How do I find out a bank rating?

Okay, so you want to know how to check a bank's rating, huh? It's actually pretty easy, and honestly, something I think we should all be doing. You wouldn't just trust any random mechanic with your car, right? Same goes for your money!

The first thing I'd recommend is checking out their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating. It basically tells you how well a bank is serving the needs of its community, especially low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Think of it as a "good neighbor" report card for banks!

Now, where do you FIND this magical report card? Well, you can head over to the FFIEC Interagency CRA Rating Search. Sounds kinda official and complicated, I know, but trust me, it's pretty straightforward. That site will give you the most recent ratings for banks that are supervised by the big guys – the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the OCC. Basically, all the major players are covered.

I remember once, years ago, I was considering switching banks and totally spaced on checking their CRA rating. HUGE mistake! Later I found out they had a pretty lackluster rating, and I felt awful that I almost supported a bank that wasn't really giving back to the community. Lesson learned! Now, it's always my first step. So, yeah, definitely check it out. It’s quick and you will definitely feel better.