Is Citizens Bank a legit bank?

Yes, Citizens Bank is a legit bank and GOBankingRates has ranked it among the Top Banks of 2023.

Is Citizens Bank a Black-owned bank?

Citizens Bank was founded in 1921 by five Black businessmen, and today Citizens Trust Bank is a federally certified CDFI and one of the largest Black-owned financial institutions in the nation.

Why should I choose Citizens Bank?

Citizens Bank is best for those looking for a wide variety of accounts with fees that are either low or relatively easy to waive. Customers have access to standard bank accounts like checking, savings, money market and CDs, along with IRAs, investment options, loans, credit cards and business accounts.

Is Citizens Bank a good bank?

Citizens Bank has many account options for customers and is consistently well-rated.

Reviews / Banking

Citizens Bank Review: Variety of Account Options and Money Management Tools

7 min Read

January 13, 2023

By Vance Cariaga

Citizens Bank Overview
Checking Accounts
Savings Accounts
Money Market Accounts
CD Accounts
Banking Experience
Citizens Bank vs. Competitors
Final Take

GOBankingRates Score

Citizens Bank RI

4.7

SCORE

Quick Take: Citizens Bank offers a wide variety of accounts, many of which have no monthly account fees or an easy way to avoid them. There are branches throughout the Midwest, Northeast and Florida for convenient in-person banking. The 11 states in the bank's service area have numerous locations and ATMs, and online and mobile access extend the bank's reach.

Checking Accounts

4.8
Savings Accounts

4.5
CD Accounts

4.6
Banking Experience

4.9

How did we calculate this?

Pros

Multiple account options
Easy-to-avoid monthly fees
No required minimum to open most accounts

Cons

High overdraft fees
In-person banking only available regionally
Low savings and CD rates

Citizens Bank Overview

Founded in 1921, Citizens Bank is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions. It also has the distinction of being one of the largest Black-owned institutions in the nation. The Providence, Rhode Island-based bank’s business mix is split roughly 50/50 between consumer and commercial customers, and it boasts about 3,000 ATMs and 1,000 branches across 11 states in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Customers have access to a wide variety of personal accounts, from standard checking and savings to money market accounts, certificates of deposit, credit cards, IRAs and loans. GOBankingrates named Citizens Bank among the Top Banks for 2023.

Citizens Bank Checking Accounts

Citizens Bank has four checking account options.

One Deposit Checking: Earns interest and has no minimum deposit requirement
Citizens Quest Checking: Earns interest and has no minimum deposit requirement; the APY is set across all balance tiers
Citizens Wealth Checking: No monthly service fee but you must maintain $200,000 in combined monthly deposit and investment balances. The interest rate on Citizens Wealth Checking varies and may increase or decrease daily.
Student Checking: For customers under 25 and has no fee and no minimum deposit requirement

Citizens Bank Savings Accounts

There is no minimum deposit to open an account and Citizens Bank offers three traditional savings accounts.

One Deposit Savings: No monthly fee to customers under 25 and over 65. Otherwise, the fee is $4.99, but it can be waived when you make one deposit of any amount during each monthly maintenance fee period.
Citizens Quest Savings: No monthly fee and a 0.02% APY on all balances
Citizens Wealth Savings: No monthly service fee and a 0.02% APY on all balances

Citizens Bank Money Market Accounts

Citizens Bank offers three money market accounts: Personal Money Market, Citizens Quest Money Market and Citizens Wealth Money Market. You can open all accounts with any deposit amount and all offer check-writing access. There is no monthly service fee with Citizens Quest and Citizens Wealth if you open their corresponding checking accounts. The fee for the Personal Money Market account is $10, but it can be waived with a minimum daily balance of $2,500. The Personal Money Market Account is also one of the reasons the bank was named in the list of the Best Money Market Accounts by GOBankingRates.

The APY on the Personal Money Market account is a rock-bottom 0.01%. For Citizens Quest, you get a standard rate of 0.03% APY and a preferred rate of 0.05% APY on all balance tiers. For Citizens Wealth, the standard rate is 0.04% APY. The preferred rate is 0.04% APY on balances below $25,000, and 0.05% on balances above $25,000.

Citizens Bank CD Accounts

Citizens Bank offers a variety of CD terms and rates, but they vary by location. To get a complete list of the CD options in your area, you’ll have to visit a branch. Only three CD options are offered on the bank’s website: the Online-Only 14-Month CD, the 10-Month CD and the 25-month CD. The minimum balance for each is $1,000.

Citizens Bank Banking Experience

Citizens Bank offers what most customers need in a banking institution. It has a wide variety of accounts with fees that are either low or relatively easy to waive. One of Citizens Bank’s main strengths is its diverse product line. Customers have access to standard bank accounts like checking, savings, money market and CDs, along with IRAs, investment options, loans, credit cards and business accounts.

Mobile App

Citizens Bank offers mobile apps for Android and iOS users. User ratings are very solid.

Google Play: 4.3 stars out of 5
App Store: 4.7 stars out of 5

Features available on the mobile apps include account management, remote check deposit, money transfer and bill pay.

Citizens Bank vs. Competitors

Citizens Bank has a limited reach nationally but still competes with other banks. Here’s how it compares with some of them.

Citizens Bank vs. M&T Bank

M&T Bank’s EZChoice Checking account has no monthly maintenance fee, which gives it a very slight edge over Citizen Bank’s One Deposit Checking account, which has a $9.99 monthly fee that can be waived by making one deposit per statement period. Citizens Bank has a wider reach, with about 1,000 branches and 2,700 ATMs vs. about 700 branches and 1,800 ATMs at M&T.

Citizens Bank vs. KeyBank

Although Citizens Bank has an impressive roster of customer service numbers, KeyBank offers extensive live-chat hours in addition to 24/7 telephone service. If you’re a smaller CD investor, you might give Citizens Bank the nod because it requires only $1,000 to invest in a CD. KeyBank requires at least a $2,500 deposit to open their Short-Term and Tired CD accounts.

Citizens Bank vs. Northeast Bank

Northeast Bank easily takes the prize over Citizens when it comes to savings account interest rates. Northeast Bank’s PROPEL Savings account pays as much as 0.75% APY, while its money market accounts pay as much as 0.50%. But Citizens Bank has a substantial edge in size, as Northeast Bank only operates in Maine with eight branches.

Final Take

Even though Citizens is a regional bank, it offers a full suite of products and services that you usually only find at large national banks. This makes Citizens Bank a good one-stop-shop option for those in its service area. Citizens Bank is best for those who are unlikely to overdraft and want a highly rated banking experience.

Compare to Other Banks

Citizens Bank FAQ

Is Citizens Bank a legit bank?
- Yes, Citizens Bank is a legit bank and GOBankingRates has ranked it among the Top Banks of 2023.
Is Citizens Bank a Black-owned bank?
- Citizens Bank was founded in 1921 by five Black businessmen, and today Citizens Trust Bank is a federally certified CDFI and one of the largest Black-owned financial institutions in the nation.
Why should I choose Citizens Bank?
- Citizens Bank is best for those looking for a wide variety of accounts with fees that are either low or relatively easy to waive. Customers have access to standard bank accounts like checking, savings, money market and CDs, along with IRAs, investment options, loans, credit cards and business accounts.
Is Citizens Bank a good bank?
- Citizens Bank has many account options for customers and is consistently well-rated.

Caitlyn Moorhead contributed to the reporting for this article.

To discover the Top Banks, GOBankingRates looked at the top national institutions (excluding credit unions) with over $100 billion in total assets. To determine rankings, GOBankingRates looked at the following factors: (1) checking product minimum deposit; (2) monthly checking fee ratio (percentage based on the minimum to avoid the fee compared to the monthly fee itself); (3) savings product minimum deposit; (4) savings product APY; (5) Bauer rating (out of 5 stars); (6) products/services offered (auto loans, mortgage loans, credit cards, investment services and insurance); and (7) the average mobile app rating between the Android and Apple app stores. All factors were then scored and combined, with the lowest score being best. Factors (1) and (3) were weighted 0.5 times, factor (4) was weighted 2.5 times, and factor (6) was weighted 1.5 times.

Rates are subject to change; unless otherwise noted, rates are updated periodically. All other information on accounts is accurate as of December 2022.

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.