You may have met someone who says they dont trust banks and shoves their money under a mattress.
You write them off and go on using your debit cards and checking accounts.
Then somethinglike Wells Fargo happensand suddenly, mattressing your money doesnt seem like such a bad idea.
Despite our fears, banks serve us pretty well for the most part.
Our money is there when we need to pay rent.
We can transfer our cash whenever we want.
The system works well for day-to-day transactions, but that doesnt mean banks are entirely trustworthy.
Its never been easy to trust a bank, but these days it seems impossible.
So how do you pick one thats actually trustworthy?
Here are a few options.
Credit unions are insured, too, but not by the FDIC.
Instead, deposits are insured by theNational Credit Union Administration(NCUA).
Big banks are typically FDIC-insured, but you cancheck a banks status hereand a credit unionsNCUA status here.
check that your bank offers online security and fraud protection, too.
Your bank shoulduse two-factor authentication, which makes you go through an extra step to verify your identity.
They should also encrypt your transactions, meaning they code your info to prevent hackers from accessing it.
Some banks offer 256-bit encryption but at the very least they should offer 128-bit encryption.
A good bank also has some kind of fraud protection.
Most standard banks are pretty good about incorporating these three basic protections.
These arent bonus features, thoughtheyre amustfor any bank account.
Research the Banks Reputation
The FDIC actually offers quite a bit of detail about your bank.
If not completely voyeuristic, this information is useful if you know what youre looking for.
In general, though, you just want to know what other customers have to say about a bank.
Thats where theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB) comes in.
(Theyre also the entity responsible forfining Wells Fargo $100 million).
choose the Company tab to sort accordingly, then scroll down and find your specific bank.
The tool will show you complaints lodged against that bank over the years.
They also keep track of consumer narratives.
Sometimesnews outlets and other organizationswill rank banks and credit unions, too, according to customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction doesnt guarantee a banks trustworthiness, but it doesnt hurt to be informed.
Wells Fargo is, after all, a big company thats in it to make profit.
Like any other company, they have sales goals.
Unlike a bank, acredit union is a not for-profit.
Credit unions dont have customers; they have members.
Generally, most credit union members only have awesome things to say about them.
you’re free to hardly say the same for bank customers.
Credit unions also typically have better interest rates and fewer fees.
The good news is many of theseannoyances are easy to work around.
All it takes isone bad executiveto screw over a bunch of people.
Over at Quora, one Certified Financial Planner suggests a simple solution: diversify.
The problem is, there just arent any truly, 100 % safe places to save wealth.
The CFPB will add your complaint to their database and work to find similar problems with your financial institution.
If they find a pattern of complaints, they might investigate further.
However, the good news is there are resources available designed to give consumers a little more power.
If nothing else, this might be a good reminder toswitch to a better bankor a credit union.
