Looking for one of the best banks in Colorado? The Centennial State has dozens of homegrown banks serving every corner. It also hosts hundreds of branches operated by regional and national banks, including many of the biggest banks in the United States.
So, if you’re looking for a new bank in Colorado, you have plenty of choices.
We’ve made the task much easier by evaluating the best banks in Colorado and narrowing down our list of the very best. You can’t go wrong with any of the institutions in this lineup — bank on it.
The Best Banks in Colorado
These banks are the best FDIC-insured consumer and small-business financial institutions with operations in Colorado.
Many are based in Colorado and they all have physical branches somewhere in the state.
1. U.S. Bank: Best Overall
- Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 90+
- Areas Served: Statewide
Yes, our pick for the best bank in Colorado is not based in Colorado, but it might as well be. With very few exceptions, U.S. Bank has more branch and ATM locations than any other bank in the state.
Even more important in a vast state like Colorado is its comprehensive coverage. While most U.S. Bank branches are in Denver and the broader Front Range region where most Coloradans live, U.S. Bank has many outposts in sparsely populated mountain areas and the agricultural Western Slope region centered on Grand Junction.
In terms of products and services, U.S. Bank is second to none. Major selling points include:
- Multiple banking packages (checking and savings account combinations) with easy-to-waive maintenance fees
- Solid bank account promotions for new customers, though these tend to come and go over time
- Very competitive mortgage and home equity loan rates
- An excellent lineup of small-business deposit accounts and loans
- Tons of credit cards, including some of the best cash-back credit cards, travel rewards credit cards, and small-business credit cards on the market
- Excellent technology anchored by a mobile app that can handle virtually all day-to-day money management activities, including person-to-person transfers
2. FirstBank: Best Bank in the Front Range
- Headquarters: Lakewood, Colorado
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 84
- Areas Served: Front Range, northern mountain communities
FirstBank (often stylized as 1stBank) has a dense network of branches and ATMs in the populous Front Range region. You’re never more than a few miles from a FirstBank outpost from Denver to Boulder to Greeley to Fort Collins. If you’re among the many Front Rangers who escape to the mountains whenever you can, FirstBank has excellent coverage in high-country communities like Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs, and Avon.
FirstBank stands out with impressive yields on savings products, especially CDs. It also caters to real estate investors with a variety of less common real estate loans and hands-on service for 1031 exchanges, which can dramatically reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes on non-owner-occupied properties.
3. Alpine Bank: Best Small-Business Bank
- Headquarters: Glenwood Springs, Colorado
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 39
- Areas Served: Statewide
Alpine Bank is another rural-focused Colorado Bank that is deeply involved in the communities it serves and in tune with its customers’ needs (land loans are also a hot ticket here).
Alpine Bank covers vast swathes of the Rocky Mountains and Western Slope. They focus on small-business clients, with an active business lending department that can accommodate:
- General small-business loans with custom repayment terms for working capital, equipment, facility improvements, inventory, vehicle fleets, and industry-specific needs (such as medical equipment)
- SBA loans
- Commercial property loans (purchase, refinance, or construction)
- Business credit lines up to $50,000
- Business credit cards with flexible rewards and employee card controls
If you run a Colorado-based business or are planning an expansion into the Centennial State, Alpine Bank should be your first call.
4. Chase Bank: Best for Technology
- Headquarters: New York, New York
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 122
- Areas Served: Mostly in the Front Range with scattered locations in the northern mountains
Chase Bank isn’t based in Colorado or anywhere near it, but it does have over 100 branches across the state—more than any other bank on this list. It also has the best technological footprint of any bank on this list (or just about any bank), which means those branches are becoming less important for most customers’ everyday banking needs.
The Chase Mobile app enables super-fast mobile check deposits, person-to-person money transfers through Zelle, and card management (including instant card locking and unlocking). Chase pairs those capabilities with financial planning and wellness tools like:
- Budget Planner, a spend tracking and planning feature
- Credit Journey, which tracks your progress toward better credit and offers tips along the way
- My Chase Plan, a credit card pay-over-time plan with a fixed monthly fee rather than interest
Will you ever need to set foot in a bank branch again if you bank with Chase? Never say never. But you won’t have to drop by every week, that’s for sure.
5. Ally: Best for Online Banking
- Headquarters: Sandy, Utah
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 0
- Areas Served: Statewide
Ally Bank is one of the top online banks. While you won’t find branches in Colorado or anywhere, for that matter, they offer just as many (if not more) services as many local banks. If you’re okay with banking online, you can earn some great APYs and pay much fewer fees than you’d bank at a traditional brick-and-mortar bank.
Don’t worry. You can still access your cash at their 43,000 Allpoint ATM network, and you won’t need any banking services. Ally Bank offers the following services:
- Checking and savings accounts with no fees and high APYs
- Money market accounts and CDs for greater savings opportunities
- Home loans to buy a house or refinance an existing one
- Personal and auto loans for all your borrowing needs
- Cashback credit cards to earn rewards for spending
- Self-directed investment options, including IRAs
6. Wells Fargo: Best for Waiving Monthly Fees
- Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 121
- Areas Served: Statewide
Wells Fargo is one of the country’s top three largest banks and offers a large selection of products, as you’d likely guess from such a large bank. While most of its accounts have fees, you can easily avoid them by meeting their minimum balance requirements.
While they’ve had legislative issues in the past, they offer some of the best bank promotions, making it a solid choice for anyone looking for a national bank with easy access to their funds. Like most national banks, you won’t find the highest APYs, but you’ll have easy access to your funds and a large selection of products.
You’ll find the typical banking products at Wells Fargo and only a few options when looking for checking or savings accounts, but their account minimums are low, and they offer other great benefits, including:
- Educational information and tools
- Auto loans for affordable financing
- Personal and home loans
- Various credit cards for many financing needs
7. Bank of America: Best for Budgeting Help
- Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 32
- Areas Served: Statewide
Bank of America is another one of the country’s largest banks. They have a smaller presence in Colorado, but anyone can access their online banking or mobile app. They have approximately 15,000 ATMs nationwide, and unlike most large banks, they’ve reduced their overdraft fee from $35 to $10. While spending more than you have isn’t a good idea, it can happen, and it’s nice to know you can save on the fees at Bank of America.
Another feature that sets Bank of America apart from the competition is its AI assistant, Erica. She helps you spend, save, and plan better. It’s like having a personal assistant at your side, helping you make good money decisions.
8. KeyBank: Best for Live Customer Service
- Headquarters: Cleveland, Ohio
- Number of Branches in Colorado: 57
- Areas Served: Statewide
KeyBank is a smaller bank in Colorado, but it has many branches to serve customers statewide. KeyBank has the typical bank products and low APYs that most large banks have, but what sets them apart is their 24/7 customer service—not just online chatbot help; it’s live customer service.
KeyBank has a network of 40,000+ ATMs as it uses the Allpoint network, and when you visit a branch in person, you’ll feel like you’re banking at a local community bank. Some of the perks KeyBank offers include:
- A handful of free accounts
- Lower-than-average overdraft fees
- Personal, small business, and institutional-sized banking products
Types of Banks in Colorado
When looking for the best banks in Colorado, you have many options. Before choosing a bank, decide what type of service you want and how much reach you want.
In Colorado, you’ll find the following types of banks:
- National: If you travel often and need banking services while doing so, a national bank is a better option. Look for a bank that operates nationwide and has ATM options so you can access your funds no matter where you go.
- Regional: Some banks operate in regions versus nationwide. These banks work well for customers who don’t travel far from home but need access outside their hometown.
- Community: Smaller community banks may offer a more personalized touch but still have a robust selection of products. These banks usually have only a few local branches but may work with larger ATM networks to give you fee-free access to your funds.
- Online: Banking online is a great way to save money on fees and earn higher APYs. Online banks don’t have the same overhead as brick-and-mortar banks, so they can offer customers better rates and lower fees. Just pay close attention to the bank’s ATM network to ensure you can easily access your funds when needed.
Methodology
When selecting the best banks in a particular state, we consider six key factors. For Colorado, we paid particular attention to technology, geographical coverage, access, customer service and satisfaction, product availability, and rates.
Customer Service & Satisfaction
Newsflash: You should like your bank. Maybe not love it, but you shouldn’t dread walking into a branch or calling customer service. We chose banks with high customer satisfaction ratings and customer service teams operating in-branch, online, and local call centers.
Technology & Accessibility
Mountainous Colorado is famous for harsh winter weather that renders entire swathes of the state inaccessible for days or weeks at a time. Longtime Coloradans are used to the inconvenience, but most still need to interact with their banks through the long snow season.
That’s why we prefer Colorado banks with comprehensive mobile and online banking interfaces. We believe you should be able to do just about anything bank-related online, and most of these institutions agree with us.
Product Lineup
No matter where they’re located, great banks are comprehensive. They don’t specialize in one or two products only but in a wide variety of deposit accounts and loan types. Our list of the best banks in Colorado reflects this.
Rates & Yields
Loan interest rates and deposit account yields change all the time, as anyone who follows the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy knows. Still, banks tend to get into a groove where they’re either ahead of the pack — offering low interest rates and high savings yields — or behind.
We like banks that stay ahead of the pack; our list reflects this.
ATM Access
Good banks have plenty of fee-free ATMs scattered across their trade areas or belong to wider ATM networks with tens of thousands of machines across the United States — generally, both. We compiled this list accordingly.
Areas Served
Colorado still has many small financial institutions with only a few branches in one area or another. But all else being equal, broader coverage is better. So, without totally writing off Colorado’s small community banks, we favored banks that operate across wide geographies (even if they are limited to Colorado).
FAQs
If you still have questions about the banking industry in Colorado, we have some answers.
How Many Banks Are Based in Colorado?
According to our count of the number of banks in each U.S. state, Colorado has 72 FDIC-insured banks, which is about average for a state of Colorado’s size.
The number of banks in Colorado used to be much higher. Like other states — particularly those with longstanding agricultural and extractive industries — Colorado’s banking industry has consolidated significantly since the 1980s.
Most Colorado banks are headquartered in the Front Range region, centered around Denver. However, several community banks remain anchored in smaller towns in the Eastern Plains, central mountains, and Western Slope regions.
What Is the Best Bank for Savings in Colorado?
There’s no one answer to this question. Savings rates change constantly, and while some Colorado banks always seem to have better yields on savings and CDs than others, the precise order changes often.
For consistently high yields on your savings, look to online banks that serve customers in Colorado, whether or not they’re headquartered there. They tend to pay better interest rates on savings accounts because they have lower overhead expenses than traditional brick-and-mortar banks.
What Is the Best Bank for Mortgages in Colorado?
Again, there’s no clear winner here. So, again, our answer is to look online. Direct mortgage lenders without physical branch offices typically have the best mortgage rates, all else being equal.
There are exceptions to this rule, however. Many traditional banks (including community banks) offer significant rate and closing cost discounts for customers with preexisting relationships. These benefits tend to get more generous as the relationship grows. Your bank can do a lot more for you if you have $500,000 with them than $500.
Likewise, national mortgage lenders with branch offices can still compete with online lenders. Whether they beat Colorado banks’ relationship offers is another question.
What Is the Best Bank for Free Checking in Colorado?
Most banks on this list offer at least one free checking account. If not, they make it easy to waive checking fees by meeting a minimum balance or direct deposit requirement each statement cycle.
What is the Best Bank in Colorado for Customer Service?
FirstBank won the J.D. Power Customer Service award in the Southwest region for the fourth year in a row.
What Banks Have the Most Branches in Colorado?
Chase and Wells Fargo have some of the largest number of branches in Colorado. US Bank and FirstBank follow closely behind, with the remaining banks having 50 or fewer branches in CO.
How to Choose a Bank in Colorado
Let’s put it all together and review what you should think about as you choose your new Colorado bank.
- Account and Service Fees. Unless you love paying bank fees, look for Colorado banks that offer free deposit accounts and credit cards without annual fees. If the best banks for your needs don’t have free checking accounts, give preference to those with checking accounts that make it easy to waive maintenance fees by meeting minimum balance or direct deposit requirements.
- Coverage and Access. Even if you do most of your banking on your phone and rarely (if ever) use cash, there could come a day when you need to use the ATM or speak with a banker in person. When that happens, you’ll be grateful to have a nearby bank branch or ATM.
- Personal Service and Customer Satisfaction. Every bank says they’re committed to customer service, but relatively few Colorado banks follow through. If this is important to you, choose a bank that its customers truly love, whether it’s a small community bank or a regional bank with a big heart.
- Deposit Account Options. Why juggle multiple banking relationships when you can have one for all your needs? Look for Colorado banks with extensive product lineups, from checking and savings accounts to money market accounts and CDs.
- Credit Options. You’ll almost certainly need to apply for credit at some point in your life, whether it’s a credit card, car loan, or mortgage (or all of the above). Make your life easier when that time comes by choosing a bank with a good credit product lineup and establishing a relationship that could earn you favorable rates or perks on a loan or credit line.
- Technology. Mobile and online banking are no longer “nice to haves” for most banking customers. They’re essential, especially if you live in far-flung mountain towns that get snowed in for weeks. Choose your bank accordingly.
