NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Banking in 2026: Best Banks to Consider and How to Avoid the Worst Fees

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Find a bank that pays more, charges less, and keeps your money safe as rates adjust in 2026. How do you choose the best bank when savings rates are falling and fees won’t quit? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss wealth inequality and retirement security to help you think bigger about what’s “normal” in personal finance. They begin with a rapid-fire hot takes segment, with their perspectives on how money and power shape everyday life, why the decline of pensions shifts retirement risk onto workers, and questions worth asking about what a fairer safety net could look like. Then, banking Nerd Chanelle Bessette joins Sean and Elizabeth to discuss banking in 2026. They go over how to compare high-yield savings accounts as APYs drop, how to avoid common bank fees (like overdraft and ATM charges), and how to weigh digital-only banks versus brick-and-mortar options. They also cover how AI is changing customer service and fraud, why reduced consumer protections can raise the stakes for shoppers, and which banks topped NerdWallet’s Best-of Awards in key categories. Our Nerds researched more than 250 banking products, narrowing down to just one winner per category: https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/awards-banking-2026?utm_source=sm&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=cm_organic_011926_podcast_sm_desc_allepisodes_best-of-banking  See all the winners of NerdWallet’s Best-Of Awards: https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/awards?utm_source=sm&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=cm_organic_011926_podcast_sm_desc_allepisodes_best-of-awards  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: high-yield savings account, best high-yield savings account, savings account interest rates, APY, online banks, best online banks, bank fees, overdraft fees, avoid overdraft fees, ATM fees, ATM fee reimbursement, Allpoint ATM network, MoneyPass ATM network, no-fee checking account, monthly maintenance fee, bank bonuses, certificate of deposit, CD rates, best CD rates, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, SoFi bank, Newtek Bank, best bank 2026, early direct deposit, two-day early direct deposit, savings buckets, savings goal buckets, Zelle transfer limit, bill pay checks, cash deposits at ATMs, fraud protection, bank fraud scams, AI in banking, banking chatbots, customer service chat, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB complaints, CFPB settlements, credit unions vs banks, pension plan, defined benefit plan, and 401(k) vs pension. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth, how's your high-ield savings account doing? Now that I've switched it over to a provider with a higher APY, it's doing lovely. Well, I'm happy for you, but I'm getting pretty unhappy with mine because the APY keeps going down, so we might have to tackle that soon. I agree. Looks like you got to shop around, Sean. Absolutely. And we will talk this episode about how to do that.

Welcome to Nerd Wallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. this episode, we continue our series about your money in 2026. Still sounds weird saying that. But this time around, we're covering everything about banking, and that includes how to find the best high-yield savings account. As many banks continue, as you said, Sean, to lower the yield on their accounts.

But first, we're kicking things off with some hot takes. We're not even three weeks into 2026, but I've already got some stuff that's making me mad about the state of money in the world today, Elizabeth. Do we have eventing session loading, Sean? That's what it sounds like. Right now. ready for it. All right. Well, if this is your first rodeo, here's how it works. Sean and I each have a hundred seconds to go off on whatever we want in the world of money. And these opinions,

I just want to say, do not reflect the opinions of NerdWallet, Inc. They are just our personal opinions. All right, so Sean, you seem extra feisty today. I'm getting some attitude from that end. I know it's not towards me, but I'm going to let you get off some steam and go first. Hold on. Let me get my time already. All right. On your mark. get set, take off. Okay, so my hot take is that we should all be a lot more actively pissed off about the ruling class of billionaires and the eroding quality of life that most folks in this country have to suffer through. And most importantly, we need to reimagine other ways that our society could be structured. And I feel like at this point, griping about billionaires is almost a cliche in this country.

You know, we have these tech bros and this oligarchy that are controlling vast amounts of wealth in this country. Meanwhile, many people can't even put food on their table. But I think we need a reminder about how none of this is inevitable. Okay, lay it out for us. Okay, thank you. I'm about to do it. So here are some numbers that just really tell the story. In 2025 alone, billionaires added over $2 trillion to their net worth.

A quarter of that was earned by just eight people, including bros like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Meanwhile, in recent years, the effective tax rate for billionaires has been lower than the tax rate that folks like us are paying, Elizabeth, which is ridiculous. It is. We also note that income inequality is massive in this country, and I don't think we should take that as a given or something that's acceptable. I saw a recent report by Oxfam that found that between 1989 and 2022, the top 1% of households gained $8.35 million in wealth. Do you want to guess how much the bottom 20% gained in that same period, Elizabeth? $5,000. Not even that far off, $8,500. So again, Top 1% got 8.35 million, and the bottom 20 got less than $8,500, which is ridiculous.

10 seconds. Okay. Oh, my gosh. I have so much more to say. Meanwhile, as of this recording, our government still hasn't passed a bill renewing health care subsidies, which expired at the end of last year. The CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, remains gutted, which means that we're all at greater risk of being ripped off by shady companies. And our government seems more focused on violent colonial expansion than, say, shoring up social security. Say it again.

Yes. I'm sure that I'm over my time limit, but there's just so much to say on this topic, and I really think that we can't just accept it as something that we're going to be living through day after day, because what would this mean long term? If we're going down this path in 20 years from now, what does our world look like? We need to imagine something that's better and actually take steps to bring it to life. Okay. Wow, Sean, that was a lot. I definitely felt all of that tension and I feel the same frustrations, but I do have some questions, Sean. Okay, I'm going to try to relax my shoulders here because I was really tense. Okay, you make some very, very valid points here.

But I feel sometimes when this discussion is had, it feels it feels a little out of reach. Like what does little old me do to get these billionaires to redistribute their wealth or pay more taxes? So how do you think that that can be done, I guess on a micro level? Yeah, I think that we should all know that we have more power than we might be told that have. I think we should emphasize that we're voting every single day with the dollars that we spend. And yes, we are also in an election year. But also, I want people to think about the narratives that we are being told on a daily basis that might not be true. Like, we're often told that Social Security is going to fail soon. That is doomed to run out of money. And that is not an inevitability by any stretch of the imagination. We can put money into this if we want to. But people should understand. that we have the resources in this country. We are in the wealthiest country on the planet in the history of humanity.

If we wanted to make sure that people had food on their tables or could survive in their old age without scraping by in a desperate way, we could make that happen. But it's not currently a priority of those who have power. And I think that we can push people to change that.

Well, this is one way to do that, right? Spreading the awareness, lighting the fire on the issue. I agree with you, Sean. Voting is so important. and I think they intentionally make it confusing for a lot of people so that they don't do it. But it's our civil responsibility to try our best to make sure that we vote, whatever your vote is. And I definitely think where you put your money matters to. I know that you mentioned in one of your New Year's goals that you wanted to make sure that you were spending in a way that aligned better with your values.

So I think that's a good place to start as well. One last thing I really want to reiterate is the idea of reimagining how things could look. like what would our society look like if we didn't have health care that was driven by profit, but instead of actually making sure that as many people were as healthy as possible. Like if you sit with that question, it leads to some pretty big transformation. So there are so many other areas in our life and in our society that we can reimagine how things are because I think so many of us are just stuck in accepting the world as it is, which is becoming increasingly untenable for so many of us.

That's facts. And one last thing that I'll say, especially on your last point, is as a gal who lived in the UK and didn't have to pay anything out of pocket after leaving the doctor. Yes, you end up paying through taxes, but I didn't have a huge tax bill whenever I got sick. And then coming to the U.S. and having a tax bill whenever there's a health issue, I definitely think there's room for improvement there. Yeah, for sure. And that makes me think about how budgets our value statements.

And that's true on a personal level and on a governmental level, too. So if our country valued putting money toward health care and keeping people off the streets, then we could do those things, but that's just not where our money is going right now. That's right. I'm turning up to my next local strike, who's organizing it. Not me, but I'm coming. I'm going to get some poster board out and some markers, and we'll have a little creative sesh here, Elizabeth. Okay. Well, that's mine. Thank you for indulging me. I know that this is a topic that can get pretty heated, but it's something that we should all be aware of.

Absolutely. And actually, Sean, it is related to my hot take in some way. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Okay. Well, hold on. Before you dive in, let me get my timer up because I'm giving you 100 seconds and yes, I'll probably be interrupting you along the way. So just trigger warning for that. Okay, you ready? Yes. Three, two, one, fire away. My hot take is that defined benefit plan should be a mandatory offering for all, that's in capital letters, private and public employers in addition to 401k's. A quick definition, a defined benefit plan, also known as a pension, is a fixed type of retirement benefit.

Employers offer to employees, and they offer it in a lump sum or as a series of payments over time. So in other words, you get a set amount of money during your retirement. Now, I think the employer should not have the option of not offering pensions and passing the entire responsibility of saving for retirement to employees, especially without offering financial resources like free access to a certified financial planner to help them plan retirement that cues you, Sean, people like you for free. Keeping me employed. Yes. Now, once upon a time, defined pension plans were actually prevalent, but they've seen a gradual decline over the past few

decades. Now, just to give you an idea of how bleak things are right now, 15% of private industry workers had access to a defined benefit plan, aka a pension plan in March 24, while 70%, you heard that, right, had access to divine contribution plans like 401ks and four or three Bs and the likes during that same time period. Now, that's compared to about 44% of people who had access to define benefit plans in 1974. Did you hear those number of Sean? I did. And guess what? What? You're at 100 seconds. So your time is already up. Oh my God. But keep going. I'll indulge you. I'll indulge you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So some people might say that this hot take has socialist ideals. And guess what, Sean? I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Maybe I'm playing my hand here. Some people attack me about that, but I agree. It does. But mandatory defined benefit plans could be like, I feel like a social safety net and it could result in better retirement security, which I think benefits everyone. And I'm here for the benefit of everyone. And plus, it's not a new concept. Countries like Japan, Iceland, I believe Australia have some form of mandatory public pension plans. Now, for people who are the naysayers who are going to argue my point, I do think that phasing out pensions and rolling in 401Ks has forced people to prioritize financial education and learn about retirement planning, which are important things to do and empowering. But it puts people who lack financial education at an unfair advantage.

Now, finance courses are not mandatory in schools. Ask me how I know because I never had to take one. Same. Right? And that means that so many people enter the workforce, with zero financial education. And now you have employers and the government telling them that it's their job to save for retirement without equipping them with the skill set they need to do so. And that's just cruel. Don't you think that's cruel, Sean? I do. I do. And here's my gripe with this issue, too, not to totally derail everything you have planned to say, is that I think that even requiring employers to have defined benefit plans or pensions isn't going far enough because that still

ties a lot of retirement stability to your job. Like in this country, we have health care tied to your job. There are a lot of people who aren't working jobs that offer health care or retirement plan, and they're still kind of left out in the cold when it comes time to retire or get health care. So this is an even bigger structural issue. Yes, I agree. In the spirit of doing one thing at a time and taking tomatoes, I just made that up. That doesn't make sense, but fine. You get what I'm trying to say. Okay. Lemons into lemonade is what I'm trying to. trying to say. Making lemons into tomatoes over here. That's it. Okay, we're going somewhere with this. It's a nice Mediterranean meal. I know, I know. Okay, but yeah, on a personal level, it means like the

sandwich generation, which I'm going to be part of soon, is tasked with financially caring for aging parents. And it can lead to financial insecurity, leading to broader negative societal impacts like homelessness, poor health outcomes, which can further strain already fragile health care system, which you pointed out, Sean, and also an increased demand for public resources and greater overall inequality. So what is your point, Elizabeth? I think that we need to put more pressure on companies to give us more secure retirement options. And I think that putting that pressure on them is fair because they put pressure on us too. I mean, except for NerdWallet, we spend more time with coworkers than our family at times. And in some cases, people sacrifice their health

just to make these corporations all this money. So my hot take means that it's a fairer. way to manage risk or share the risk. I love this. And I'm going to yes and everything you've just said, which is that I think employers can step up and do more. And I would love to see pensions return, although I don't think it's likely to happen, unfortunately. But I would also love to see this happen in tandem with things like IRAs having higher contribution limits each year. That's a good one. When you think about the difference between a 401k where you can put around, what, $24,000 more than that for some people into a 401k annually, and the contribution limit for IRAs is less than $10,000. So it just makes it so that those who don't have access to these workplace plans continue to be at

a disadvantage. I agree way too low. I think options is the key here, right? Because not everyone would want to contribute to a defined benefit plan. Some people may prefer a 401K because you have the option to grow your money further, right? But I think at a baseline, everyone should have a set amount for retirement. Absolutely. We're a bunch of lefty socialists over here, Elizabeth. Probably. Probably so. But that's okay. At the bottom line of all of this, and what I keep coming back to as someone who tries to produce personal finance content that can help the broadest segment of people possible is that how is what I'm doing, how is what I'm thinking about going to help the broadest number of consumers? Because that's what we are working through here, right? You want people to have access to retirement accounts. I want people to feel like they can have a dignitary.

unified life when they're not being exploited by billionaires. And I think that that is maybe a populist argument, but it's one that does help a lot of people if it's enacted. It does. But listeners, until we get to the place where the government and these companies do better, we're here to give you all the financial tips so that we can do what within our control. Thank you for bringing a full circle. And also, if you happen to disagree with any or everything that Elizabeth and I just said, we would love to hear from you because conversation is how this starts to. right. All right. In a moment, we'll hear all about banking in 2026, including how AI might be changing banking this year. But first, listener, you know what's up. We are a show that runs on your money questions. So send whatever you're wondering about in the world of finance or in your life, our way.

Maybe you have a huge health care bill that you're trying to pay down this year, or you are wishing to buy a home this year and you need some help with that. Whatever your money question, we nerds are here to help you. So leave us a voicemail. access on the nerd hotline at 901 730, 63373. That's 901 730 NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerd wallet.com. Okay, let's get to the next installment in our series about your money in 26. That's up next.

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Banking. Now, the majority of Americans have bank accounts, and they are key to helping us manage our money. So we'll dissect what's change in the banking industry, how to choose the right bank, and also what lessons we can take from last year. We'll also find out which companies won NerdWallit's prestigious best of awards for their banking products and why.

And to help us navigate the world of banking in 2026, we're joined by banking nerd Chanel Beset. Chanel, welcome back to Smart Money. Hey, thanks for having me. All right. Now, let's start with a little banking-related icebreaker. Chanel, describe banking in 2025 using one word. So I'd have to say ebbing, as in ebbing and flowing.

Okay, tell us why you chose that word. So interest rates in general have been steadily dropping over the past few months after the Fed started to lower its benchmark rate. So that's great if you're trying to buy a house or a car because that means you can potentially get a cheaper mortgage. or a more affordable auto loan. But for banking, it means that you're earning less money on your savings. So after some higher interest rates for the past couple of years, consumer banking is definitely

ebbing a little bit. I think this is also a good opportunity for folks to maybe shop around. I saw with my high-led savings account, the bank that I go with was dropping their rates preemptively before rate cuts were announced. And they're actually lower than what other banks are offering. So I might be shopping around now that we're in 2026. Yeah, that's always a good call. Even if you're happy with your bank, I think that shopping around is always a good idea because you can see what's out there.

There's new offers coming out all the time, new interest rates, new bonuses. So yeah, I'd highly recommend at least doing a kind of evaluation of what you currently have and what you could be getting. Yeah. And another key to shopping around is considering banking fees. These can really be a pain. And we talked about them a lot on smart money in 2025. Common banking fees include things like monthly maintenance, overdraft, minimum account balances, wire transfer fees, transaction fees, ATM. fees, I think the list goes on and on and on. And as a matter of fact, around September,

a survey came out that said that ATM fees were at an all-time high. So what were some trends that you saw around banking fees in 2025, Chanel? ATM fees are certainly high, but there are actually quite a few banks that are finding ways to help their customers avoid them. The bank might decide to become part of a free nationwide ATM network like AllPoint or Money Pass, or they might provide monthly reimbursements for ATM fees. That's becoming a lot more common. Reimbursements are usually between $10 to $15 a month, depending on the bank. But I know of at least a couple of banks have unlimited fee reimbursements, which is pretty cool. And then beyond ATM fees, we're also seeing some interesting trends for overdraft fees. So for a moment there, it looked like the U.S.

government was going to create a cap on how much banks would be allowed to charge for overdrafts. But that fell through with the new administration, unfortunately. Even so, quite a few banks are taking it upon themselves to offer much more flexible and forgiving overdraft policies. Yeah. Well, speaking of ATM fees, I used to bank with a large national bank that would charge me if I used another bank's ATM. So I was getting the ATM fee and then my own bank was punishing me for not using their ATM. And needless to say, I don't bank with them anymore. So do you think fees will go down in 2026 now? You know, it's really hard to know what the year will bring. From my own perspective, as a banking nerd, I've noticed a very slow decline in the average overdraft fees that banks charge over the past couple of years. I'm really hoping that continues. Because there are still some banks out there that have extremely high fees, like $30 or more per overdraft. But quite a few banks have brought their fees down.

Or they've made it so that their customers can overdraft up to a certain amount, like $50, without being hit with a fee. So that's been a really promising change, especially since overdraft fees can be really stressful for a lot of people. Oh, my God. Talk about stressful. It's taking me back to my college days when I was always broke and always overdrafting and always hit with $30 fees.

And those things would pile up and it's just very, very depressing. All right, this is a timely pivot to discuss how consumers can take matters into their own hands and make informed banking decisions by themselves. Now, part of that is being aware of the gamut of banking fees and shopping around, like Sean said. So what tips do you have for people who want to save on banking fees this year, Chanel? Yeah, I would just tell people that you don't have to settle. There are so many great banks out there that don't charge monthly fees and that have flexible overdraft programs. Also, even though interest rates are starting to go. down a little bit. You can still try to put your savings into a high-yield account so that it can

earn as much as possible. High-ield savings accounts, even if they are dropping slightly, they are still earning about 10 times the national average interest rate. So they're definitely worth putting your money into. That's right. And then one way to save on fees that I personally use is digital only banks. Now, digital banking is something that we've seen become more popular in recent times. And my guess is that the trend will continue to grow. Do you agree with that? Chanel and why do you think that that is? Yeah, I think online banks are here to stay. People like the convenience of being able to bank from anywhere. And I think that online banks have also gotten a lot better at making sure they offer comparable customer service to a brick and mortar bank. And of course,

online banks do tend to have some of the best interest rates. So that's always appealing. Janelle, have you seen anything particularly interesting or new happening in the online banking space over the past 12 months? So I think this has been a trend for a while, but it's just been kind of ramped up. personalization and AI integration seem to be a couple of big focuses for banks this year. And I think there's also been a greater emphasis on fraud protection. AI has made it easier to commit fraud, unfortunately. A lot more people, especially for more vulnerable populations. And I think that's just part of the incremental improvements that are happening all the time in digital banking.

I will also add that one of the reasons that fees tend to be lower is because digital only banks don't have the same overheads that the brick and mortar banks have. So for people who are considering opening digital only accounts this year, what tips do you have? I think something that people struggle with is thinking it has to be either or you can have a digital only bank and also a Bricker Mortar 1 too. That's so true. And yeah, that's actually something that I encourage people to do is open multiple accounts at different banks. There's no one telling you you can't.

You can definitely get the best of all worlds. One thing just to keep in mind is that if you open accounts at multiple banks, just make sure that you're meeting any requirements that those banks are. have to avoid fees. You know, maybe you want to keep a checking account open at a brick and mortar bank just in case you think you'll need to tell her to help you with something. Maybe a money order or, you know, cashiers check because you can't do those on your own. You need help with those. But maybe you want to put your money into a CD that has really high interest rates. But the bank that has the CDs otherwise has kind of mediocre checking and savings accounts, but you still want

those CD interest rates. You can definitely pick and choose where you put your money and for what purpose. So, Chanel, you mentioned AI a little bit earlier. We've seen it because come a pretty pervasive topic recently. And a lot of us saw it impact our banking experiences, whether we're engaging with an AI bot for customer service or it's being used by our bank for fraud protection or AI is being used to scam us out of our money. Did you notice any ways that AI has improved the customer experience or maybe made it more difficult over the past year? You know, even though we aren't tracking it, we do look at banks customer service chat. And if a bank only has like chat bots, like using AI, we don't get.

give as many star rating points to that bank because, you know, even though chatbots are getting better, we still have the opinion that talking with real humans is probably going to get you where you want to go a lot easier. So even though AI is becoming more popular and more integrated, I think it still has a long way to go before it fully replaces any kind of customer experience. I will say personally, I cannot stand when I need help and I am shoved to an AI bot. So that definitely is minus a star for me too. So looking ahead, Chanel, how do you think AI will continue to enhance or harm our banking experiences this year? Yeah, so I think that AI can be really helpful for banks themselves to maybe analyze and

synthesize data about customer experiences or maybe customer feedback. So I think banks can use that to improve things. You know, as we were just saying, I don't think people want to talk to an AI bot over a person, especially if the bot is incapable of solving your problem or, you know, just the fact that you're dealing with the sensitive topic of managing your finances. People are anxious about using AI for that kind of stuff. So it has its limits for sure, but I don't think it's going away. It's probably going to just be a slow transition over to using it for more useful things.

Yeah, well, circling back to the topic of fraud in February of 2025, the Trump administration halted work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And then by April, we saw mass layoffs. And then by July, the CFPB budget shrunk from 12% to 6.5% of the Federal Reserve's expenses. Now, since the CFPB had duties like creating and enforcing rules for financial institutions, supervising large banks and other companies, and also making markets fairer and more transparent for consumers, how did the chain of events impact consumers, if at all? So when the CFPB loses its resourcing and its ability to enforce regulations, a lot more harm against consumers can happen under the radar.

Usually, the CFPB is able to investigate and find financial institutions who, are discovered to be committing fraud or taking advantage of customers in some way. So without as many people to do that work, it's a lot harder for consumers to be protected from those bad actors. Yeah. Unfortunately, the onus is going to be on all of us consumers to try to protect ourselves and be more empowered as consumers and be alert to fraud in any sort of shady business going on, especially with people who were banking with, organizations that we're banking with. So how do you think we as consumers can be more empowered and informed and have our defenses up as we had into this new terrain where we have less production. Yeah, so I always recommend that folks do a lot of

research into a bank that they're interested in. Maybe you can read some reviews and poke around on Reddit to see what other people are saying about it. And if you see a large flux of recent complaints, you might want to avoid opening an account there, at least for the time being. You can also Google whether that bank has had any previous CFPB settlements or fines. And that should give you a pretty good idea into how they do business. All right. Well, let's move on to the best of awards for banking. We know that you banking nerds spend countless hours choosing the best banking products for consumers and use your own independent editorial judgment to decide what is the best. So, Chanel, can you talk about what your team does to determine what qualifies as the

best banking product? It's a very involved process. We look at dozens of different data points for each bank or credit union and reevaluate all kinds of things like interest rates, overdraft policies, minimum deposits, ATM networks, and customer service options. So, we'll have So once we have those data points, we're able to really compare how each bank stacks up against another with the black and white numbers. And that's how we're able to choose the best baking products overall. All right. Well, Chanel, I now want to hear what your top three were. What are the top three y'all's came up with?

And also did anything stand out to you about those top three? Oh, so I think what I'm going to do is share our best savings account, best bank for certificates to deposit, and best bank overall. So our best savings account winner is new tech bank. That's a new T-E-K, which has a really strong interest rate, no fees, and strong customer service options. For CDs, our winner was Marcus by Goldman Sacks, which also has really stellar interest rates. And for Best Overall Bank, SoFi was our winner. It's really just a strong option across the board. SoFi offers high interest rates, a really good overdraft program, and it has a bunch of useful perks like automatic roundups for savings and a really big ATM network. Maybe I'm doing something wrong because I have none of these

banks. So Sean, you have like 12 banks. Do you have any of these? I don't work with any of these banks. I have a Roth IRA with SOFI, but I'm kind of salty about SOFI personally because I remember back when we were hopefully trying to get student debt relief in the Biden administration and SOFI went to Congress to try to make that not happen because they make a lot of money off personal student loan. So that's my own personal gripe. And I just don't like SOFI because of that and therefore I don't bank with them. Yeah. And, and, you know, SoFi does offer a very different categories of services. And so their banking is probably quite separate from their student loans and personal loans and the way they operate as a business as well, because

apparently the stock market is going bananas for SoFi stock right now. So it really just kind of depends on what you're looking for. Well, some listeners and co-hosts of the smart money show like myself might now feel motivated to start shopping around for a new bank after hearing all of this wonderful information. So the list of features banks offer seem to be getting longer and longer every year. And honestly, it can be a bit overwhelming when it's time to make a decision about which bank to choose. What are the core features that you think people should take into consideration to take some of that stress away? So the two things that I would say people should absolutely always look for are high interest rates and no fees. You're literally leaving money on

the table if you're getting a low rate or if you're paying a monthly maintenance fee. Beyond that, I would say to look for things that suit your life. For example, if you're a bartender who makes lots of cash tips, maybe you want to choose a bank that has lots of ATMs in your area where you can deposit that cash into your account. Or maybe you're renting and you have a landlord who prefers checks for the monthly rent. Maybe you could choose a bank that does free bill pay where they send a check on your behalf. There's lots of great little services like that that people could use, you know, very readily if they take the time to look for them. So, Chanel, when you personally are looking at different banks, what are the most important things among what you've just described that you

really care about? Besides high rates and no fees, which are still like the gold standard that I always look for, I really like that my bank does two-day early direct deposit, which means that I get my paycheck slightly earlier than I otherwise would. It's a pretty common feature these days, but it's not a given. We actually have a roundup on nerd wallet of all the banks that we've found that offer early direct deposit, so folks should definitely check that out if they're interested. My bank also allows me to give nicknames to my accounts and create buckets for different goals within my savings. So I really like those fun little features. I mean, they're not necessary, but I think that they help my management of my money in some small way.

Yeah, smart money listeners know that I'm a huge fan of savings buckets, so I'm right there with you. And I also get early direct deposit from my credit union. And I like having my paycheck a couple days early, especially ahead of making my monthly mortgage payment. Although that's not why I prefer to bank with my credit union specifically. for me, keeping my money in my local community and out of the hands of big national banks is a personal priority of mine. And my credit union just helps me do that really easily. So that's what I think about when I'm shopping around for banks and where to put my money. Elizabeth, what are you thinking about as you're making these decisions yourself? I just have three rules. Don't stress me out. Don't

steal my money and give me my money when I need it. So I'm a simple girl. No, on a serious note, I agree with you guys. Definitely like early direct deposits. That's always fun to see your paycheck early. Low to no fees is a big one for me because as I said earlier, I've been charged lots of fees in my past life, so I don't like those things. And then I would say a more recent feature that I appreciate is having a high Zell limit, transfer limit. I didn't realize that was a thing until I started having to transfer my landlord, my rent every month. And one of my accounts has a low limit, so I would have to start shuffling around into an account with a higher Zell limit, which is extremely stressful. So that's something that I look out for now too.

Chanel, if there's one banking-related lesson we can carry forward from 2025 into 2026, what would you say it should be? Well, besides our eternal advice, it's always in style, which is to make sure you're saving up for an emergency fund. I would also say that you should really try to be intentional about where you keep your money. Also, your money should be earning you more money. Spend a little time doing some comparison shopping for bank accounts and different interest rates. And you might be really surprised to see what's out there and how much more you could be earning. solid advice Chanel. Well, thank you for coming on and talking about banking in 2026 and looking back at 2025 with us. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. If folks want to take a deeper dive into the best banking products, check out NerdWallet's best of awards. You can find that at nerd wallet.com slash awards.

And that is all we have for this episode. Follow smart money on your favorite podcast app that includes Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and IHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes. Here's our brief disclaimer. We are not your financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes may not apply to your specific circumstances. This episode was produced by Tess Viglin. Hillary Georgie helped with editing. Nick Khrasmi mixed our audio and a big thank you to NerdWallets editors for their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.