Banking in Illinois ranks fourth among all the states for choice, stability, best rates, and customer satisfaction, according to a recent survey by Money-Rates.com.
The survey compared the number of banks in each state, the number of bank failures, the interest rates for savings and deposits, and the JD Power ratings of banks to generate the list.
Illinois was second in number of banks with 540 and 18th in customer satisfaction with a rating of 3.25 on a scale that tops out at 5.0.
There were no bank failures in Illinois during the last year, but only one bank on the “America’s Best Rates” list has a branch in the state.
Among the Land of Lincoln’s neighbors, Iowa comes in at number 17 in overall rankings, Missouri is at 19, Kentucky is tied at 20, Indiana is tied for 27, and Wisconsin is way down the list at 48.
Wisconsin’s poor showing is due largely to one bank failure in the last year. Only five states had that particular problem.
In number of banks, Missouri has 336, Iowa hosts 331, Wisconsin has 257, Kentucky has 190, and Indiana only hosts 155.
The customer-satisfaction rating is 3.2 for Kentucky, 3.1 for Missouri, 3.09 for Wisconsin, 3.08 for Indiana, and 2.99 for Iowa. Oklahoma banks earned the highest customer satisfaction rating at 3.6.
Both Iowa and Indiana host one bank on the “best rates” list, but Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin had none.
Texas came out on top overall – largely due to having 541 bank locations and four banks on the best-rates list. The satisfaction rating was 3.3.
Alaska was dead last, but it has only seven banks -- none of them on the “best rates” list. The customer satisfaction rating also was dead last at 2.39