Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo runs 4,184 branches, second only to Chase and well ahead of Bank of America's 3,823 — on a deposit base of about $1.52 trillion, meaning it operates far more physical locations per dollar of deposits than any other large bank here. If your requirement is that there be a branch wherever you happen to be, this is the most likely bank in the catalog to satisfy it.

The apps back that up: 4.9 on the App Store and 4.8 on Google Play, the strongest pair of store ratings of any bank we track. It's a genuinely well-executed digital experience attached to a genuinely large physical one.

Way2Save Savings pays 0.01% APY. That is not a typo and it is not unusual for a large branch bank, but it is worth stating in dollars: on a $10,000 balance held for a year, 0.01% is about one dollar. The 4.10% account elsewhere in this catalog pays roughly four hundred on the same balance.

There is no version of this where keeping an emergency fund in Way2Save is the right call. The account also carries a $5 monthly fee, which on a small balance can outrun the interest by two orders of magnitude. If you bank with Wells Fargo, the savings should sit somewhere else — that's not a criticism of the bank so much as a recognition of what a branch network costs to run.

Everyday Checking carries a $15 monthly fee, matching Chase for the highest in this catalog, with a waiver for account holders aged 17 to 24 among other paths. Clear Access Banking is $5 and waived for ages 13 to 24 — a checkless account designed so it can't be overdrafted, which makes it a reasonable first account rather than a compromise.

Student Checking is the odd one: $5 a month, waived by a $1,500 minimum daily balance or ten debit card purchases in the statement period. The ten-purchase route is easy to hit and easy to forget, which is a fee structure that quietly relies on you forgetting.