Primis Bank: Checking, savings, CDs and business banking

Our verdict

Primis Bank is a mostly online bank with personal and business banking accounts, as well as lending options. The bank accounts all have a low $1 opening deposit requirement, and most feature some type of reward or earning potential. The Primis Savings has a high 5.07% APY, with no monthly service fees and no transaction limits, and CDs have average rates with low deposit requirements. The APYs on its interest-bearing checking accounts are also super high, up to 6% APY by meeting direct deposit requirements. They offer auto loans, boat loans, mortgages, HELOCs, personal loans, credit cards and a variety of business financing. There’s also a service called V1BE, which allows you to request someone to come to your house for check orders and deposit pickups. However, the bank only accepts 1,000 new accounts per month.

Best for: People who prefer online banking.

Is Primis Bank right for you?

Primis Bank is mostly an online institution, making it better suited for people who rarely need to visit a physical branch or for those with simple finances. For those who need assistance, Primis offers 24/7 customer support and a handful of branches in Virginia and Maryland.

How Primis Bank stacks up

Formerly Southern National Bancorp of Virginia, Primis Bank is an FDIC-insured institution and is one of the largest banks in Virginia.

Its spread of offerings is solid overall. You can open personal or business accounts, get a high APY on its personal savings account and enjoy very high FDIC insurance of up to $2 million if your balance exceeds the typical $250,000 coverage amount.

Primis also offers one of the most unique features we’ve ever seen: V1BE. It’s a free “bank on wheels” service, which basically means you can request to have a bank representative drive out to your house to offer services such as cashier check delivery and deposit pickups.

Where it shines

• High APYs. The Primis Savings features a high 5.07% APY, with no monthly service fees and no transaction limits. And its Primis Novus Checking account offers up to 6% APY when you meet direct deposit requirements.
• Low opening deposits. For the checking, savings and CD accounts, you’ll find low deposit requirements. All bank accounts just require $1 to open, and the CDs have an extremely low $250 minimum deposit; most banks require at least $1,000.
• High FDIC insurance. If your account balance exceeds $250,000, Primis will help you obtain FDIC insurance coverage up to $2 million for free.
• Rewarding business checking. The business checking accounts offer cashback rewards or an APY, both requiring no monthly fees or balance requirements and featuring unlimited transactions.
• 24/7 customer support. Primis Bank’s customer phone line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 833-477-4647.
• Banking on wheels. With its feature V1BE, you can request someone to drive to your house to offer in-person banking services.
• No ATM fees. Primis Bank reimburses you for any ATM fees you’re charged when you use an ATM outside of its network.

Where it falls short

• Few branches. Primis largely operates as an online bank, and unless you live in Virginia or Maryland, you probably won’t have any nearby physical branches.
• Limited savings account. Offering only one savings account, there isn’t much variety or offerings for specific demographics, such as savings for kids, seniors or military members.
• Limits new customers. Primis Bank only accepts 1,000 new accounts for the month. Once it hits that cap, they pause and stop accepting new customer applications for that month and put customers on a waitlist. The bank says they do this to ensure that new and existing customers don’t receive lacking customer service.

Primis Bank business products

A main draw with Primis’ business products is the lack of balance minimums to earn APYs or get rewards. There are two free business checking accounts to choose from, each offering no fees for incoming wire transfers, ATM usage, and cash flow analytics.

• Primis Unlimited . A checking account with no monthly fees, balance requirements, overdraft fees or transaction limits. There’s a low $1 opening deposit, and you can earn cash back up to $0.25 with each debit card transaction with no limits.
• Primis Pro . Very similar to the Unlimited account, it also has no monthly fees, balance requirements, overdraft fees or transaction limits. There’s a low $1 opening deposit, and you can earn 1.75% APY on your balance with no minimum balance requirements.

There’s one Primis business savings account:

• Business Savings. Offers up to 4% APY and only requires a $1 minimum opening deposit. The account also comes with cash flow analytics, no incoming wire transfer fees and unlimited transactions.

Primis Bank checking accounts

Primis Bank offers three personal checking accounts to choose from, all of which have no monthly service fees or overdraft fees and require a small $1 opening deposit. You also get no fees for incoming wires, check images, free cashier’s checks, mobile check deposit and early direct deposit up to two days.

A major perk is that Primis doesn’t charge any ATM fees. If you use an ATM outside of Primis Bank’s network, the bank will reimburse you within that business day (operator fees may still apply).

• Primis Perks Checking. A cashback rewards account that can earn up to $0.50 on each debit card purchase.
• Primis Premium Checking. An interest-bearing checking account that earns 5.07% APY with no balance requirements or earning caps.
• Primis Novus Checking. Also an interest-bearing account offering 4% to 6% APY. Upon opening the account, you automatically earn a 4% APY. But once you set up direct deposits totaling at least $1,200 per month, you earn 6% APY on up to $50,000 for up to six months. After the six months, your APY drops back to 4% APY automatically.

Primis Bank saving accounts

There’s only one personal savings account: The Primis Savings account. It is a simple, no-frills account that requires a small $1 opening deposit and has no monthly service fees. And unlike most savings accounts that only allow for up to six transactions per month, this account has no transaction limits.

The cherry on top is its high 5.07% APY. This is leagues above the national average for savings accounts, which currently sits at 0.46%, according to the FDIC. There’s also no cap on how much interest you can earn. Also, if your balance exceeds $250,000, Primis can help secure you up to $2 million in FDIC protection per tax ID or your Social Security number for free.

On the downside, this account’s interest compounds monthly instead of daily, which means fewer earnings than an account with a similar APY and a daily compounding rate.

Related: Best savings accounts

Primis Bank personal CDs

The CDs are solid, offering average APYs and a low $250 opening deposit requirement. Most large banks typically require deposits as high as $1,000 to open a CD, so the deposit requirements are significantly lower and easier to meet.

CD term	APY	Minimum opening deposit
6-month	1.00%	$250
12-month	1.50%	$250
18-month	1.55%	$250
24-month	1.70%	$250
36-month	1.80%	$250
48-month	1.80%	$250
60-month	1.80%	$250
72-month	1.80%	$250

Other Primis Bank products

There are various loan offerings to compare, but you’ll need to reach out to Primis Bank for rates and additional information.

• Auto loans. Offers new and used vehicle financing, with preapproval available for bargaining power.
• Boat loans. Most banks and credit unions lack boat-specific lending options, so it’s a nice offering to see.
• Home financing. Apply for a mortgage or home equity line of credit.
• Personal loans. Offers unsecured personal loans for a variety of needs.
• Credit cards. Offers a variety of credit cards, some with rewards, including the Primis Rewards Platinum with 0% APR for 12 months with no annual fee and a rewards program.
• Business loans. Primis offers business lines of credit, equipment and vehicle financing, commercial real estate loans, construction loans, SBA loans, small business loans and much more.

Compare with leading bank accounts

• Savings
• Checking
• CDs

Customer service experience

Primis Bank doesn’t have a lot of customer feedback to date, but most of it is positive and it has very few complaints.

It has a 3.2 star rating on Trustpilot, with its most common complaint being that it’s difficult to reach a customer representative over the phone. While that’s rather typical for banks that mostly operate online, their homepage warns customers that they might “experience temporarily elevated wait times.”

Happy customers spoke very highly of the personal accounts, calling out the high APYs, easy application process and free checks. A few customers also said they were contacted directly by the bank’s CEO to resolve issues they had — something we haven’t seen before.

Primis also carries the highest Better Business Bureau rating of A+ and has fewer than 20 customer complaints to date. Most banks have thousands of complaints, so Primis has got to be doing something right. Most of the complaints are about typical banking issues, such as deposits taking a while to clear and accounts being locked due to being flagged by the fraud department.

Primis Bank in the news

Primis Bank made headlines for innovations and, recently, a not-so-great incident involving a former employee.

James Stevens, a former commercial lender for Primis Bank, was found guilty of designing and executing a scheme to defraud his employer, as reported by the US Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia. Stevens exploited Primis Bank and issued multiple fraudulent loans using the names of unwitting individuals from 2008 to 2023. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30, 2024. While this was happening unbeknownst to Primis, it caused some bad press.

On a lighter and most positive note, Primis is holding up to its name. Primis means “first” and Primis Bank became the first bank to adopt FICO Score 10 T for mortgage lending services, the latest credit-scoring model released by FICO. This new model was designed to create more accurate cash flow predictions for mortgages, which Primis believes will benefit its customers.