When looking for a bank, you’ll need to think about what you really need. Do you want a high-yield savings account? A basic checking? Investment accounts? All of the above?
To help you find the best banks, with the best products that fit your lifestyle, we talk in-depth about the five best banks.
What’s Ahead:
Overview of the best banks of 2022
Bank Best for
Capital One Online banking
Discover Customer service
CIT High APY
Chime No monthly fees
Aspiration Social impact
Ally Bank Best overall
Best for online banking – Capital One
Capital One is great, and their online platform is almost unmatched. First of all, Capital One is a major bank that offers all types of financial products. But when you log into your account it really doesn’t feel like it.
Everything is connected (i.e., checking, savings, credit card, mortgage) but it focuses on one thing at a time. This is in stark contrast to a bank like Chase, which throws everything in your face at once. So for those looking for a clean, easy to use online experience, Capital One is perfect.
Both the 360 Checking and Savings accounts have no minimum balance requirements or monthly fees, and you can link a bunch of external accounts, too. What most people love about the 360 Savings (myself included) is how you can create a ton of different savings accounts within one account. So if you have ten different savings goals, you can parse them out into ten different accounts (i.e., Christmas, vacation, new computer).
This way, you can visually see how much each account or goal has. It’s not flashy and it won’t give you the highest rate of all time, but everything comes together and works seamlessly with Capital One, and the online experience is just beautiful.
Best for customer service – Discover
Discover has really begun to step up its game outside of the credit card business. It has a much larger selection of products than other online-only banks and their customer service is unmatched.
Regarding deposit accounts, you’ll find checking, savings, and CD options with Discover – all with good rates. But now you can get IRAs, student loans, credit cards, and personal loans from Discover. So they’re moving toward mega-bank status. One of the things we love is the massive ATM network – currently at 60,000 across the country.
But where Discover shines most is its customer service. Aside from being ranked highest in customer satisfaction by J.D. Power, Discover has won a plethora of awards. And while their commercials are silly, it really does depict what a great experience you have when you call Discover.
So why aren’t they ranked best overall? The biggest challenge with Discover is that their cards aren’t accepted everywhere. So when you open a checking account and want to use the debit card, you may not be able to swipe it in all places (which is where the big ATM network comes in handy). Just something to think about.
Best for high APY – CIT Bank
The CIT Bank Savings Builder Account gets you 0.70% APY, and while it has a higher barrier to entry (at least $100 per month deposit or $25,000 flat balance), it’s a great place to stash money you need access to only occasionally. CIT has no fees, and a super attractive resource page area. And they’ve also got Money Market Accounts, CDs, and home loans you can check out as well.
Chime is a financial app that has definitely become a leader in the financial space, and prides itself on making sure that everything on the fee front of things is completely transparent. Chime is completely free; there are no monthly fees or minimum balances. The only real downside to Chime is that there’s no check-writing capabilities.
1Chime cannot guarantee when files are sent by the IRS and funds can be made available.
^Early access to direct deposit funds depends on payer
Best for social impact – Aspiration
Aspiration is not a bank; it is a tree-planting, carbon-offsetting, automate-your-impact “neobank.” Their entire mission and focus feels much different than others; Aspiration commits to donating 10% of every earned dollar to charity.
Aspiration offers the Standard Spend & Save account as well as the Plus membership. The Standard account is fossil-fuel free and provides basic spending and saving features, including a welcome bonus of $150 when you spend $1,000 within the first 60 days of account opening, access to 55,000+ in-network ATMs, an optional tree-planting feature, everyday cashback, and a nifty debit card with a People and Planet impact score.
Aspiration Plus provides all the Standard services plus a $200 bonus when you spend $1,000 within 60 days of account opening, up to 10% cashback, up to 5.00% APY (Variable), the Planet Protection carbon-offsetting feature, and a recycled ocean plastic debit card. Aspiration also offers sustainable investment and retirement vehicles, as well as charitable giving options.
Best overall – Ally
We absolutely love Ally Bank (and I can tell you, I just opened an account with them myself).
They’re an online-only bank that has a variety of both checking and savings account options. Their customer service is excellent, all of their accounts have low fees, and their platform is easy to use and has a clean interface.
The Ally checking account offers a decent rate as far as checking accounts go – currently 0.10% for average daily balances less than $15,000 and 0.60% for average daily balances of at least $15,000.
Ally also offers a few different savings accounts, all with highly-competitive rates; as well as CDs and IRAs.
Other perks include:
- You can deposit checks via the Ally app
- You can move money through services like Zelle and Amazon Alexa
- With a checking account, you’ll get refunded $10 per month on any ATM fees
Summary of the best banks of 2022
Bank Product types Unique features
Capital One All Intuitive online platform with ability to set up micro-savings goals
Discover Checking, savings, CDs, retirement, student loans Massive ATM network; cash back on the checking account
CIT All Typically one of the most competitive APY rates
Chime Savings, checking Banking with no monthly fees - including overdraft, minimum balances, foreign transactions, service, or deposit fees. Fee Free.
Aspiration Spend & Save account, investing 10% of the money you give gets donated; you get a social impact score
Ally Bank Checking, savings, CDs $10 ATM fee reimbursement
How we chose our best banks for 2022
Choosing the best banks overall isn’t an easy task, but we narrowed it down to a handful, each great for different things. Here are some of the key factors we looked at:
Customer satisfaction
Using both J.D. Power and online reviews, we looked at which banks had the happiest customers. Since products and rates can become very similar amongst banks, we found that customer experience was a key differentiator.
Products
While not a dealbreaker, we looked at banks that had a good variety of products for what their intended use would be (i.e., an online bank that has everything someone banking online would want).
Competitive rates
Nowadays, getting competitive rates on your banking products is a must, so we looked for banks that had good rates on the products they offered.
This was balanced with the point above – the product line (i.e., some banks like HSBC don’t have the best rates, but make up for it with a massive product line).
Branch and ATM footprint
Again, not a dealbreaker, but we looked at banks that had either a heavy footprint with either branches or ATMs. Having access to your money in one of those ways is critical, and while physical branches aren’t as popular anymore, they still serve their purpose.
What to look for in a bank
There are several crucial things you should look for in a bank:
Low fees
Make sure the bank you choose has little to no fees. If they are charging you fees (and many do for some things), just make sure that they’re being transparent with those fees and showing you upfront on their website.
Low barrier to entry
Banks shouldn’t make it hard for you to open an account with them. Find a bank that has no minimum deposit to open an account. If they do ask for one (Discover’s is $2,500), make sure the perks and benefits make up for it (in Discover’s case, a rare cashback checking account).
Good rates
Obviously you want to choose a bank that has products with good rates, but make sure that’s not all you’re looking for. For instance, CIT Bank has a great rate, but they’re kind of a one-trick pony – meaning you can’t do all of your banking with them.
Customer service
Don’t underestimate the power of a great customer experience. As I said above, we’re getting to a point in time where banks are offering almost the same types of products at almost the same rates. So the key difference boils down to how they treat you as a customer in many cases. Choose a bank that you feel respected and valued by.
FDIC insurance
Make sure your bank has FDIC Insurance, which currently covers your deposits up to $250,000 in the event your bank fails.
Most banks will have this (and all the ones we recommend do) but always double-check. If you go with a credit union for any reason, you’ll get similar protection under NCUA.
Summary
Overall, choosing a bank is a big deal. You need to make sure they have what you need, because it just becomes a bigger headache when you have a bunch of different accounts at a bunch of different places.
Don’t forget that you can use personal finance apps to help make up for some of the features your bank doesn’t have. And there’s a lot to choose from!
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