3 ways to easily check if your bank account is FDIC insured (2024)

Despite recent bank failures dominating the headlines, experts say there's no need to worry if your money is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Nearly all banks are insured by the FDIC, which protects your deposits up to $250,000 (per person, bank, and account type). That means even if your bank implodes, you won't lose the FDIC-insured money you kept there.

CNBC Select explains how to check if your bank is an FDIC member, as well as what you need to know about the types of bank accounts the FDIC protects.

The FDIC makes it easy to check if your bank is insured. You can look it up online, call the FDIC or find out directly through the bank.

Check online

You can easily discover if your bank is FDIC insured using the BankFind Suite tool.

Simply enter any of the following information: Bank name, website URL or FDIC certificate ID; the status of the bank; City, state or zip code. All of the search fields are optional — you can enter as much information as you have about your bank to narrow the search or fill in a single search field to see a longer list of FDIC-insured institutions.

Call the FDIC

If you prefer to talk to a person, you can call the FDIC at 1-877-275-3342 and have an agent check if your bank is insured. Keep in mind, right now call center wait times are likely longer than usual.

Call your bank or look for the FDIC sign

FDIC-insured banks typically have signage identifying the institution as an FDIC member and often include that information in marketing materials. You could also call your bank directly and ask if your accounts are FDIC insured.

FDIC insurance is designed to protect your money in the case of a bank failure and it covers a range of banking products, including:

• Checking accounts
• Savings accounts
• Money market deposit accounts
• Certificates of deposit (CD)
• Prepaid cards (assuming certain FDIC requirements are met)
• Cashier's checks, money orders and other official items issued by a bank
• Negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts

The one caveat is the FDIC covers $250,000 per person, per bank and per account category. This means that most people are well under the FDIC coverage limits unless they have a large amount of money deposited at a single bank and in one type of account. Here's how the FDIC classifies deposit accounts:

If your deposits exceed the FDIC insurance limits, then you could spread your money between several different banks. Remember, having a savings account and checking account at the same bank only gets you $250,000 in total coverage between both accounts (if they aren't joint accounts) since they are part of the same account category. There are also some accounts that do the work for you. For instance,Wealthfront Cash Accounts are FDIC-insured up to $2 million by allocating deposits across up to eight partner banks.

When you're comparing bank accounts, look for accounts withno monthly fees and compare interest rates to find the best return for your money.Here is a handful of CNBC Select's top-rated deposit accounts.

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