Laurel Road Reviews

Laurel Road is best for college students or recent graduates with student loan debt. Although the bank has products for everyone—including a high-yield savings account that earns a 5.00% annual percentage yield (APY) — it offers many products that cater specifically to students.

For instance, you can get a student loan refi rate discount when you have a Linked Checking or Savings account, and you can open a Student Loan Cashback credit card and redeem your cashback toward your student loan payments. So if your student loans are top-of-mind, Laurel Road could be a good banking option for you.

Laurel Road is the digital banking arm of KeyBank. It offers checking accounts, savings accounts, student loan refinancing, personal loans and mortgages—all with competitive interest rates and terms. The bank can offer these competitive terms because it doesn’t have the same overhead as traditional banks with physical locations.

If you bank with Laurel Road, you’ll have free access to over 40,000 in-network ATMs through Keybank and the Allpoint network.

You’ll find a range of bank accounts and loans at Laurel Road.

Checking account

Laurel Road has two checking accounts—both with no monthly fees. Loyalty Checking earns a monthly cash bonus with qualifying direct deposits, while Linked Checking provides a monthly student loan refinance rate discount with qualifying direct deposits.

• Loyalty Checking. With this account, you’ll earn a bonus each month you have at least $2,500 in direct deposits. The bonus rate is $20 per month during your first year and $10 per month after that. New customers get a $100 welcome bonus when they open a new account and receive at least $2,500 in direct deposits within 60 days.
• Linked Checking. With this account, you’ll get a 0.25% introductory rate discount on your Laurel Road student loans for three months. After that, you get a tiered discount based on your direct deposit amount: a 0.55% discount with at least $7,500 in monthly deposits or a 0.25% discount with $2,500 to $7,499 in direct deposits. There’s no discount for direct deposits below $2,500.

Savings account

Similar to its checking accounts, Laurel Road has two savings account options. One is a high-yield account that earns interest, while the other gets you a student loan rate discount of up to 0.30% depending on your balance.

• Laurel Road High Yield Savings. At the time of publishing, this account earns a competitive yield of 5.00% on your total balance with no monthly fees or minimum requirements.
• Linked Savings. With this account, you’ll get a 0.25% introductory rate discount for two months on your Laurel Road student loans. After that, your discount depends on your account balance. You get a 0.10% rate discount on balances between $1,000 and $9,999, a 0.20% rate discount on balances between $10,000 and $19,999, and a 0.30% rate discount on balances of $20,000 or more. There’s no discount for balances below $1,000.

Student Loan Cashback Card

With the Student Loan Cashback credit card, you can earn 2% cashback on purchases and redeem it toward your student loan balance. You must use an eligible servicing company like Sallie Mae, Laurel Road or Mohela to redeem cash back. Check the list to make sure your servicer is on there.

Personal loans

You can apply for a Laurel Road personal loan and get $5,000 to $45,000 in financing for credit card debt consolidation, home renovations, relocations and other major purchases. The application is fully online and you can get a 0.25% rate discount if you set up automatic payments before closing.

Student loan refinancing

Laurel Road offers parent and student loan refinancing. Terms range from five years to 20 years and you can choose between fixed or variable annual percentage rates (APRs). Variable APRs start at 4.97% with a Linked Checking account. Keep in mind that you could lose some benefits if you refinance federal student loans with any private lender, including Laurel Road.

Mortgages

Laurel Road mortgages come with perks like the ability to get up to $650 off closing costs. You can also qualify for a 0.25% member discount if you also have an existing Laurel Road student loan, mortgage or checking account. The bank also has physician mortgages for doctors, dentists and residents.

Laurel Road’s savings account rate is currently 5.00% APY. This is well above the current national average, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which is 0.47%. This rate also outpaces savings account interest rates offered by other online banks like Ally, SoFi and Synchrony. This makes Laurel Road an ideal spot for earning interest on money you don’t need right away.

Laurel Road has no monthly maintenance. It also doesn’t charge an overdraft fee if you overdraw by $20 or less. Its other fees are fairly standard compared to other banks, although its non-network ATM fee could be better. Expect to pay:

• $3 for non-network domestic ATMs
• $5 for non-network international ATMs
• $34 for stop-payment requests
• $20 for overdrafts over $20, up to three times per day and 20 times per month.
• $20 for domestic and international incoming wire transfers
• $30 for domestic outgoing wire transfers
• $45 for international outgoing wire transfers

Neither Ally Bank nor Synchrony has the extensive range of services for students and graduates as Laurel Road does. So if you’re thinking about refinancing student loans or already have them with Laurel Road, it might be the better choice.

All three banks offer high-yield savings accounts worth your time. But the best one for you boils down to features. Laurel Road’s account offers the highest interest rate of all three, but it doesn’t have any extra perks like ATM cards (available with Synchrony) and savings tools (available with Ally).

Here’s how high-yield accounts at all three banks compare:

Laurel Road has been in business since 2013. Since then, it’s helped refinance more than $9 billion in student loans. It became a part of KeyBank in 2019, which is the 22nd largest bank in the U.S., with over $185 billion in assets. All Laurel Road deposits are insured by KeyBank up to the federal limits.