The 10 Worst-Rated Banks in America
How We Ranked the Worst-Rated Banks in America
To rank banks, we started with the total number of each financial institution’s customer complaints, then sorted to account for complaints per $1 billion deposited. These metrics are public data available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) database.
We then assessed a score for each bank based on the percentage of complaints that are unresolved and the bank’s Better Business Bureau grade. These scores were considered alongside total complaints and complaints per $1 billion deposited in determining a final ranking.
The 10 Worst-Rated Banks in America
- Wells Fargo
- Citibank
- Bank of America
- Capital One
- Discover Bank
- Citizens Bank
- Flagstar Bank
- Fifth Third Bank
- PNC Bank
- Comerica Bank
Runners-up: Some regional banks topped the list in states where they are most popular, including Truist Financial, which was formed after a 2019 merger between BB&T and SunTrust banks (Southern U.S.), TD Bank (East Coast) and First National of Omaha (Midwest).
Note that the banks with the poorest ratings are also some of the largest banks in the country — like Wells Fargo and Citibank. Because our data analysis accounted for complaints per $1 billion deposited, this ranking likely reflects that customers have a better experience with community-based banks and credit unions — which doesn’t surprise us!
Trying to stay away from the banks with the most complaints? We’ve rounded up our favorite banks and credit unions based on features we know consumers look for most, including convenience and perks.
These top our list of the best online banks:
- CIT Bank
- Capital One 360
- Axos Bank
- Ally Bank
- SoFi
- LendingClub
- Alliant Credit Union
- nbkc
- Synchrony Bank
