives Launch Blockchain-Based Bank American Bankers Association, Protecting Customers FDIC, FDIC Creates a Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara to Protect Insured Depositors of Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California About our contributors Written by Timothy Moore, CFEI® Timothy Moore is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®) specializing in bank accounts, student loans, taxes, and insurance. His passion is helping readers navigate life on a tight budget. Edited by Kristen Barrett, MAT Kristen Barrett is a managing editor at LendEDU. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her wife and their three senior rescue dogs. She has edited and written personal finance content since 2015.