Bank review methodology
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Bank review methodology
Bankrate helps you find the best bank or credit union for your individual banking needs by evaluating financial institutions including brick-and-mortar banks, online banks, credit unions and more.
Our editorial team analyzes and reviews each bank or credit union across deposit products — savings accounts, checking accounts, certificates of deposits (CDs) and money market accounts (MMAs) — on a host of factors, including rates, fees, digital tools, access to funds and other important features. We also review a bank’s customer experience based on factors such as customer service options and digital experience.
Overall Bank Score
To calculate the Bankrate Score, we assess each type of account a bank has and its features, as well as the institution's customer experience. We weigh these products carefully based on importance to account holders to determine an overall score.
- Savings 25% Read more
- Checking 25% Read more
- CDs 20% Read more
- MMA 10% Read more
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Customer experience 20%
A bank's customer service options and digital experience is always 20% of its overall score, regardless of how many accounts a bank offers. If a bank or credit union doesn't have one or more of the account types we score, we modify the weighting of the products it does have and the overall score only includes customer service and the bank's offered products. We do not penalize institutions for not offering all account types but we do give a bonus to the ones that do.
Savings Score
To calculate Bankrate’s savings scores in its bank reviews, it weighs scoring using these percentages:
| Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| APY offering | 50% |
| Monthly service fee | 20% |
| Minimum deposit | 10% |
| Minimum balance to avoid fee | 10% |
| Access to funds | 10% |
| Bonus: Additional savings tools |
CDs
To calculate Bankrate’s CD scores in its bank reviews, it weighs scoring using these percentages:
| Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| APY offering (total for 1-year, 3-year and 5-year CD offerings) | 50% |
| Minimum deposit | 20% |
| Early withdrawal penalty | 20% |
| Range of term lengths | 10% |
| Bonus: Offers no-penalty, bump-up or add-on CDs | |
| Bonus: Offers IRA CDs |
MMAs Score
To calculate Bankrate’s money market account scores in its bank reviews, it weighs scoring using these percentages:
| Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| APY offering | 50% |
| Monthly service fee | 20% |
| Minimum balance to avoid fee | 10% |
| Minimum deposit | 10% |
| Access to funds | 10% |
Checking Score
To calculate Bankrate’s checking account scores in its bank reviews, it weighs scoring using these percentages:
| Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Monthly service fee | 25% |
| Minimum balance to avoid fee | 15% |
| Overdraft fees | 15% |
| Minimum deposits to open account | 10% |
| Non-sufficient funds fees | 10% |
| Fee to use out of network ATM | 10% |
| Early direct deposits | 10% |
| Access to peer to peer (P2P) payments | 5% |
| Bonus: APY offering | |
| Bonus: Cash back reward offering | |
| Bonus: ATM network |
Bottom line
Bankrate typically conducts a comprehensive review of each bank or credit union at least once a year but some institutions may be updated on a quarterly or biannual basis instead to better highlight key feature changes or consumer-friendly moves, such as changes in fees or increasing/decreasing APYs.