Citi

Citi holds about $1.91 trillion in assets and $1.55 trillion in deposits — third-largest in this catalog — through just 955 branches. For scale, Wells Fargo runs 4,184 branches on a smaller deposit base. That isn't an accident or a retreat: Citi's consumer network is concentrated in a handful of major metro areas, and the bank leans on its app for everything else.

The app it leans on is good. At 4.88 on the App Store it's the highest-rated iOS banking app in this catalog. If you were choosing purely on the quality of the thing you'll open five times a week, Citi wins.

The catch is geography. A 958-branch network means that outside its core cities, Citi is functionally an online bank — but one whose deposit rates are priced like a branch bank's. That's the worst combination of the two models, and it's worth checking a branch locator before anything else on this page matters.

Citi Checking charges $12 a month, waived by a combined average balance of roughly $1,500 across linked Citi accounts or by qualifying direct deposit. Citi Savings charges $4.50, waived by linking a Citi checking account, a $500 average balance, or a relationship tier.

The pattern is deliberate: both waivers reward holding more than one Citi product. If you keep checking and savings here, each account helps the other clear its fee. If you only want one, you're paying full price for a service that several banks in this catalog provide free with no conditions.

One honest caveat about the checking waiver specifically: the balance figure varies between the sources we checked and we haven't been able to reconcile it against Citi's own current disclosure. The page shows it flagged rather than tidied up, and it's a number to confirm with Citi directly before you rely on it.