Say there’s a dessert buffet, one really awesome dessert buffet. There are cakes and cookies, ice cream craziness, and sugar-free “of course it tastes just like real desserts”-ness for you health freaks and diabetics. There’s something for everyone in this delicious banking buffet: credit unions with cream cheese icing, retail banks with caramelized bananas, online banks with chocolate fudge and cherries. (Give me a break. The office next to us has cupcakes, and they won’t share. *pout*)

ANYWAY, in this particular buffet, you want to find the dessert that fits you best. There’s the taste to consider (*cough* sugar-free), but there’s also things like cavities, stomachaches, and calories for those of you that watch that kind of thing. In this banking frenzy, you want to size up your banking morsel because what starts out being delicious could have a bitter after taste. Everyone has different tastes, so here’s a super general overview to get you jump started on fulfilling your banking cravings. The four basic categories for consumers are retail banks, credit unions, online banks, and businesses that are marketing partners with banks, which we’ll call the bankish other.