Best Banks and Credit Unions of 2021

The best bank, credit union or nonbank for you depends on what you’re in the market for: a savings account, a checking account, or both.

NerdWallet spent more than 200 hours comparing and rating dozens of financial institutions, including banks, nonbanks and credit unions, to identify those with the best deposit accounts. (Nonbanks provide many of the same services that traditional institutions offer, but are not technically banks themselves.)

Top Overall: Seven financial service providers earned excellent marks in both our checking and savings categories. If you want to keep your checking and savings accounts at the same institution, go with one of these options.

Our list includes a few credit unions. Generally speaking, credit unions emphasize customer service more than banks do and pay higher interest rates — although online accounts, like the ones on this list, tend to pay great rates, too. Read our article for more on credit unions vs. banks.

Top Savings Accounts: If you’d like to split your accounts between different providers, consider one of these savings accounts. They have annual percentage yields that are much higher than the national average of 0.05%. This is important because people typically use savings accounts to set money aside for goals, such as a trip or a down payment on a house. Your savings will grow faster with one of these accounts. Read more in our article about savings accounts.

Top Checking Accounts: If you’re more interested in checking accounts, these providers offer perks, such as interest or ATM fee reimbursements. And, crucially, they have large ATM networks and don’t charge monthly fees. Since checking accounts hold most people’s daily spending money, they should be easy to access and cheap to maintain. Read more in our article about checking accounts.

Some of our top overall institutions

Some of our top savings accounts

» Looking for more excellent savings options? Browse our best savings accounts

Some of our top checking accounts

» For more checking options, take a look at our best checking accounts

Did you have something more specific in mind? If so, check out these articles:

Savings and money market accounts

Checking accounts

Banks, credit unions and cash management accounts

Best banks and credit unions