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The personal finance social network WalletHub today released its Q3 2014 Banking Landscape Report, which shows that credit unions provide the best deals on both checking accounts and savings accounts. The report tracks more than 2,000 checking accounts and savings accounts available to general consumers, small business owners and students from financial institutions nationwide.
A few highlights from the report are as follows:
- Credit unions offer the best deals on checking accounts, charging 70% less than national banks and providing nearly 10-times higher rates than regional banks. Credit unions also lead the way when it comes to savings accounts, offering six-times more interest than national banks.
- Interest rates for checking accounts fell 3.23% during the third quarter, while rates for savings accounts almost remained constant with a decline of 0.11%.
- If you’re looking for the highest possible interest rate, focus your attention on personal online savings accounts. They offer 57% higher interest rates, on average, than online checking accounts – the next best alternative.
- While business checking accounts improved slightly during the third quarter, they still represent a bad deal for users, charging 115% more than personal online accounts and providing 42% fewer features and 72% less interest.
- Students receive the cheapest checking accounts on the market, with fees that are 45% lower than those charged by personal online accounts. However, they have 11% fewer features and 87% lower interest rates.
For the full Q3 2014 Banking Landscape Report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/2014-banking-landscape-report/1629/