There are a lot of healthy financial habits that ensure you a comfortable life after the retirement. Also, it is very important to have a financial strategy in place. However, we are not here to talk about the long and boring financial strategies. Rather we would focus on finding the best banking options for seniors who can benefit from amazing plans that suit their needs.
Every person who is eligible and can meet the criteria of the banks can open an account in a bank. They have their own rules and regulations. Today many banks provide the services for elderly and senior people.
Today the main concern of the people is, the security what banks provide. With the advancement in technology, however, saving and transferring money made easy but yet there is a threat of theft of money. Seniors are not niche in the banking market but they are the banking market. That is why many banks provide and promote some premium products for the seniors. Banks solely promotes some products and services for the seniors according to their needs.
First of wall you have to decide what you really want and what are your needs and what you really do with your money? Do you need a visit to the bank or you write a lot of checks or you receive cash every month? According to recent surveys many senior people like conventional banking system, they like the comfort of their check books. They want their money in their hands. They don’t want to rely on computer systems.
Most of the seniors are not familiar with the new and smart technology or we can say that they are not tech savvy. As we know that banking system is now digitized so we don’t have to wait in queues, we can pay bills with a light weight computers or with mobile phones these days. It’s been seen that many seniors according to a recent survey prefer services with no external fees and ATM charges.
For typical seniors as they prefer, in case of emergency to visit the banks and to access the checks. They prefer low amount which they have to pay for maintenance fee. The action plan for an account should be like, you have to look for an offering of 60 plus and compare it to other offerings. For eligibility criteria some banks have set the limit from 60 and above but some are offering 55 and plus. In senior account you will have to look for free checks while the conventional system charges a fee for them. It also comes with free money orders and official bank checks. But sometimes the other accounts provide better services than senior accounts.
Just because it is marked as a senior account and some of the banks are ideal for this, doesn’t mean that they are better than the other accounts. Sometimes if a bank is charging you $10 for a service it can be $5 for other accounts.
Best Banks for Seniors
These banks for senior accounts offer the best services which are easily accessible and carry low maintenance fees as well. They provide best checking accounts with extra benefits for the customers which are in their retirement.
Following are the banks which are rated according to a research which includes their services which they provide for senior banking, number of branches which are easily accessible, annual interest rates which will be applied and minimum requirements to open an account. Other services with extra benefits like 24/7 customer care and service.
Citizens Bank Platinum Checking[i]
It is a high-end account that not only provides total security and a series of great services but also waives off the $25 monthly fee if you meet the minimum threshold. The minimum threshold in this case is $25,000. Wait here! This balance might look like a big figure to some at the first glance but it could be the accumulated sum of all your Citizens bank accounts across all the branches. The series of great services include free financial advice, free money orders and a lot more. This is a top option to look for if you are a retiree or looking to open a senior account.
BBVA Compass ClearChoice Checking Account for Seniors[ii]
The interest rate charged by them is literally 0.00%. Sounds cool doesn’t it? Also, $25 is the minimum amount required as the opening deposit and you will be all set to go. It looks like ClearChoice Checking Account has banking for seniors in mind as their first priority. They also offer an option to add infinite cashier’s checks and charge only $2 per statement cycle. One of many amazing features they offer is that there is only $4 monthly fee, that is like one of the lowest, if not the lowest. There are 2 requirements for this: you must have made a minimum deposit of at least $300 and maintain a minimum balance of $1,500.
M&T Bank Classic Checking With Interest[iii]
They pay awesome interest rates to those who are over the age of 50. The monthly fee is only $4.95 and you can still avoid it by keeping a minimum balance of only $500. However, you have to make at least one direct debit or ten transactions on your bank issued debit card and maintain a minimum balance of over $1,500.
U.S Bank
They open an account for $25 for premium checking. The seniors with the age of 65 and above can enjoy the services like no ATM fee, free money orders, free cashier’s check, free online and mobile banking 24/7 and customer care services. They provide an e-statement with monthly charges of $10.95 but if you are a senior of 65 or plus you can easily avoid it. In this case you have to maintain an amount of $5000 monthly. They have 3000 plus branches across 25 states of America. Their interest rate is 0.01% which is nothing as compare to their services.
[i] https://www.citizensbank.com/checking/platinum-checking-account.aspx
[ii] https://www.bbvacompass.com/disclosure/clearchoice-seniors/california.html
[iii] https://www.mtb.com/banking/checking/checking-accounts