SFGI Direct is again accepting applications for their high yield savings account over the internet. They still have a very competitive interest rate at 2.25% APY through all balances.

The current interest rate is posted on the front page of their website. The high savings interest rates were first offered back in July but it seems the money in the bank attracted a lot of customers and was closed for new applications by August.

This high interest rate savings is being offered nationwide and it is currently the best non-promo deal that you can find. We are not very sure up to when will the internet bank accept applications for this kind of rate. Interested consumers can open the account online and fund it by transferring money from your other bank.

When we scanned the FAQ of the account though, we noticed some changes. The minimum funding to open the account is now $500 which used to be $25. SFGI Direct still does not impose any balance requirements to enjoy the high rates and they still do not collect monthly fees. The initial deposit that you can make has a set cap of $25,000.

Another change is the number of external accounts that you can link to your savings account. Before you can link as much as you want, but now you can only have one external account initially.

The bank stills states that withdrawals can only be done within their online banking system.

We got a positive note from an account holder that their ACH transfer system is very efficient. The funds are reflected on the account after 24 hours or the next business day. Withdrawals usually take 2 days.

SFGI Direct operates as an internet division under the umbrella of Summit Community Bank. The rating for soundness and safety of the mother company is a bit low. Both bankrate.com and BauerFinancial issued 2 stars or a bit problematic based on their most recent data.

The bank is quite sizeable with about $1.58 billion in assets and about $965 million in deposits. It is still best to stay within the FDIC limits.