The Best Bank For You

These stellar banks and credit unions are making all the right moves to win satisfied customers.

- Miriam Cross, Lisa Gerstner And Mark Solheim

Banks are on a mission to cut costs and raise revenues, and customers are getting caught in the cross fire. Fees on basic checking and the requirements to avoid them have been steadily increasing, and interest-bearing checking accounts tend to load on so many fees that the paltry rates they pay hardly matter. In the 2016 Bankrate survey of checking accounts, the average yield ticked up to 0.06%, and the average balance required to avoid a monthly fee surged to $7,037.

But some institutions are making all the right moves to win satisfied customers. To identify the crème de la crème, Kiplinger is introducing its list of best banks and credit unions. We’ve picked a first-place winner and runner-up (except in the case of a tie) among national banks, nationally available credit unions and internet banks, plus the best bank in each of four regions. To make our choices more personal, we’ve also named a top institution and runner-up for each of six wide-ranging profiles: high-net-worth families, retirees, frequent travelers, millennials, students and military service members.

To gather the thousands of bits of data necessary to rank the winners, Kiplinger turned to Moebs Services, an economic research firm in Lake Forest, Ill., that advises financial institutions (for more details on our methodology, see the box on page 35). The top institutions on our list have a mix of no-fee and low-fee basic and interest checking, plus competitive yields on savings, money market deposit accounts and certificates of deposit. They often reimburse ATM fees, and some offer special perks for students and seniors. And they tend to do digital well, with easy-to-navigate websites and responsive social media teams.