Pinnacle Bank of Nebraska recently launched their online banking arm called BankOn . The new internet bank invites offers consumers a high interest savings account with an interest rate of 2.05% APY. This money in the bank deal does not impose any minimum deposit

The high yield savings account is not offered nationwide. When you access the online application, it states that BankOn accepts savings deposit from residents of Wyoming, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado.

To enjoy the high interest rate with this savings account, the bank also requires you to open a checking account and money market account with them. The $50 bonus will be paid within 10 days after opening the savings account. BankOn limits one account per household.

The promo page does not state any hard inquiry required for opening an account. When we called the bank the customer service representative is not sure if the bank will do a hard credit pull. There is also no mention about any ACH transfer capabilities.

The high interest earning savings account does not require any minimum balance after opening. There are no monthly fees collected. This account can be funded using a debit card, credit card, or your U.S. checking account.

Consumers who want to open a joint account can do so. There is no option to list any beneficiaries. Some fees detailed on the website are dormant account charge of $50 and incoming wire fee of $12 per wire.

The required checking account requires an initial deposit of $100 to open. This is a non-interest bearing checking account. The account holder qualifies for the cash back rewards program which gives 0.50% when using the Visa check card for signature based purchases. The reward is credited to the account on a monthly basis.

The money market, on the other hand, has a current interest rate of 2.05% as of October 12. It does not impose a minimum deposit to open the account.

The state restriction is a good feature somehow since this guarantees that the bank will not be overwhelmed with deposits. As we have seen so far, online banks which offered very attractive interest rates are overwhelmed with deposits and they end up suspending applications.

BankOn operates under the umbrella of Pinnacle Bank. We commend Pinnacle Bank for including a link of BankOn on their main website to lead clients to the new internet bank. Pinnacle Bank is FDIC insured. They have declared assets of $2.4 billion and deposits of around $2.1 billion. They operate 57 branches in different states.

Pinnacle bank gets 4 stars for safety and soundness from both bankrate.com and BauerFinancial. These were based on their June 2009 financial data.