Written by Melanie Pincus | Edited by Ali Cybulski | Published on 07/14/2025
North Carolina-based Live Oak Bank is a digital bank and, with parent organization Live Oak Bancshares Inc., the 114th-largest bank in the nation at the time of writing. It was established in 2008 and has no branch locations. Live Oak Bank has an A health rating and competitive savings rates.
Live Oak Bank provides a variety of business and personal banking products to customers across the nation.
- Checking accounts: Live Oak Bank offers three business checking accounts. Each includes a monthly fee that you can waive by maintaining a minimum balance, though you won’t need a minimum balance to open your account. The bank’s insured cash sweep program allows businesses to extend standard Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) coverage to up to $10 million with a minimum balance of $350,000.
- Savings accounts: You will find both a personal high-yield savings account (HYSA) and a business high-yield savings account. Both accounts earn competitive rates with no monthly maintenance fee. You can make an unlimited number of transfers from your personal HYSA. Move up to $250,000 per transfer day, according to the bank.
- Certificates of deposit (CDs): Live Oak Bank issues personal and business CDs in short and long terms. A CD allows you to earn a competitive rate on money you’re comfortable locking away for the term length. Live Oak Bank allows you to deposit between $2,500 and $250,000 when you open a CD.
Customer service: For personal banking support, call 866-518-0286 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time (ET) Monday through Friday. Small business support is available through your business analyst from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
You can manage your account online. For example, you can track CD maturity dates and make renewal decisions online.
Live Oak Bank has an A- review from the Better Business Bureau. Live Oak Bank reviews are positive on Trustpilot, which rates it 4.5 stars out of 5 based on feedback from more than 1,000 customers.
Pros and cons of Live Oak Bank
PROS
• HYSAs with competitive rates
• Multiple business checking account options
• Range of CD terms
CONS
• No personal checking accounts
• Branch locations not available
• Weekends have no customer service
Easiest Online Bank, And 4.3%
My own experience has been that this is the easiest bank with which to do business. Opening a CD takes about five minutes. You can open joint accounts; they ACH funds in and out more quickly than anyone else; you can name beneficiaries immediately online; you can provide maturing instructions online which ARE followed. And right now they are offering 4.30 apy for a one year cd, which is better than almost everyone else, other than a handful of credit unions.
Beware Of Their “Gotcha” Promo Clauses!
I have had an active saving account with them since 2023 with a minimum balance of $1.00 in 2024 in order to keep the account open. Many here took advantage of the promo where a deposit of $20K into a new account for 60 days resulted in a $300 bonus. The offer was also open to current account holders who maintained their balance for the 60 days with an additional deposit of $20K. The “gotcha” was that you needed to open a “new” account as opposed to depositing the cash into the established account.
I was denied the bonus because I deposited the money into the old account rather than opening a new account. Why do business with a bank that plays such tricky games?
Update 4/9/25
I just received a phone call from a bank representative who apologized for the misunderstanding and has offered to credit me with the $300 bonus. She agreed that the conditions for the current account holders were less than clear and promised to address this issue in any future promotion.
Great Rate And Bonus If You Can Get It
They roped me in with the $300 bonus so I opened an account and went thru the process with the micro deposits and set up a beneficiary,the whole nine yards including transferring money into the account.The next day I wanted to link another one of my bank and lo and behold I was locked out , I called them up and they told me I need to submit a drivers license and a bank statement, So in short I they waited 2 days to tell me that and after I made a deposit to lock me out. I have a 840 Fica score and Im a US citizen. I have 4 other accounts and no bank has ever asked me to submit any kind of documents.
Great Bank
This bank is always ranked as one of the best places to work. It is a one branch bank headquartered on a beautiful campus in Wilmington NC. Its niche is SBA lending. Account opening is easy as is moving money. I bought the stock a few years ago and it’s had great returns compared to most banks. Highly recommend this bank.
Data as of Q1 2025
Health Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 58665 |
| Year Established | 2008 |
| Employees | 1015 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 0.4% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 5.35% |
| Annual Interest Income | $212.9MM |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $13.5B$11.43B |
| Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $10.87B$9.08B |
| Deposits | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $12.45B$10.46B |
| Equity Capital | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $1B$890.8MM |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $190.2MM$139MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $44.6MM$24.5MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q1 2025vs Q1 2024 | $2.1MM$8.6MM |