Applied Bank Review: Is It the Right Bank for You?

Applied Bank is a small regional institution with two branches in Delaware. If you’re a Delaware resident, you might consider Applied Bank as an option for your banking. While some might be hesitant to join a bank with a relatively small footprint, banking locally can have a distinctly positive impact on your community while also giving you bankers that are more knowledgeable of local issues. Depending on what your banking needs are — and might be in the future — that local touch can ultimately be important, particularly in getting an institution you feel confident is responsive to you.

While a local touch can certainly help, it’s also not always going to make up for substandard rates. So, here’s a deeper dive into Applied Bank and whether or not it might be the right regional bank for you.

Jump to a section:

• Who Is Applied Bank Best For?
• Types of Accounts Available
  • Applied Rewards Checking
  • Applied Rewards 50+ Checking
  • Personal Savings
  • Personal Money Market
  • Certificates of Deposit (CDs)
  • Home Equity Line of Credit
• How To Bank With Applied Bank
• Fees
• Availability of Funds
• Delaware Residents Should Consider Their Options

Who Is Applied Bank Best For?

Applied Bank is a small local bank, which can have its benefits and drawbacks.

Best For:

• Delaware residents looking for a local banker
• People with evolving banking needs

Applied Bank offers a compact slate of products, from checking to savings to getting a loan against the value of your home. For a growing family with ever-changing needs in Delaware, Applied is the sort of bank that can grow with you. Applied might also appeal to some for its location. As the bank’s site is quick to point out, Delaware’s laws on asset protection will also apply to your bank accounts.

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Potential Drawbacks:

• Small footprint
• Average interest rates
• Minimum balance requirements for savings account, money market account

Certainly, a bank with just two branches will have a limited appeal to anyone who desires convenient locations and ATMs. What’s more, the interest rate on its savings account is just a hair over the national average, and you’ll need to maintain a minimum balance in either the savings account or the money market account — $100 and $1,000, respectively — to avoid a $10 monthly fee.

Types of Accounts Available

Applied Bank offers a number of different types of accounts to fit varied needs.

Applied Rewards Checking

• No monthly fee
• Earns interest
• Unlimited check writing
• No minimum balance
• Free online bill pay, online banking and Visa debit card

Applied Rewards checking is a basic, free checking account that can also earn you a 0.05% APY on balances over $1,000.

Applied Rewards 50+ Checking

• No monthly fee
• Earns interest
• Unlimited check writing
• No minimum balance
• Free online bill pay, online banking and Visa debit card

A free, interest-bearing checking account geared specifically toward those who are age 50 or older. Once again, balances of $1,000 or more can earn 0.05% APY.

Personal Savings

• $100 minimum balance
• $10 monthly fee for accounts below minimum balance
• Free online bill pay, online banking and Visa debit card

While you do need to be sure you don’t fall below the minimum balance and trigger the monthly fee, the 0.05% APY rate is better than the national average.

Personal Money Market

• $1,000 minimum balance
• $10 monthly fee for accounts below minimum balance
• Free online bill pay, online banking and Visa debit card

While you can earn more interest with the Personal Money Market account, the highest rate offered still only comes out to 0.10% APY.

Certificates of Deposit (CDs)

Customers lacking the funds necessary to qualify for the Personal Money Market account’s highest APY can look to Applied’s CDs instead. There are more term options here, and you’ll only need to commit $1,000 and a minimum of six months to qualify for the highest APY. This is consistent across both normal CDs and jumbo CDs.

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Certificate of Deposit

There’s a $1,000 minimum for all of Applied Bank’s CDs.

• Terms range from 60 days to 60 months
• Rates up to 0.05% APY

Jumbo Certificate of Deposit

Applied offers similar rates for CDs with $95,000 or more in them.

• Terms of 60 days to 60 months
• Rates up to 0.05% APY

Home Equity Line of Credit

When expenses are too much, you can use your home’s value to make important investments in your family’s future.

• 2.49% APR for first six months; 4.99% APR thereafter
• No upfront or closing fees
• Use for 10 years, with 20 years to repay amount borrowed
• Line amounts from $5,000 to $250,000

How To Bank With Applied Bank

You can apply for an account with Applied Bank by visiting one of its two Delaware-based branches, should you be in Rehoboth Beach or Wilmington. If not, you can visit the bank’s website and follow the instructions listed there to open your account. If you want to know about other options for opening an account, you can contact the bank via phone at 888-839-7952.

Fees

The fee to most likely affect consumers is the $10 a month minimum balance fee on savings and money market accounts. This fee has the potential to eat away at your savings a lot faster than any interest will earn it back. But some of Applied Bank’s other fees are pretty hefty too; especially if you’re prone to misplacing debit cards.

Here’s a complete list of fees that Applied Bank may charge you with:

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• Excessive transaction fee (per item): $25.00
• Minimum balance fee: $10.00
• Return item fee: $35.00
• Returned deposit fee (per item): $15.00
• Stop payment order fee (per item): $25.00
• Levy/court order fee (per item): $100.00
• Statement copy fee (per copy): $5.00
• Copy of canceled check fee (per copy): $7.00
• Official check fee (per check): $25.00
• Dormant account fee: $10.00
• Account research fee (per/hour, one-hour minimum): $15.00
• Incoming wire fee (except to open the account): $3.00
• Outgoing wire fee (per wire): $20.00
• Express mail handling: $20.00
• Bill payment insufficient funds: $35.00
• Bill payment next-day fee: $14.95
• Bill payment same-day ACH fee: $9.95
• Debit card replacement fee: $30.00
• Debit card expedited delivery fee: $35.00
• Late charge – safe deposit rental fee payment: $10.00
• Online ACH transfer: $3.00
• Online ACH transfer (next day): $5.00

Availability of Funds

Any direct deposits or cash can be withdrawn on the same day that they’re deposited. For wire transfers, cashier’s checks, teller’s checks or money orders, the money is available the first business day after the transaction. And finally, other check deposits won’t be available for withdrawal until two business days after deposit.

Delaware Residents Should Consider Their Options

While you clearly have plenty of banking options in Delaware, some residents might find that foregoing a big national chain in favor of a local bank like Applied could ultimately make for a better banking experience overall. With Applied, you get a community organization with a stronger sense of local issues than you might find elsewhere, so give them some serious thought before making any final settlements.

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Rates are updated periodically and subject to change. All other information on accounts is accurate as of March 5, 2020.