America's Most Complained-About Banks, Ranked
We took nearly 3 million CFPB banking complaints, normalised them per 1,000 estimated customers across 4,977 US institutions, and ranked the results. The findings reveal a financial system where complaint rates vary by a factor of 22× between the worst and best performers.
The headline finding
Synchrony Financial generates 6.80 complaints per 1,000 customers — 22× worse than Goldman Sachs (0.30/1k). Most consumers who hold Synchrony-issued cards don't know Synchrony is their bank.
The worst performers
Is your bank on the high-risk list?
Switching banks takes about 2 hours of active effort spread across 10 days. Federal data shows which banks have significantly lower complaint rates.
The Synchrony story — 22× worse than Goldman
Synchrony Financial is not a household name — but it is likely the issuer behind cards millions of Americans use every day. The Amazon Store Card. The Amazon Prime Store Card. PayPal Credit. CareCredit. The Lowe's Advantage Card. The Google Store Card. All of these are Synchrony Bank products.
When something goes wrong with any of these cards — a billing error, a fraudulent charge, a dispute — you are dealing with Synchrony Financial, not Amazon or PayPal. And federal data shows that Synchrony resolves a smaller proportion of complaints than almost any other major institution.
At 6.80 complaints per 1,000 customers, Synchrony's complaint rate is not a rounding error above the industry average — it is 22 times higher than the best-performing major bank. The most common complaint categories involve incorrect information on credit reports, suggesting systemic issues with how the institution handles credit data.
The best performers
Goldman Sachs Bank USA (0.30/1k) and Discover Bank (0.31/1k) consistently top the low-complaint rankings. Both operate direct banking models without the complexity of large retail branch networks or store card partnerships. JPMorgan Chase (0.62/1k) is the standout among the mega-banks — by far the best performer among institutions of comparable size.
What this means for consumers
Most people choose a bank based on branch locations, app ratings, or introductory offers. Federal complaint data offers a different signal — one based on what happens when things go wrong, not when they're going right.
A 22× gap between the worst and best performers is not noise. It reflects fundamental differences in how institutions handle disputes, errors, and customer problems. Switching banks takes 2 hours of active effort across 10 days — for most people, a meaningful reduction in complaint rate is worth that.
See the full rankings
All 4,977 institutions. Filter by category, check enforcement history, compare any two banks.