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Banking plays a pivotal role in most U.S. households, allowing Americans to manage their money, make purchases and save for the future. But as technology continues to evolve, so do our banking habits and our expectations of financial institutions.
Here’s a closer look at the current state of banking and financial trends among consumers.
Quick Banking Stats
What Is the Median Bank Account Balance?
In 2019, the median bank account balance was $5,300.[1] This number represents a 10.6% increase over the 2016 median balance. Bank accounts include all checking, savings, money market and call deposit accounts, as well as prepaid debit cards.
What Percentage of Americans Are Unbanked?
Nationwide, 6% of households are unbanked, meaning no member of the family unit has a bank account.[2] While the percentage of Americans without a bank account remains low, this number increased a full percentage between the 2020 and 2021 analyses.[3]
Do Americans Prefer To Bank Digitally or Traditionally?
The tides have shifted, and the majority of Americans are now on board with digital banking. As of 2022, 78% of adults in the U.S. prefer to bank via a mobile app or website. Only 29% of Americans prefer to bank in person.[4]
How Do Americans Primarily Pay for Purchases?
Despite the prevalence of credit cards, consumers prefer to pay for purchases with debit cards. According to our poll, 57% of Americans use debit cards as their primary payment method.[5]
How Many Americans Have Opened a Certificate of Deposit (CD)?
According to our survey, only 48% of Americans have opened a certificate of deposit account. However, with rising CD rates, this number will likely increase.[5]
Most Important Banking Features for Americans
Gone are the days when consumers merely accepted the stipulations their banks doled out. Today, Americans have higher expectations when it comes to banking.
Our tracking poll asked Americans what features they value most when shopping for new checking and savings products. The following tables list the most important features that came up in their responses.
Looking to switch checking accounts? Check out our list of the Best Checking Accounts March 2023.
Seeking a new savings account that pays more interest? Visit our list of the Best Savings Accounts March 2023.
What Are the Average Bank Balances, Rates and Fees?
As the economy and consumer trends change, so do interest rates and bank fees. It’s wise to evaluate how your bank compares to national norms.
Median and Average Bank Account Balances
The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances reports data on transaction accounts, which include savings, checking, money market and call deposit accounts, as well as prepaid debit cards.
The most recent data, which comes from 2019, estimates the median transaction account balance at $5,300 per family. The average transaction account balance by family is $41,600. The data shows 98.2% of American families hold a balance in some type of transaction account.[1]
Current Bank Interest Rates
Beginning in March 2022, the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time since December 2018. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) continued to raise interest rates in each successive committee meeting, hiking rates a total of seven times in 2022. As a result, interest rates for savings and money market accounts are now up significantly compared to this time last year. Certificates of deposit (CDs) also saw a tremendous increase across the board.[6]
Typical Bank Fees
In December 2021, following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s report on banks’s dependence on fees for revenue, Capital One became the first major bank to eliminate overdraft fees. Several other banks have since followed suit.
Today overdraft and insufficient funds (NSF) fees are down 40% from late 2019. But bank fees aren’t limited to overdraft charges. Consumers should review their bank’s fee schedule and keep an eye out for monthly service fees and ATM fees among other charges.
Forbes Advisor analyzed monthly maintenance, overdraft and third-party ATM fees at financial institutions, including some of the largest national banks and credit unions by assets. The average fees are as follows:[7]
- Overdraft fee: $24.93
- Monthly maintenance fee: $5.14
- ATM fee (third-party): $1.77
Source: Forbes Advisor: Checking Account Fees Survey, Sept 2021
What Are Consumers’s Banking Preferences?
In 2019, the FDIC’s Household Survey asked banked households over a 12-month period how they primarily access their bank accounts.[8] Responses included visiting a bank teller, using an ATM or bank kiosk, calling the bank, using a mobile banking app, using a web browser and using some other method.
As of 2019, human-centric banking solutions decreased across the board. The use of bank tellers was down to 21%, and telephone banking use was at just 2.4%. Mobile banking access rose steadily from 9.5% in 2015 to 34% in 2019. The use of online banking remained prevalent at 22.8% in 2019, but it had declined since 2015 due to the rise of mobile banking. Additionally, ATM and kiosk transactions saw a slight drop.
Primary Method Used To Access Bank Account
Source: FDIC Household Survey
Unbanked and Underbanked Statistics
According to the Federal Reserve’s report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021, 81% of families are fully banked, 13% are underbanked and 6% are unbanked.[2] Interestingly, 21.7% of unbanked households indicate they lack a bank account because they don’t have enough money to meet the minimum balance requirements. The second most cited reason was a lack of trust in banks at 13.2%.
People are considered unbanked if no one in the household has a checking or savings account. Underbanked families have a bank account but regularly use alternative financial services like money orders, check cashing services, payday loans or payday advances, pawn shop loans, auto title loans and tax-refund advances. Fully banked households are those with at least one bank account who did not use alternative financial services within the last 12 months.
Unbanked Households by Income
Unbanked status continues to be income dependent. The vast majority of unbanked Americans earn under $25,000 per year, and 17% of households in this income bracket are unbanked. By comparison, only 4% of families earning between $25,000 and $49,999—and a mere 1% of households earning $50,000 and above—are unbanked.[2]
Unbanked Households by Education
Level of education is another key component when it comes to banking access. While only 1% of Americans with a bachelor’s degree and 5% with an associate’s or some college are unbanked, 24% of Americans without a high school equivalency degree do not have a bank account. This rate decreases to 10% for consumers who obtain a high school diploma or GED.[2]
Unbanked Households by Race/Ethnicity
Compared to white (3%) and Asian (2%) households, BIPOC families have a significantly greater likelihood of being unbanked. Specifically, 13% of Black families and 11% of Hispanic families do not hold a bank account.[2] Since 2019, unbanked Black households have decreased by 1% while the unbanked Hispanic population has increased by 1%.[9]
Top 10 Largest Banks in the U.S.
There’s no direct correlation between bank size and quality, but the following banks have captured the majority of the market share. In fact, the top five banks control 41.2% of the domestic market by assets.
Source: Federal Reserve, Large Commercial Banks as of September 30, 2022
Find The Best Online Banks Of 2023
Looking for a new bank? Check out our list of the Best Banks of March 2023.
Sources
- Federal Reserve: Survey of Consumer Finances
- Federal Reserve: Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021, Table 1
- Federal Reserve: Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2020, Table 8
- Forbes Advisor: 2022 Digital Banking Survey
- Forbes Advisor: Feb. 2023 Banking Survey
- FDIC: National Rates and Caps
- Forbes Advisor: Checking Account Fees Survey, Sept. 2021
- FDIC: How Americans Bank 2019
- Federal Reserve: Economic Well-Being of U.S. households in 2019, Table 10
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