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At The Motley Fool, we take our mission to make the world smarter, happier, and richer very seriously. That includes making sure the banks we feature on The Ascent are heavily vetted by our team of experts, so you can feel confident the picks on our site are fantastic choices for most people.
When rating banks and credit unions, we consider the most important features for the average user, based on our digital banking survey of 2,000 Americans. We tend to favor banking products from trusted financial brands that offer competitive interest rates, low fees, and that are easy to use. Our core objectives for our recommended selections are:
Robin Hartill, CFP®, is The Ascent’s Head of Product Ratings and has worked for The Motley Fool since 2020. Her work has appeared in various national publications, including Yahoo! Finance, NerdWallet, Investopedia, CNN Underscored, MSNBC, USA Today, and CNET Money. She previously wrote The Penny Hoarder’s syndicated “Dear Penny” personal finance advice column. She is based in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Our methodology for scoring banks and credit unions revolves around evaluating key aspects such as annual percentage yield (APY), brand reputation, fees and minimum requirements, and additional perks.
These criteria are weighted differently across various account types, ensuring a comprehensive assessment that reflects the competitive landscape and economic conditions. Each score is out of three, subsequently adjusted to a 5-star scale, rounded to the nearest half point.
We strictly feature products that offer federal insurance and high customer satisfaction, keeping our recommendations unbiased by advertiser influence. This robust evaluation process helps us generate balanced, reliable best-of lists that guide consumers to top financial products.
We evaluate all savings accounts across four main criteria: annual percentage yield (APY), brand and reputation, fees and minimum requirements, and perks. Savings accounts are assigned a point value for each score, out of 3, then adjusted to a 5-star scale, rounded to the nearest half point. We may apply a grading curve to our scoring, depending on the interest rate environment.
Our scores are weighted as:
*We determine this range based on the interest rate environment, and the competitiveness of offers among high-yield savings products we review. We may adjust this range upwards or downwards as interest rates and offers change.
FDIC and NCUA insurance: we only rate and recommend savings accounts that are federally insured up to at least $250,000.
Checking account ratings primarily focus on brand and reputation, APY and rewards, fees and minimum requirements, and perks. Checking accounts are assigned a point value for each score, out of 3, then adjusted to a 5-star scale, rounded to the nearest half point. We may apply a grading curve to our scoring, depending on the interest rate environment.
Our scores are weighted as:
FDIC and NCUA insurance: we only rate and recommend checking accounts that are federally insured up to at least $250,000.
Unlike other banking products we evaluate, certificates of deposit (CDs) do not receive a star rating from us. This approach is due to the frequent updates in interest rates and terms associated with CDs. Instead, we highlight CDs on our best-of list pages based on their annual percentage yield (APY) and the fees associated with early withdrawals. Our top CD selections typically offer competitive APYs without complex qualification tiers, low early withdrawal penalties, reliable strong brand reliability, and user-friendly features.
The Ascent focuses exclusively on standard CDs and does not review IRA CDs, bump-up CDs, callable CDs, or other specialized CD accounts.
We evaluate money market accounts based on four main criteria: annual percentage yield (APY), brand and reputation, fees and minimum balance requirements, and perks. Money market accounts are assigned a value for each score, out of 3, then adjusted to a 5-star scale, rounded to the nearest half point. We may apply a grading curve to our scoring, depending on the interest rate environment.
Our scores are weighted as:
*We determine this range based on the interest rate environment, and the competitiveness of offers among high-yield savings products we review. We may adjust this range upwards or downwards as interest rates and offers change.
FDIC and NCUA insurance: we only rate and recommend money market accounts that are federally insured up to at least $250,000.
We combine the factors outlined above with an evaluation of brand reputation and customer satisfaction to ensure you're getting the best bank recommendations on each of our pages. Our aim is to maintain balanced best-of lists featuring top-scoring banks from reputable brands.
Ordering within our lists is influenced by advertiser compensation, including featured placements at the top of a given list, but our product recommendations are NEVER influenced by advertisers. Our Ratings team operates totally independently of our Partnership team.
We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent, a Motley Fool service, does not cover all offers on the market. The Ascent has a dedicated team of editors and analysts focused on personal finance, and they follow the same set of publishing standards and editorial integrity while maintaining professional separation from the analysts and editors on other Motley Fool brands.