Forbright Bank Avis 15

Easy peasy to open savings and CD accounts and have been very happy with my interest rates - grateful to the "big banks" ridiculous rates for forcing my hand into looking elsewhere.

Applied for a growth savings account and was denied. There is no reason why my account should have been denied. I have great credit, no debt, no closed bank accounts and I have never been refused any account in my 58 years neither personal or business. Thankfully they are not the only bank with great hysa(s). I assume they don't need any additional customers which is perfectly fine, but I would like to know why for my own information. They offer no reason for the denial and I assume my driver's license picture was not to the reviewer's liking. Good luck to those of you that can lighten up and make it in.

I’ve been a customer for almost 2 years and have had 0 issues. Customer service was very pleasant the one time I needed to ask a question. I recommended them to family members who are also satisfied.

I recently opened a growth savings account and the process was simple and painless. The account was approved and active within minutes of applying. The APY is one of the highest I found and so far I'm enjoying the ride.
I did run into problems trying to link external accounts. I didn't want to share my external account credentials so I elected to use the micro transaction process. This failed with two different banks with no clear reason stated. All I got was an error saying it required a security code which no one could explain. I called support and spoke with a very nice individual who suggested I try the plaid option. I decided to go ahead and try it with the intent of immediately changing my credentials at the external bank as soon as the account was linked. Sadly, it also failed to link even using plaid.
I was able to set up the accounts from my other banks to Forbright so it seems odd that Forbright couldn't support such a basic function.
Since then I've created multiple transfers to Forbright (restricted by daily transfer limit) and those have worked fine. I haven't attempted to initiate any transfers out of Forbright so it remains to be seen how well that works.
One last point I can share. I started to install the Forbright app on my phone but when I saw the broad range of resources it requires access to and shares I decided against installing the app.

I’ve had accounts with for Forbright with CDs and savings for over a year now. The process to add CDs and Growth Savings account was pretty simple. I’ve read all the negative reviews and they are wrong. Forbright will help you through the process if it confuses you.

Today, I had to transfer funds in a larger amount than their limit they set. I called and spoke with Michael Mann today and he was so helpful filling out some forms for a larger transfer amount and it was pretty easy. I ended up calling three times but only because I am a lot more dense than most people and I guess I was just nervous. Anyway, Mr. Mann was extremely patient each time and continued my perception of excellent service from this bank.

I had a disappointing experience with a certificate of deposit (CD). After researching CD rates online, I decided to purchase one from Forbright, as they offered one of the higher rates available at the time. I bought a 9-month CD with a rate of just over 4%.

Fast forward 9 months to the maturity date. A couple of weeks before the maturity, Forbright sent a letter stating that upon maturity, I had 10 days to close the account and transfer the funds; otherwise, the balance would automatically roll over to a new term based on the current interest rate. This seemed reasonable.

About a week after maturity, I logged onto their website to close the account and transfer the funds, which I intended to use for my kids' college expenses. However, the process of closing the account online was quite complicated. I followed the instructions to link my traditional bank account for the transfer and selected the total balance to be moved back to my checking account. After that, I sent a message through their website asking for confirmation that the transaction was correctly set up. I still had a week left in the "grace period" to make any corrections.

The website indicated that I would receive two micro deposits in my checking account to confirm that Forbright bank and my traditional bank were successfully linked. I checked my account and saw that indeed, two separate micro deposits had come from Forbright. Assuming everything was fine, I continued to monitor my checking account for the transfer of the CD funds.

After a week, the transfer still had not taken place, so I called the customer service number to speak with a representative. I was informed that the "grace period" had passed and that I would incur a penalty for closing the account. I explained my situation to several customer service representatives, emphasizing that I had been working to close the account well before the deadline. Despite my efforts, they refused to waive the substantial fee, which ended up costing me three months' worth of interest from my 9-month CD.

The explanation I received was that I must have missed a step during the process of linking the accounts. Since the micro deposits had posted successfully to my checking account, I assumed everything was correctly set up. I hope this practice is not just a revenue enhancement tool for Forbright, but at this point, I am not so sure.

This company communicatin,and professionalism is poor. Applied for a high yield savings account with proper credentials.usually an online account is up and running in a few days. I keep calling and emailing asking why over a course of a month that my account is still not active. They keep telling me when I call or call me it's there system. So you mean to tell me. You can afford to have your system down for over a month and loose customers. It was a shady to me. Because I have high yield savings accounts and both companies got me up and running smoothly with no issues. How can there be a issue with proper banking info and your social security number

I went through the online application process for the Growth Savings Account. I have no bad credit, no prior banking issues, no loans, and nothing that should raise any red flags. Despite that, my application was rejected.

They asked me to submit my ID, which I did, but I never received any follow-up. When I called customer service, it was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. The representative was rude, constantly interrupted me, and still couldn’t give me a clear reason for the rejection.

Another major issue: during the application process, there was no option to select certain legitimate sources of income. For example, I could choose “lottery winnings” but not “Social Security survivor benefits,” which is a common and valid income type. That alone made the process feel poorly designed and frustrating.

I requested my husband be added as a joint owner to my growth savings account. They sent an invite to him.

We completed all the necessary info, submitted the required information, etc. We got the same request four times. They finally denied the request and blamed it on information received from Chex Systems. We have obtained the reports from Chex, and there is nothing precluding him from being added to my account.

I wouldn't bother, but I have been sick.

I'm older. I want to ensure there is no issue should something happen to me

I read the Forbright reply posted an hour ago. There was no mention that my husband and I both spoke with Savannah late yesterday afternoon and forwarded the information she requested. Were they not aware of this fact?

My husband was finally added as joint owner. We also received information about setting up login.

Thanks to all for help.

I love foreigners who have made it in this country ! I am one of them ! NOT so for this bank !! They really need to train these folks to listen to the customers needs . Most folks in this country live from check to check and do not even have $5000 for emergency funds . And this CSR is telling me " You only have XYZ dollars with us " instead of saying " we love to see you place additional funds with us " Please forgive me for saying.... I could pay your salaries in the next 5 YEARS !! at the minimum !!
BTW ...install the best phone system for your employees , because your current system sounded as though you are making them working in a" basement Sweat shop "!!!

The CD is automatically renewed. They never sent the CD ending date notification to my home. They only sent the renewal letter. I contacted them today right after 1 day after that letter, but they did not help or never want to help at all.

Follow-up with my comments:

I contacted customer service yesterday. No one contacted me by phone or email, and I never received any notification that my CD has expired and will be auto-renewed. The website portal lacks any method for me to disable the auto-renewed feature or any tool to have the CD close on expiration and transfer the funds to my bank account. When I signed up for the CD, I was trapped with the trick. Even though the renewal letter is dated Dec 20th, I received the letter on Dec 31, New Year's Eve!!!! I contacted the bank 1 business day after that, on 01022025 and the lady asked me to pay the fine of $600 or more to close my account, otherwise, I have to wait for another year to access my funds. Do you think it is fair to your customers who trust you to lay the money in your bank?

--- Another trick with Forvright Bank:
Did you ask your online customer to Opt-in to receive emails? This is another trick. How come an ONLINE banking customer has to Opt-in to receive emails? Why don't you have it as the default option, and customers can opt-out FOR NOT RECEIVING your emails? What is the online banking standard in 2024? Can you help to ask Chase Bank, Bank Of America, Ally Bank why they don't require these standards, and their website has an option for their customers to instruct the bank NOT TO RENEW on the Maturity Date of the CDs and send the funds to their personal bank accounts? That is another trick.

Instant link to external bank account appeared to be working fine -- until the end. Then it said "failed to add." We are really tired of a string of text confirmation codes for a single transaction. Incredibly disrespectful to customers. They ask for verification before any transaction -- this was multiples. Not rational.

I recently opened a Growth Savings account with Forbright because they had a more competitive interest rate than my other savings account. I then proceeded to set up my checking account and another savings account using their external transfer process and was able to link my accounts.
I noticed a couple of red flags with this bank immediately. The first is that when I tried to add Forbright as an external bank with my existing checking and savings account, it could not verify them as an institution and gave me four phone numbers, none of which were my actual phone number, so I couldn't link them as an external account when I tried to verify Forbright from my other accounts. I could only link accounts when logged into Forbright and then initiating an external account for transfers, but it said the accounts were linked and I was then finally able to transfer money to Forbright.
The biggest issue occurred when I tried to transfer money from my Forbright account to one of my external accounts. I noticed the money had not been transferred after 3 business days, and had to dig into the Forbright transfer activity only to find out my transfers had been cancelled. I then tried transferring money to my other external account only to have it cancelled again with no notification from Forbright. I then attempted to contact Forbright to find out why my transfers were cancelled and they said they were unable to verify my external accounts even though they were already verified and they then said I had to provide proof I was the owner of the account. I provided the requested proof and they are still giving me the run-around and keep requesting additional info. The latest is that they requested this month's statement and because the month isn't over yet, I don't have a statement, so I can't physically provide them the info.
I can't even close my account with them because they said I need a zero balance but since I can't withdraw any of my funds, closing my account isn't available either. I've attempted to contact Forbright both via email (which I think is answered by a bot) and several phone calls, only to wait on hold 15 - 20 mins each time and no resolution. I've never had an experience like this with another financial institution and have even gotten the Better Business Bureau (BBB) involved. Absolutely the worst experience I've had with a bank ever.

Forbright Bank Growth Savings is the perfect savings account. Interest rate is among the highest of any of the online or other banks, the bank actively promotes environmental causes which we strongly believe in. They even gave us an annual pass to national parks for maintaining a balance in our account.

Their app works great and provide some motivating charts to encourage you to save more.

Transfers in and out of your account to your checking or other account are easy and seamless. Our checking account is with Capital One and we have no problem moving funds in and out of our Forbright Bank growth savings account.

We highly recommend Forbright Bank.

After being denied to a HYSA at a local bank ( Evergreen Bank Group, 5.25 APY), I wanted to test another bank to see if I will get denied. After 10 minutes after getting the denied email from Evergreen Bank Group, I have applied and gotten approved thru Forbright Bank, 5.30 APY on August 9, 2024. Both banks had identical questions, same requirements to meet when completing the application. I have no overdraft, credit score at 3 credit bureau are over 820, no credit freeze, no security freeze, pay bills on time,no loan, $0 balance on 2 credit cards and overpayment on 1 credit card, etc.

Loving Forbright Bank. For me it take 4 days out of 5 days for my money to be transfer between my bank regular saving account to Forbright Bank HYSA. Both financial institution go thru security of the money being transfer is from a real person, real account and not a fraud thus the reason it take up to 5 days for ACH transfer.

Calling Customer Service and speaking to Suki, Cat and Rhea are awesome. These ladies provided answer to my questions and more. The ladies have provided me an update with a date when the money will be available to my Forbright Bank account.

Forbright Bank is a win. I am very happy with my Growth Savings Account that I have applied and have been approved for a second Growth Savings account as Forbright Bank does not have buckets yet. After calling customer service and speaking to Rhea, I was informed Forbright Bank will be looking into having buckets within the Growth Savings account in the future

Other features that I love with Forbright HYSA Growth Saving account is you can add more than one external account to the Growth Saving Account. You can have up to 5 Growth Savings account. Since I now have two Growth Savings Account, I have three external account from two different banks to transfer money in and out. There is no fees, no minimum amount to open the account but an amount is required to be transfer within 21 days after opening the account before the account get close with no deposit. Forbright Bank have automatic deposit. The website is easy to navigate as well as the mobile app and you can see all approved Growth Saving account on one page. You can edit the Growth Saving names, for example one account is Growth Savings - Bills, another account is Growth Savings - Emergency Funds.

In the end everything happens for a reason. I am a happy customer of Forbright Bank that focus on sustainability coming from a licensed architect, LEED BD+C. I am not an employee. I am a happy customer. I will be applying for my third HYSA with Forbright Bank.