The reporters combed through data on the largest 90 brick-and-mortar banks, 50 credit unions and 15 online banks identified by the bank consultancy firm called Novantas, according to the article. Based on factors including fees, interest rates and account requirements, MONEY selected the best financial institution in each state.
“To pick the champions, we required minimum balances that were $1,500 or less, and we assumed that you could put up with online statements to avoid fees,” according to the MONEY article.
MONEY named credit unions as the best financial institutions in states including Washington, California, Florida, Alabama and New York.
The article also detailed some statistics that showed the desirability of credit unions. For instance, 83.7 percent of credit unions offer free checking – compared to 75 percent of online banks and 44.4 percent of traditional banks.
Banks ATMs tend to cost U.S. consumers more, too, according to the stats. On average, customers will pay about $2.35 to use an out-of-network ATM at a traditional bank. They’ll pay about $1.51 to out-of-network ATMs at most credit unions.
Credit unions also tend to pay out .09 percent more than traditional banks in interest on savings and tend to charge about $6 less in overdraft fees, according to MONEY’s statistics.
Click here to view MONEY’s complete list of top financial institutions.
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