High Yield
Our review
Connect Savings has a low opening deposit, but its earning threshold and alternatives deserve attention.
Bank5 Connect's regular savings account is easier to open than its Jumbo product, but opening an account and earning interest are different milestones. You can open Connect Savings with $10; the earning minimum in the bank terms reviewed is $100. For a saver just starting out, that distinction matters more than a general statement that the bank has low minimums.
Starting small and managing the costs
Bank5 Connect supports online opening and linked external accounts. Its disclosures warn that an amount credited to the account is not necessarily available to withdraw immediately. With the lower opening requirement, there is room to test funding and withdrawals before building a larger balance. Neither an online application nor a visible balance establishes a guaranteed transfer speed.
Connect Savings permits a smaller start than Jumbo, which changes how someone can build the relationship. A saver need not move an established emergency fund all at once to discover whether the online interface and linked checking arrangement fit. But the initial $10 does not make this an interest-earning account at every possible balance. Until the earning threshold is reached, its value is mainly separation and the habit of saving. That can still be useful, provided a fee or a weak eventual yield does not undermine the habit. The decision should follow the amount likely to remain after ordinary withdrawals, not only the ease of opening.
There is no monthly maintenance fee, and electronic statements avoid the separate paper-statement charge. The product excludes residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Bank5 Connect belongs to BankFive rather than being a separate legal bank for FDIC coverage. Check how your existing BankFive deposits fit into that total, and read the separate terms of any supplemental deposit coverage the bank advertises.
The regular product and its remote support
Bankrate and NerdWallet both describe Bank5 Connect as an online banking option with low fees. Bankrate also notes that the regular savings yield can lag other online accounts. That is a useful reminder to compare the exact product. An attractive Jumbo Savings advertisement does not establish that a small Connect Savings balance will earn the same rate.
The regular product should be compared with other accounts aimed at modest balances, rather than presented as a smaller version of Jumbo with the same economics. Someone saving a little each payday may care more about a low earning floor, fee avoidance and understandable statements than about features designed for a six-figure reserve. On that scale, small charges matter. A paper-statement fee that looks inconsequential beside $100,000 can consume a large share of the interest on a few hundred dollars. Electronic statements therefore change the arithmetic here, not just the delivery preference. That is an account-specific cost rather than a reason to assume all online banking is free.
Bankrate notes daily phone availability, and the bank lists phone, live chat and video support with different hours. Those channels give you more ways to ask for help; the review does not establish how quickly a difficult transfer will be resolved. Bank5 Connect is part of BankFive. I would distinguish federal insurance from the bank's separate advertised DIF coverage, and neither from a prediction that the institution will never encounter trouble.
There is not enough recent independent evidence for this exact product to rank its handling of account restrictions against bigger online banks. Published availability of telephone, chat and video support establishes ways to contact Bank5, rather than a measured level of service. It also would be a mistake to treat a review of a mortgage or a local BankFive branch as a test of the online savings account. I would give the actual service channels some weight in the choice, but reserve judgment about difficult cases. A modest, established savings relationship can be useful without needing an unsupported claim that its support is exceptional.
Does another savings relationship help?
The distinction between opening with $10 and earning at $100 matters for someone building savings gradually. I would judge Connect Savings on the rate available once that small balance starts earning, rather than the bank's Jumbo advertisement. Avoiding a paper-statement charge matters disproportionately here: a small recurring charge can outweigh the interest on a starter balance. This account makes more sense when its actual small-balance yield and service channels offer something useful beyond a low opening requirement.
Compare this account with other savings options →
I would give this account a clear role before adding it to an existing setup. A first savings account that helps someone accumulate a reliable cushion has a stronger case than a redundant account maintained for an occasional rate-table appearance. The state exclusions also matter to the audience: this is not a universal alternative for every nearby BankFive customer. For an eligible saver, the next question is whether the actual small-balance return and remote support options are worth another relationship. As the reserve grows, revisiting that comparison is sensible; automatically switching to a product called Jumbo is not, unless its terms improve the outcome at the balance the saver will really keep.
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