What is the best bank in USA?
The best bank in USA depends somewhat on what you are looking for in a bank. For most people, especially those under 40, it’s probably low fees, a great mobile app, and decent customer service. This rules out most of the biggest banks who typically fail at all three.
If you want to skip to the recommendation click here.
For many years, my favorite bank, was Simple Bank. Founded in 2009 in Brooklyn, NY and later moved to Portland, OR. Their app was amazing, the customer service was extraordinary, and their fees were miniscule.
They changed banking for the good and accelerated the adoption of modern technology. If they were an independent bank today, Simple Bank would be the best bank in USA…sadly they were sold to BBVA in 2014 and then BBVA sold it’s US operations to PNC bank in 2020 (completed in 2021). Simple and all the good they did were trashed in the process otherwise they would be the best bank in USA.
I had a front row seat to the debacle. As a Simple Bank customer since 2014, I had grown accustomed to all the things that made them awesome. All that was greatness was undone by a couple mega banks. The Simple app with all its brilliance was shut down. BBVA’s app was horrible. The move to PNC was worse.
Why Mention Simple Bank at All?
Although Simple Bank is no more they must be mentioned because they were the catalyst that ignited the neo bank boom. From their example and “successful” exit – more money and talent entered the banking fintech space. One of those new companies is Chime Bank.
My Recommendation for The Best Bank in USA
I’ve been using Chime Bank since 2017. I signed up as part of my market research for a startup I was working with. At the time I was testing just about every new bank that was available, with new debit cards showing up every week.
Now that I think about it, all that testing makes me pretty well qualified to make this recommendation.
After BBVA started moving customers onto their platform, I knew I didn’t want to bank with them so I had to make a change. It was at this point that I started using Chime as my primary debit card and my first suspicions that they were the best bank in USA. For one thing, they made it easy to move money into the account with their Plaid integration and the mobile app is incredible. Sending and receiving money to and from not only friends and family, but anyone is simple 😆.
Chime offers a ton of features and services, but there are a few more worth mentioning here.
- First is the round up for savings, where your purchases are rounded up and moved into a savings account. This is a very easy and super powerful way to set aside a rainy day reserve.
- Another is there credit builder card. It works like a debit card for purchases, but you build credit while it happens. The only detraction from the credit builder is it currently does not support the round ups.
- Lastly they are offering $100 to sign up, for both of us.
We could go on about other reasons Chime is the best bank in USA right now, but