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The Best Regional Banks Throughout the South Atlantic

January 21, 2022

4 min Read

Written by Andrew Lisa

Edited by Molly Sullivan

SDI Productions / iStock.com

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The banks and credit unions of the South Atlantic region are scattered across the entire southeastern coast of the United States, including Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland — non-coastal West Virginia is counted as part of the region, too.

In terms of banking, it’s an area that’s defined by extremes. One medium-sized credit union in the top 10 has around 300 branches, but beyond that, every single institution on the list has either a few dozen branches or more than a thousand.

GOBankingRates ranked the best banks and credit unions in the South Atlantic region based on factors like checking fees, savings APY, 12-month CD APY and the number of locations, all of which are laid out for each institution on the list. The study also examined each bank’s total assets and the presence or absence of 24/7 customer service and human live chat. Finally, the study considered other products offered — such as auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, investment services and insurance — while also considering the rating for each bank’s app in the Apple and Android stores.

Here are the 10 best credit unions and banks in the South Atlantic region.

JP Morgan Chase

Branch locations: 4,960
Checking fee: $12
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.02%

Navy Federal Credit Union

Branch locations: 298
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.25%
12-month CD APY: 0.55%

Bank of America

Branch locations: 4,215
Checking fee: $12
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.03%

Wells Fargo

Branch locations: 5,024
Checking fee: $10
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.01%

American Airlines Credit Union

Branch locations: 38
Checking fee: $4.75
Savings APY: 0.40%
12-month CD APY: 0.50%

KeyBank

Branch locations: 1,046
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.05%

Wings Financial

Branch locations: 31
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.15%
12-month CD APY: 0.45%

Read more about this financial institution in our full review about it.

Delta Community

Branch locations: 30
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.08%
12-month CD APY: 0.55%

Fifth Third Bank

Branch locations: 1,110
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.01%

U.S. Bank

Branch locations: 2,319
Checking fee: $6.95
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.05%

More From GOBankingRates

To discover the Top 100 Best Banks, GOBankingRates looked at all institutions with available published data (National, Regional, Local, and Online) from the 2021 Best Banks categories as well as all Credit Unions with over $1 billion in total assets and accessible to a wide audience. GOBankingRates looked at the following factors: (1) total assets as sourced from the FDIC and NCUA; (2) number of branch locations as sourced from the FDIC and NCUA; (3) checking account annual fee; (4) savings account APY rate; (5) 12-month CD APY rate; (6) customer service products offered (24/7 customer service and live chat with a human); (7) Bauer rating (out of 5 stars); (8) products/services offered (auto loans, mortgage loans, credit cards, investment services, and insurance); and (9) the average mobile app rating between the android and apple stores. All factors were then scored and combined, with the lowest score being best. Factors (1) and (4) were weighted 1.5 times in final scoring, factor (2) was weighted 2 times, factor (6) was weighted 0.5 times, and factor (8) was weighted 2.5 times. For all Savings and Checking Account data only the basic accounts/products offered at each institution was analyzed. All data is up to date as of 12/8/21, rates and fees subject to change.

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.