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Banking and Cards Research

Digging into the Customer Experience: Banking and Credit Cards

Corporate Insight’s Bank Monitor, Credit Card Monitor and Small Business Card Monitor provide ongoing coverage of the products, websites and overall customer experience offered by the nation’s leading banks and card issuers. Our value-added banking and credit card research digs deeply to evaluate the retail and small business customer experience.


Checking Accounts PDF Print E-mail
While almost every banking firm offers a variety of financial and depository products to clients, the primary accounts most consumers continue to rely on are checking accounts. In this report, we look at the various checking account options currently available, investigating the fees, requirements and capabilities for each. This report is our first that focuses solely on demand deposit accounts, and covers both standalone checking product and bundled accounts.
Checking accounts continue to be a primary driver of client relationships at firms, as prospects looking for basic ways to store and access their money move to a new bank. In this edition of Bank Monitor, we take a detailed look at the checking accounts and checking-based packages that firms are currently offering online, focusing on the following questions:
  • What type of checking accounts is each firm offering – standalone, interest-bearing, rewards, bundled?
  • What monthly fees and initial deposit minimums are associated with each account option?
  • Are account holders offered perks or discounts on other banking products based on the checking product they open?
 In total, our report looks at 65 individual and bundled account options, covering 16 leading banks. At the low end, three firms are offering only a single checking account option to prospects, while those firms with a more diverse product line-up offer up to eight different checking products. In addition to 40 standalone checking accounts, 56% of banks offer checking-based account packages. Not surprisingly, these bundles vary heavily from firm to firm, with some carrying no monthly maintenance fee, and others requiring $50,000 or more in linked deposits to avoid steep $30 per month fees.
 
One feature that many firms offer to attract prospects to higher-tiered accounts continues to be interest, with fully 40% of checking products in this report offering this perk. The average APY on these accounts is currently hovering at 0.06% for a $1,000 balance, while the highest APY, offered by three accounts, is 0.25%. Interestingly, three firms are offering interest rates on accounts that carry no maintenance fee – a nice bonus for account holders.
 
As we examined each bank’s checking accounts for this report, we uncovered a few more key findings:
  • One firm offers three different checking accounts with no monthly maintenance fee, one of which offers built-in rewards
  • The most common way for account holders to avoid fees is to maintain a minimum balance or combined balance, though direct deposits can be used to avoid fees for 18 different accounts
  • Seven banks offer student checking accounts, with two banks instead offering student-branded checking bundles
 
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