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 3.85% APY, with no monthly service fees and no transaction limits, and CDs have average rates with low deposit requirements. Primis also offers 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.
Pros
- High FDIC insurance up to $2 million
- Competitive APYs and low deposit requirements
- 24/7 customer service
- Various loan offerings
Cons
- No money market accounts
- Limited branch locations
- Limitations on new customers
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 3.85% 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 offers 1.00% cash back on every debit card purchase.
- 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 two personal checking accounts to choose from, and neither have 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 1.00% cash back on each debit card purchase, with no limits on earnings.
- Primis Premium Checking. An interest-bearing checking account that earns 3.7% APY with no balance requirements or earning caps.
Hot tip: Primis Novus Checking discontinued
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 3.85% APY. This is leagues above the national average for savings accounts, which currently sits at 0.38%, 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.
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
Looking for other options? Check out these similar products.
How we picked theseWhat is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score crunches over 250 savings accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's interest rate, fees, opening deposit and features - this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of savings accounts against FDIC-reported national averages as a baseline. Accounts with rates well over the national average are scored the highest, while accounts with rates well below are scored low.
Looking for other options? Check out these similar products.
How we picked theseWhat is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score crunches over 300 checking accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's monthly fees, overdraft fees, opening deposit, customer support options, ATM network and features — this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of checking accounts against what we consider is the best option: no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, a large ATM network of 50,000 or more, additional features outside of typical banking services, and the optional perk of earning interest. Accounts that are nearly free to maintain and use are scored the highest, while accounts with costly fees and few features are scored the lowest.
Looking for other options? Check out these similar products.
How we picked theseWhat is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score analyzes hundreds of CDs from more than 100 institutions. It takes into account the product's interest rate for available terms and opening deposit requirements - this gives you a simple score out of 10.
Different banks and credit unions offer CDs for various lengths of time, ranging from as short as seven days to as long as 20 years. For our ratings, we consider the term lengths that the FDIC uses in its monthly updates on national rates.
If a bank or credit union doesn’t offer a CD for a specific term used by the FDIC, we don’t penalize it: Instead, we simply don’t rate it. Each of the standard term lengths has its own APY rating based on the FDIC’s average rates.
Customer service experience
| BBB accredited | No |
|---|---|
| BBB rating | A+ |
| BBB customer reviews | 1 out of 5 stars, based on 1 customer reviews |
| Trustpilot score | 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 17 customer reviews |
| Customer reviews verified as of | 12 May 2026 |
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 very few 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.
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Finder writers are subject matter experts and use primary sources, in-depth research and interviews with other experts to ensure you're getting accurate, up-to-date information. Articles are fact checked in line with our editorial guidelines.
- “Former Primis Bank Manager Pleads Guilty to $2.4 Million Embezzlement Scheme”, United States Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia, February 22, 2024
- “Primis Mortgage Company, Subsidiary of Primis Bank, Becomes First Banked Owned Originator to Adopt FICO® Score 10 T to Increase Access to Homeownership”, Yahoo Finance, February 13, 2024
Bethany Hickey is the banking editor and personal finance expert at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto. Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt. Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others. Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine. See full bio
- Personal finance
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