CIT Bank vs Citi Bank - Which is Better for You? (2021)
Both Citi Bank and CIT Bank are quite popular for banking, however when you compare them side by side one of them is significantly better than the other, having lower fees, better interfaces, and an overall better product.
We hope to give you the information you need to decide for yourself which is better for you — personally we have had accounts with both CIT Bank and Citi Bank as while we prefer CIT Bank we wanted to test them both out before making a comparison on them — we’ve since closed our Citi Bank account for reasons we’ll cover below.
Ultimately we’d say CIT Bank is a better choice, as they offer better interest rates on deposits, no fees or monthly minimums (while Citi Bank charges unless you keep large sums of cash in the account or receive deposits every month into the account) — not to mention CIT Bank also offer ATM reimbursements, which Citi Bank does not currently offer unless you hold $200,000+ in investments with them.
Which Offers the Best Services/Rates - CIT Bank or Citi Bank?
CIT Bank wins this category without a doubt — This is due to CIT Bank offering more products/services and having certain features, such as charging no foreign (or domestic) out-of-network ATM withdrawals, as well as offering $30 worth of ATM reimbursements of ATM fees the network operator or bank may charge you for using their ATM, both domestically and internationally.
As for rates, CIT Bank and Citi Bank generally offer identical rates, or within 0.1% of each other, however CIT Bank has no fees if you do not keep a minimum amount in the account or deposit sums every month — so with CIT Bank their savings is fee-free. Citi Bank on the other hand charges a fee of $4.50 every month you don’t meet the account minimum or deposit requirements, because of this we’d recommend CIT Bank rather than Citi Bank in this regard.
The only thing Citi Bank has over CIT Bank in this category is that they offer credit-cards, which CIT Bank simply does not offer — but in terms of account features CIT Bank wins out without a doubt; if you want a Citi credit card you don’t need a bank or savings account with them, so just get it by it’s self in our view.
Which has less fees - CIT Bank or Citi Bank?
CIT Bank wins this category without a doubt — Citi Bank has tons of fees, fees for simply not receiving enough money every month into the account ($5~/mo), or not holding enough money in the account, or slightly overspending your account, using atm’s not owned by Citi Bank, etc.
Meanwhile, CIT Bank has virtually no fees — You can withdraw from any ATM in the world and receive up to $30 of ATM reimbursements a month (generally around 7 withdrawals), and withdraw an unlimited amount of times from CIT Bank ATM’s and Partnered ATM’s (which aren’t too hard to find).
CIT Bank also has no account minimums and you get charged no monthly fee even if you only have $1 in the account and even if you receive no money into the account during the month — they also don’t penalize you for not depositing into your savings account every month like many banks do.
Which is more Trustworthy - CIT Bank or Citi Bank?
We’d say this is a draw — Both CIT Bank and Citi Bank have all the standard insurance all banks do, neither participates in particularly risky practices, although if you really want to pick a winner CIT Bank doesn’t deal in more ‘risky’ banking practices such as credit cards, while Citi Bank does, so theoretically CIT Bank is safer.
Neither CIT Bank or Citi Bank have any history of fraud, scandals, or shady business like certain other banks (Wells Fargo) have had in the past, so overall we’d say they’re both quite trustworthy and relatively safe to use for savings and banking.
What Advantages does CIT Bank have over Citi Bank?
Honestly CIT Bank has every advantage over Citi Bank when it comes to their Banking + Savings accounts — so really it’s more appropriate to talk about what disadvantages CIT bank has, and that’s simply not having any credit cards.
The advantages CIT Bank has over Citi Bank is nearly everything — CIT Bank has no account fees while Citi Bank charges fees just for having an account, they offer ATM rebates and no-fees (on their side) for using out-of-network ATM’s verses Citi Bank charging a fee and offering no ATM rebate for regular account holders, they have no downside when it comes to their eChecking + Savings account despite these benefits — they even offer the same (or sometimes better) interest on deposits.
What Advantages does Citi Bank have over CIT Bank?
The only real advantage Citi Bank has compared to CIT Bank is they have WAY more physical locations/branches if you prefer to bank in person, and they also offer a few other products such as personal credit cards, travel credit cards, and small business credit cards.
Beyond this though, in terms of their savings and checking accounts, there’s no benefit over simply using CIT Bank or another online bank such as Aspirations Bank, as they both offer better or identical interest rates on deposits while having much lower fees, not to mention rebates on fees other banks may charge you (such as the ATM fee reimbursements CIT Bank offers with their eChecking account).
CIT Bank & Citi Bank FAQ's:
Below we’ll answer the most popular questions we’ve been asked about the two platforms, or questions we personally had about them before we tried them both out ourselves — if you have any questions that aren’t answered below feel free to either email us or the companies their self to get those questions answered.
Is CIT Bank the same as Citi Bank?
No, CIT bank and Citi Bank are not at all the same — they’re completely separate companies with no affiliation to one another. Both are publicly traded and owned banks, so they have similar transparency and scrutiny, unlike some other private-banks that don’t face as much scrutiny from the market and regulators.
Who is CIT Bank owned by?
While pretty much everybody knows Citibank is a publicly traded company (Ticker: NYSE – $C) most people don’t know about smaller banks like CIT Bank — they’re part of a public holding company called the CIT Group (Ticker: NYSE – $CIT), you can read more about them here on Wikipedia, but in short they’re just a holding company that owns and operates various financial-service companies involved in banking and lending, as well as some other more minor physical business segments.
