The Finest Banks in Colorado for 2023

Colorado has dozens of homegrown banks serving each nook of the state. It additionally hosts lots of of branches operated by regional and nationwide banks, together with most of the greatest banks in the USA.
So if you happen to’re searching for a brand new financial institution in Colorado, you’ve gotten loads of decisions.
Not that any Colorado financial institution will do, after all. We’ve made the duty a lot simpler by evaluating the highest banks within the state and narrowing down our checklist of the perfect. You possibly can’t go flawed with any of the establishments on this lineup — financial institution on it.
The Finest Banks in Colorado
These banks are one of the best FDIC-insured shopper and small-business monetary establishments with operations in Colorado. Many are based mostly in Colorado, and all have bodily branches someplace within the Centennial State.
Finest Total: U.S. Financial institution
- Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 90+
- Areas Served: Statewide
Sure, our decide for finest financial institution in Colorado shouldn’t be the truth is based mostly in Colorado. Nevertheless it would possibly as nicely be. With only a few exceptions, U.S. Financial institution has extra department and ATM areas than some other financial institution within the state.
Much more necessary in an unlimited state like Colorado is how complete its protection is. Whereas the vast majority of U.S. Financial institution branches cluster in Denver and the broader Entrance Vary area, the place most Coloradans reside, U.S. Financial institution has many outposts in additional sparsely populated mountain areas and within the agricultural Western Slope area centered on Grand Junction.
When it comes to services and products, U.S. Financial institution is second to none. Main promoting factors embrace:
Finest Financial institution in Denver: First Residents Financial institution
- Headquarters: Raleigh, North Carolina
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 6
- Areas Served: Higher Denver
First Residents Financial institution isn’t based mostly in Colorado both, and its presence within the state is definitely fairly small. However what presence it does have is laser-focused on Denver and its suburbs. And it {couples} a complete product and repair lineup (together with intensive wealth administration companies) with a popularity for high-quality service that additionally earned it a spot on our checklist of one of the best banks in California.
Put all of it collectively and it’s greater than sufficient to make First Residents our decide for finest financial institution in Denver.
First Residents’ Denver areas embrace:
- Denver correct (Cherry Creek neighborhood)
- Denver Know-how Middle (Greenwood Village)
- Westminster (one hundred and twentieth Ave)
- Englewood (Zenith Meridian Drive)
- Boulder (twenty eighth Road & Arapahoe)
Finest Financial institution in Colorado Springs: Financial institution of Colorado
- Headquarters: Fort Collins, Colorado
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 50+
- Areas Served: Statewide
Financial institution of Colorado lives as much as its title. Its geographical protection is second to none amongst homegrown Colorado banks, and although it’s headquartered in Fort Collins, it appears to have a mushy spot in its coronary heart for the Colorado Springs group and the tens of 1000’s of U.S. service members who name it house.
You will discover Financial institution of Colorado branches and ATMs in downtown Colorado Springs (N Tejon Road), at UC Well being Memorial Hospital, at Youngsters’s Hospital Colorado, close to the Colorado Springs Airport and Peterson House Drive Base (E Edison Avenue), and close to the U.S. Air Drive Academy (Interquest Parkway).
Like First Residents, Financial institution of Colorado affords full-spectrum deposit and lending service: checking, financial savings, cash markets, CDs, bank cards, actual property loans (together with development loans), auto loans, and extra. Which makes it very engaging for the numerous out-of-state transplants who relocate to Colorado Springs — typically in the midst of army service — and want complete in-state banking to make them really feel at house.
Finest Financial institution within the Entrance Vary: FirstBank
- Headquarters: Lakewood, Colorado
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 87
- Areas Served: Entrance Vary, northern mountain communities
FirstBank (typically stylized as 1stBank) has a dense community of branches and ATMs within the populous Entrance Vary area. From Denver to Boulder to Greeley to Fort Collins, you’re by no means quite a lot of miles from a FirstBank outpost. And if you happen to’re among the many many Entrance Rangers who escape to the mountains each time you may, FirstBank has wonderful protection in excessive nation communities like Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs, and Avon.
Past its complete protection, FirstBank stands out with spectacular yields on financial savings merchandise, particularly CDs. It additionally caters to actual property traders with a wide range of much less frequent actual property loans and hands-on service for 1031 exchanges, which might dramatically scale back or remove capital beneficial properties taxes on non-owner-occupied properties.
Finest Neighborhood Financial institution: Excessive Nation Financial institution
- Headquarters: Salida, Colorado
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 5
- Areas Served: Salida, Canon Metropolis, Buena Vista, Longmont
Excessive Nation Financial institution is the smallest Colorado financial institution on this checklist, however its product and repair lineup is spectacular nonetheless.
Excessive Nation Financial institution’s private banking division affords a number of free or low-cost checking and financial savings choices, taxable and IRA CDs, bank cards, and actual property loans — together with vacant land loans, that are in excessive demand in rural Colorado. Its enterprise banking division affords industrial checking and financial savings accounts, industrial gear loans, industrial actual property loans, and normal industrial traces of credit score.
However what actually units Excessive Nation aside is its involvement within the communities it serves. Most banks donate to charity; Excessive Nation actively entails every department in native organizations that make a distinction and encourages workers to get out and volunteer. Backside line: It’s straightforward to be ok with doing enterprise with Excessive Nation Financial institution.
Finest Small-Enterprise Financial institution: Alpine Financial institution
- Headquarters: Glenwood Springs, Colorado
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 39
- Areas Served: Statewide
Alpine Financial institution is one other rural-focused Colorado Financial institution that’s deeply concerned within the communities it serves and in tune with its clients’ wants (land loans are additionally a scorching ticket right here).
Alpine Financial institution has extra branches than Excessive Nation Financial institution, protecting huge swathes of the Rocky Mountains and Western Slope. It’s extra targeted on small-business purchasers as nicely, with an lively enterprise lending division that may accommodate:
- Normal small-business loans with customized reimbursement phrases — for working capital, gear, facility enhancements, stock, automobile fleets, and industry-specific wants (akin to medical gear)
- SBA loans
- Business property loans (buy, refinance, or development)
- Enterprise credit score traces as much as $50,000
- Enterprise bank cards with versatile rewards and worker card controls
So if you happen to run a Colorado-based enterprise, or one planning an enlargement into the Centennial State, make Alpine Financial institution your first name.
Finest for Know-how: Chase Financial institution
- Headquarters: New York, New York
- Variety of Branches in Colorado: 130
- Areas Served: Largely within the Entrance Vary with scattered areas within the northern mountains
Chase Financial institution isn’t based mostly in Colorado or anyplace close to it, but it surely does have over 100 branches throughout the state — greater than some other financial institution on this checklist. It additionally has one of the best technological footprint of any financial institution on this checklist (of nearly any financial institution, really), which suggests these branches are much less and fewer necessary for many clients’ on a regular basis banking wants.
It’s attainable due to the Chase Cell app, which permits super-fast cell verify deposit, person-to-person cash transfers (by way of Zelle), and card administration (together with on the spot card locking and unlocking). These capabilities pair with monetary planning and wellness instruments like:
- Finances Planner, a spend monitoring and planning characteristic
- Credit score Journey, which tracks your progress in direction of higher credit score and affords ideas alongside the way in which
- My Chase Plan, a bank card pay-over-time plan with a set month-to-month charge moderately than curiosity
Will you ever must set foot in a financial institution department once more if you happen to financial institution with Chase? By no means say by no means. However you received’t should drop by each week, that’s for positive.
Methodology: How We Choose the Finest Banks in Colorado
We contemplate six key components when selecting the right banks in a selected state. For Colorado, we pay specific consideration to expertise, geographical protection, entry, customer support and satisfaction, product availability, and charges.
Buyer Service and Satisfaction
Newsflash: You need to like your financial institution. Possibly not find it irresistible, however you actually shouldn’t dread strolling right into a department or calling customer support. So we give desire to banks with excessive buyer satisfaction rankings and sturdy customer support groups that function in department, on-line, and in native name facilities.
Know-how and Accessibility
Mountainous Colorado is known for harsh winter climate that renders complete swathes of the state inaccessible for days or even weeks at a time. Longtime Coloradans are used to the inconvenience, however that doesn’t imply they’ll keep away from interacting with their banks by way of the lengthy snow season.
That’s why we desire Colorado banks with sturdy cell and on-line banking interfaces. We imagine it is best to be capable to do absolutely anything bank-related on-line, and most of those establishments agree with us.
Product Lineup
Irrespective of the place they’re positioned, nice banks are typically complete. They don’t focus on one or two merchandise solely, however in all kinds of deposit accounts and mortgage varieties. Our checklist of one of the best banks in Colorado displays this.
Charges and Yields
Mortgage rates of interest and deposit account yields change on a regular basis, as anybody who follows the Federal Reserve’s rate of interest coverage is aware of. Nonetheless, banks are inclined to get right into a groove the place they’re both forward of the pack — providing low rates of interest and excessive financial savings yields — or behind.
We like banks that keep forward of the pack — no shock there. Our checklist displays this.
ATM Entry
Good banks have a number of their very own fee-free ATMs scattered throughout their commerce areas or belong to wider ATM networks with tens of 1000’s of machines throughout the USA. Typically, each. We compiled this checklist accordingly.
Areas Served
Colorado nonetheless has many small monetary establishments which have only some branches in a single space or one other. However all else being equal, broader protection is healthier. So with out completely writing off Colorado’s small group banks, we give desire to banks that function throughout wider geographies (even when restricted to Colorado).
Colorado Banking FAQs
When you nonetheless have questions concerning the banking {industry} in Colorado, now we have (some) solutions.
How Many Banks Are Based mostly in Colorado?
There are 66 FDIC-insured banks based mostly in Colorado, in keeping with our depend of the variety of banks in every U.S. state. That is about common for a state of Colorado’s measurement.
The variety of banks in Colorado was a lot increased. Like different states, significantly these with longstanding agricultural and extractive industries, Colorado’s banking {industry} has seen lots of consolidation because the Nineteen Eighties.
Most Colorado banks are headquartered within the Entrance Vary area, centered on Denver. Nevertheless, a lot of group banks stay anchored in smaller cities within the Japanese Plains, central mountains, and Western Slope areas.
What Is the Finest Financial institution for Financial savings in Colorado?
There’s no good reply to this query, sadly. Financial savings charges change on a regular basis, and whereas some Colorado banks all the time appear to have higher yields on financial savings and CDs than others, the exact order adjustments typically.
For constantly excessive yields in your financial savings, look to on-line banks that serve clients in Colorado, whether or not or not they’re really headquartered right here. As a result of they’ve decrease overhead bills than conventional brick-and-mortar banks, they have a tendency to pay higher rates of interest on financial savings accounts.
What Is the Finest Financial institution for Mortgages in Colorado?
Once more, there’s no clear winner right here. And once more, our probably unsatisfying reply goes to be: Look on-line. Direct mortgage lenders with out bodily department workplaces usually have one of the best mortgage charges, all else being equal.
There are exceptions to this rule, nevertheless. Many conventional banks (together with group banks) supply vital fee reductions and shutting value reductions for purchasers with preexisting relationships. These advantages are inclined to get extra beneficiant as the connection grows. Your financial institution can do much more for you when you have $500,000 with them than $500.
Likewise, nationwide mortgage lenders that do have department workplaces can nonetheless compete with on-line lenders. Whether or not they beat Colorado banks’ relationship affords is one other query.
What Is the Finest Financial institution for Free Checking in Colorado?
A lot of the banks on this checklist supply at the very least one free checking account. Failing that, they make it straightforward to waive checking charges by assembly a minimal steadiness or direct deposit requirement every assertion cycle.
So the reply to this query is “none, as a result of there are such a lot of that move the free checking take a look at.”
Find out how to Select a Financial institution in Colorado
Let’s put all of it collectively and overview what it is best to take into consideration as you select your new Colorado financial institution. In our opinion, the components you completely should contemplate embrace:
- Account and Service Charges: Until you like paying financial institution charges, search for Colorado banks that provide free deposit accounts and bank cards with out annual charges. If one of the best banks to your wants don’t have free checking accounts, give desire to these with checking accounts that make it straightforward to waive upkeep charges by assembly minimal steadiness or direct deposit necessities.
- Protection and Entry: By no means say by no means. Even if you happen to do most of your banking in your telephone and infrequently if ever use money, there may come a day when you could hit the ATM or communicate with a banker in individual. When that occurs, you’ll be grateful to have a close-by financial institution department or ATM.
- Private Service and Buyer Satisfaction: Parse banks’ acknowledged commitments to customer support very rigorously. Everybody pays lip service to the concept, however comparatively few Colorado banks really observe by way of. If that is necessary to you, select a financial institution that’s really beloved by its clients, whether or not it’s a small group financial institution or a regional financial institution with an enormous coronary heart.
- Deposit Account Choices: Why juggle a number of banking relationships when you may have one for all of your wants? Search for Colorado banks with intensive product lineups, from checking accounts to financial savings accounts to cash market accounts to CDs and past.
- Credit score Choices: You’ll virtually actually want to use for credit score in some unspecified time in the future in your life, whether or not it’s a bank card, automobile mortgage, or mortgage (or all the above). Make your life simpler when that point comes by selecting a financial institution with a pleasant credit score product lineup now and establishing a relationship that would earn you favorable charges or perks in your mortgage or credit score line.
- Know-how: Cell and on-line banking are not “good to haves” for many banking clients. They’re necessities, particularly if you happen to reside in far-flung mountain cities that get snowed in for weeks on finish. Select your financial institution accordingly.