How to Check a Bank Rating
- 1). Open your browser and go to Bankrate.com. This website offers a wealth of comprehensive information and charges you nothing to use its database of official bank and credit union ratings. As of January 2010, it does feature some advertising, but it is fairly minimal and clearly labeled as such.
- 2). Click the "Bank Ratings" link. This will take you to a form allowing you to search by your preferred type of institution (bank/thrift or credit union), an institution's name, your preferred star rating, or the institution's asset size.
- 3). Input your search terms and click "See Results." This will bring up a display that lists either several institutions featuring your search term or an abbreviated data display on your chosen bank. What is displayed will depend largely on your search terms. Common words in bank names such as "First National" will be more likely to yield longer lists of results.
- 4). Examine the information. Different areas of interest will likely leap out at you. Take notes on anything of interest. If your intent is to compare several institutions, you may wish to assemble a spreadsheet to gather and analyze the data of all institutions in which you are interested.
