Reports Reveal Banking Fees, Features, Consumer Sentiment and Generational Shifts
- Roy Urrico
- Jul 9, 2025
- 4 min read
By Roy Urrico
The current state of the banking industry is the subject of three reports:
The Miami-based personal-finance company WalletHub released the results of its Q2 Banking Landscape Report, which details the average fees, features, and rates associated with credit unions and banks; and its 2025 Banking Survey that gauges consumer sentiment.
Plano, Texas-based digital banking solutions provider Alkami Technology announced the release of a national research study conducted in partnership with researcher/speaker Jason Dorsey and the Center for Generational Kinetics (CGK). The report, titled Anticipatory Banking: Establishing Primacy Across Generations Through Digital Sales and Service, reveals significant generational shifts in how digital-banking Americans engage with financial institutions.
Banking Landscape
Information for this report was collected from financial institution websites and online fee schedules, which detail the average fees, features, and rates associated with more than 3,200 checking and savings accounts.
Highlights include:
Online-only personal savings accounts provide the market’s highest interest rates, offering 2.9 times higher returns than traditional checking accounts.
Credit unions offer 57 times higher interest rates on checking accounts than regional banks.
Checking accounts from credit unions are 75% less expensive than those from national banks.
“People looking to save on checking account fees should focus on offers from credit unions, which are an average of 44% cheaper than the next best option, checking accounts from small banks,” said the Banking Landscape Report.
“Bank accounts are still a lot more attractive than most people realize. You can easily find an online savings account with an APY above 3.5%, yet many consumers are still earning interest at a rate closer to the market average of 0.38%,” said John Kiernan, WalletHub editor. “It is no wonder that more than 3 in 5 people say the money in their bank account is not keeping up with inflation, according to a new WalletHub survey. Switching accounts might even motivate you to save more, as 79% of people say they would stash away more cash if their savings account paid them more. Now is the time for people to put their money where their mouths are in that regard, as headwinds from tariffs and Fed rate cuts are bound to gust harder.”
Banking Survey
This survey reveals the results of a nationally representative online survey of 200 respondents.
Findings include:
Seventy-one percent of Americans think tariffs will hurt their bank account balance.
Nearly 9 in 10 Americans believe that seeing all their accounts in one place helps them make better financial decisions.
More than 3 in 5 Americans think the money in their bank accounts is not keeping up with inflation.
Fifty-five percent of Americans say high interest rates are making them want to spend less money.
Nearly 2 in 5 Americans believe their bank is taking advantage of them.
Almost 80% of people think they would save more if their savings account had a higher interest rate.
“Bank accounts were pretty boring for about a decade as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at historic lows, but after a series of rate hikes (and only a few cuts), the banking landscape is interesting yet again. You can get APYs [annual percentage yields] over 5% from CDs and online savings accounts, for example, and even some checking accounts now yield 5%,” said Kiernan.
Generational Trends in Digital Banking
The Alkami study aims to help credit union and bank leaders navigate an increasingly dynamic financial services spectrum from traditional to digital, explained Allison Cerra, chief marketing officer at Alkami. By uncovering hidden generational behaviors, unmet needs, and emerging opportunities – identifying moments where the right digital experience, data-driven interaction, or artificial intelligence (AI)-powered engagements can move an institution from being reactive to anticipatory, she noted.
“This research confirms what we’ve long observed in the market: The winners in banking will be those who act now to close the relevance gap between what consumers expect and what they’re experiencing,” said Cerra. “Digital banking is no longer a service channel, it is the primary brand experience where across generations, consumers are demanding a more anticipatory, intuitive, and proactive interaction. Institutions that prioritize seamless onboarding, engagement, and AI-informed recommendations for growth, will earn not only primacy, but enduring trust across these segments.”
Highlights from the research findings include:
Digital is the gateway for primacy.
Eighty-four percent of digital banking users say the quality of the digital banking experience is a top factor in choosing a provider.
Half of digital banking Americans are willing to switch financial providers for a better digital experience; 31% already have.
The primary or most important provider is where a debit card or mobile/online banking is used.
A five-minute digital account opening experience is essential to acquisition.
Forty-one percent of all digital banking consumers would be more likely to change financial providers if another offered a 5-minute mobile or online account opening experience for deposit accounts. For younger generations, the figure is significantly higher (49%).
Thirty-seven percent of digital banking Americans expect to receive an inheritance in the next 10–20 years, highlighting a massive opportunity for financial institutions to guide intergenerational wealth transfers.
Relevancy gap is widening; consumers want an anticipatory banking experience.
Only 38% of regional and community financial institution account holders say their provider’s product recommendations became more relevant over the past year, significantly lower than those of neobanks (53%) and megabanks (45%).
Forty-six percent of digital banking Americans wish their primary financial provider did a better job at anticipating their financial needs and goals.
Forty-six percent of digital banking consumers are comfortable with their financial data being processed by AI if it improves their banking experience.
“This is one of the most actionable studies we’ve done in banking,” said Dorsey, president of The Center for Generational Kinetics and a leading generational researcher, of the Alkami report. “Each generation is redefining what financial partnership looks like, from Generation Z expecting immediacy and personalization, to baby boomers planning for retirement. This study gives financial institutions a roadmap to engage each generation on their terms, through the channels they trust most.”
The national study included a stringent methodology with 1,500 participants weighted to the 2020 US Census for age, gender, region, and ethnicity, with all participants active in digital banking.
