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Is Your Money Safe in an Online Bank? FDIC & NCUA Explained

Numbers checked: October 27, 2026 against FDIC, NCUA, and CFPB sources. Educational only — not financial advice. By PLoMUS Editorial Team Quick answer: Yes, if the online bank is FDIC-insured or the credit union is federally insured by the NCUA. Being online-only does not change the protection. The standard coverage is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. Payment apps that are not banks are different: deposit insurance does not cover you if the app company itself fails. Key takeaways Deposit insurance depends on whether the institution is insured, not on whether it has branches. The $250,000 limit applies per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. Stocks, mutual funds, annuities, and crypto are not deposits and are not insured, even if a bank sells them. An app's "pass-through" insurance protects against a partner bank failing, not the app failing. The two federal insurers FDIC (Federal Deposit In...
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APY vs APR vs Interest Rate: What's the Difference?

Numbers checked: October 27, 2026 against CFPB (Regulation DD and Ask CFPB) and NCUA sources. Educational only — not financial advice. By PLoMUS Editorial Team Quick answer: The interest rate is the basic yearly rate and does not include compounding. APY (annual percentage yield) is what a deposit account earns in a year with compounding, so use it to compare savings accounts and CDs. APR (annual percentage rate) is a borrowing number that adds certain lender fees to the rate, so use it to compare loans. Key takeaways APY is for money you earn. APR is for money you owe. The same interest rate can produce slightly different APYs, depending on how often interest compounds. Federal rules require banks and credit unions to state savings rates as an APY in disclosures and ads. Compare APY to APY and APR to APR, never one against the other. Definitions in plain English Interest rate. For deposit accounts, the federal Truth in Savings rules (Regulation DD) define the ...
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