Valley National Bank: Regional Bank with an Excellent Range of Banking Options

GOBankingRates Score

4.7

SCORE

GOBankingRates Best Banks 2023 scores and rankings are objectively determined by our research/editorial team. Our scoring formula weighs several factors that differ from category to category depending on what consumers want from varying products and banks.

Quick Take: Valley National Bank is best for customers in its service area who want a wide range of products and multiple checking account options.

• Checking Accounts
  5.0
• Savings Accounts
  4.4
• Certificates of Deposit
  5.0
• Banking Experience
  4.4

How did we calculate this?

Valley National Bank Overview

Valley National Bank traces its history 1927 when it was founded as the Passaic Park Trust Company.  Since then it has gone through several name changes, finally settling on Valley National Bank in 1976. A steady stream of acquisitions have helped it grow into a regional banking force with about $56 billion in assets and more than 200 branches spread between New York, New Jersey, Florida and Alabama. Valley National offers a wide variety of account options, including online options for people outside its service areas. This helped it earn a place in GOBankingRates’ list of Best Regional Banks of 2023.

Key Features

These are some of the features customers can opt for with Valley National Bank.

Checking Accounts

Valley National Bank offers seven checking accounts, and four of these accounts can be opened online .

All Access Rewards is a basic account that has no minimum balance requirement and has a $100 minimum opening deposit. Valley National will pay $20 a month to All Access Rewards account holders if they link to a qualifying direct deposit.

Valley National Bank offers three accounts targeted to specific age groups. The Valley Teen Checking and Valley My Choice Checking accounts are available for teens and have a $25 minimum opening deposit. Valley Teen Checking for teens between 13 and 16 must be linked to a parent or guardian’s checking account to avoid the monthly service fee. Teens and young adults between the ages of 17 and 25 can open a Valley My Choice Checking and earn rewards worth up to $150. Milestone Checking, intended for adults 55 and older has no balance requirements or monthly service fee. Customers can open an account with a minimum $100 deposit.

Valley National mortgage customers can open a My Loyalty Checking account, which comes with a monthly rebate for ATM fees. There is no fee for this account as long as the customer has a mortgage account and receives qualifying direct deposits each month.

There is also an interest-bearing account, called Interest Checking Plus, that has a $100 minimum opening deposit and comes with a APY. The $15 monthly fee is waived with an average daily collected balance of at least $1,000.

Savings Accounts

Valley National Bank offers one main savings account, the Valley All Access Savings account. It also offers a Valley Kids First Savings Club account and a Valley My Health Savings account. All Access Savings has no monthly service fee if you maintain a minimum balance of $300 and can be opened with a minimum deposit of $100. The Kids First Savings Club account has no monthly service charge, and the bank matches the opening deposit up to $20. Interest is compounded daily and credited quarterly.

Interest rates for savings accounts start at APY, which is rather on the low side. The Kids First Savings Club account is slightly better at a APY.

Certificates of Deposit

Valley National Bank’s certificates of deposit come in a limited number of terms, ranging from 91 days to five years. The APYs for 91-day, nine months and 18 months are between 0.02% and 0.05%; for example, a 12-month CD offers but the bank offers higher rates for other CD terms. Customers also have the ability to open a CD online with a deposit up to $500,000. However, they must visit a branch to open a CD for a term longer than three years.

Banking Experience

Valley National Bank customers can visit one of more than 200 physical branches in Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, and New York. They also have access to their accounts through the website or mobile app, where they can check balances, deposit checks, pay bills, transfer funds and more. The app has a rating of 4.4 on Google Play and 4.8 in the App Store. Valley Bank’s website also include a robust customer self-service center with videos and articles that answer frequently asked questions.

Comparable Regional Options

Find out how Valley National Bank’s offerings compare to similar regional banks.

Ameris Bank

Ameris Bank operates in seven states, including Alabama and Florida. It offers three types of checking accounts and a standard checking account as well as savings accounts for minors, health savings and education savings. The Free Checking account is completely free and does not earn interest, but customers can avoid the monthly service charge on most accounts by maintaining a nominal minimum balance. Customers can check with their local branches if they want to see rates.

First Financial Bank

First Financial Bank offers six checking accounts and three savings accounts. One checking account has no monthly service charge, but others can be avoided by meeting minimum balance requirements. The bank advertises CD specials with higher APYs than what you’d find in traditional savings, though interested customers should reach out to the bank for more further information on rates.

Final Take

Valley National Bank’s main strength lies in its diversity of banking products — no matter what financial goal you have, you should be able to find a Valley product that will help you make it happen. The main drawbacks are low yields on most accounts. It’s best for someone who lives near a Valley branch and finds its many products appealing.

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John Csiszar and Vance Cariaga contributed to the reporting for this article.

Rates are subject to change; unless otherwise noted, rates are updated periodically. All other information on accounts is accurate as of Dec. 29, 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.

To discover the Best Regional Banks, GOBankingRates looked at the top regional institutions (excluding credit unions, online banks and neobanks) with under $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.

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