Which Banks Get High Marks?

published 1 January 2012

If you’re fed up with your bank’s excessive fees, low interest rates on savings and poor customer service, it may be time to make a change. A new service, Bank Report Cards at MyBankTracker.com, can help. The site’s proprietary rating system uses more than 100 variables—such as financial health (based on FDIC data) and fees, interest rates and number of branches (which the banks provide)—to evaluate more than 7,000 institutions. The site is supported by advertising, including ads from banks.

Each report card offers a one-page summary with an overall rating of one to five stars. It also rates the banks “poor,” “medium” or “good” in five categories: customer reviews (you can read all of them if you’re curious), financial health, fees, interest rates and number of locations (or, for online banks, remote-deposit access). Complete report cards are available for 150 banks; the site is filling in missing information at a rate of five to ten banks per week.

To find a bank’s report card, enter the name of an institution in the search box or click on the “Banks” tab at the top of the screen. That pulls up another screen where you can fill in your city or zip code to find nearby banks on a map. You can also click on preselected choices among best online banks, best traditional banks and highest-rated banks.