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Best banks for customer service in 2026, according to real customers

·Bethany Hickey for Finder

People using ATMs in downtown San Francisco, California, USA. — Michael Warwick // Shutterstock
People using ATMs in downtown San Francisco, California, USA. — Michael Warwick // Shutterstock
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At the end of the day, most banks have the same offerings: checking, savings, certificates of deposit, investment accounts and so on.

With similar offerings, a good customer onboarding process, support options and branch experience can be the deciding factor. And person to person, let’s be honest, you just want a bank that’s going to be nice to you, since they’re handling your money.

How to measure who is the best

In an editorial list of the best banks in the U.S., it usually comes down to nationwide availability, fees, features and annual percentage yields (APYs) on savings accounts. After all, those are hard factors that banking experts can compare.

But customer service is one of those factors that’s difficult to assess without a large and dedicated sample. Banks can have thousands of employees, hundreds of branch locations, multiple customer support phone lines, and some banks don’t even have physical locations.

With that in mind, Finder turned to review platforms and annual surveys to see which banks customers say are the best in the U.S.

Best retail banks of 2026

J.D. Power, a global analytics and consumer intelligence company, conducts several studies on retail banks and customer satisfaction.

Their 2026 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction study surveyed 107,059 retail bank customers between January 2025 and January 2026, covering the largest banks across 15 regions. Chase and Capital One appear multiple times. Here are the top banks by region:

  • California: Chase
  • Florida: Chase
  • Illinois: Wintrust Community Banks
  • Lower Midwest: BancFirst
  • Mid-Atlantic: Capital One
  • New England: Bangor Savings Bank
  • North Central: City National Bank (WV)
  • Northwest: Chase
  • New York Tri-State: Capital One
  • Pennsylvania: Huntington
  • South Central: FirstBank
  • Southeast: United Community
  • Southwest: Chase
  • Texas: Frost
  • Upper Midwest: Gate City Bank

Editor’s note: J.D. Power runs a separate satisfaction study for credit unions.

Best online banks for 2026

Prefer digital banking? There’s also the J.D. Power Direct Banking Satisfaction Study, which measures overall satisfaction with online-only bank and neobank checking and savings products.

In order of highest ranking, these are the top 10 banks from that 2026 survey:

How the top banks compare on review platforms

Getting away from annual surveys, Finder looked to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Trustpilot and the Google and Apple app stores to see what regular folks are saying about some of the top-ranking banks.

A table comparing the top-ranking banks across different review platforms.
Finder


Bottom line

J.D. Power surveys point to Chase and Capital One, but Trustpilot users are far more critical of both. The real answer is that “best” depends on what you’re weighing, since J.D. Power leans on trust and everyday service, app stores lean on the product itself, and Trustpilot skews toward people who had a bad experience and want to vent.

Rates and fees still matter, so consider those factors as well when you’re choosing the right “best” bank for your situation.

This guide has been edited by Megan B. Shepherd and reviewed by Richard Laycock.

This story was produced by Finder and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

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