The FDIC insurance limit on bank accounts is $100,000 per account per type. It’s a little confusing sometimes but you’re safe knowing that $100,000 is the maximum you should ever keep in any bank account. In the event the bank should fail, which means that it’s gone into FDIC conservatorship, your deposits are insured up to $100,000. Your first $100,000 in that account is safe from loss.

In the latest bank collapse, IndyMac Bank, people withdrew $1.3bn in 11 days and caused a liquidity crisis that forced the Office of Thrift Supervision to step in and take over. If you had more than $100,000 in an account there, you would normally expect to get absolutely nothing back but as this plays out you might get something back.

The bank went from OK to done in eleven days. There were signs of this happening, of course, as 1.3 billion was withdrawn, but it shows that if you weren’t paying attention and had over $100k in there; you were out of luck.

I’m all for simplification of accounts and assets, the less you have the less you can screw up, but with so many online banks offering great savings rate APYs you should be able to find places to store your money if you have more than the FDIC limit.