Checking Accounts

When it comes to choosing a checking account, there are dozen upon dozen of differing types of checking accounts to choose from. There is your basic checking account offering a minimal number of features. These accounts usually require minimum balances to open the accounts, and sometimes this balance must be maintained to avoid monthly service fees. You will be granted check writing privileges on the account, usually with a limit on the number of checks that you can write monthly. These are good accounts for students or people that just do not have the need to write a lot of paper checks. From there you find several levels of your basic checking, offering different minimum balances or the ability to write more checks per month. These accounts will begin to introduce more and more services as the minimum amounts you expect to keep in them, or the service fees they will charge for them increase. Features are available such as Debit Cards and Credit Cards and there will be no limits on check writing or transactions done within bank branches.

There are other convenience items like online banking and online bill pay services are all added to the list of perks as the amount of money you intend to keep in their institution increases. With online banking, your checking account can work electronically. With online bill pay, you simply enter the payee information into the computer and your bank account will generate a send out the check for you. You will never have to lick another stamp again to pay a bill. There are even online banking account services that will allow you to schedule payments that you make on a regular basis every month so that your checking account will automatically make the payments for you, provided that there are available funds in your account. This service can all but eliminate those extraordinarily high late fees. In many cases, depending on the bank you use, they will notify you via email or even by text message to your cellular phone of the upcoming payment so that you will have the opportunity to ensure the funds are available at the time the payment is due. One thing to be sure that you check out when you intend to utilize the online bill pay feature is what the particular bank you are dealing with considers the “payment date” of the payments they send out for you. Some banks consider the payment date that you request they bill to be paid as the day the payment will reach the intended payee. If you have the choice and will be using a lot of the online bill pay, this is what you want. There are other banks that consider they payment date that you enter the day that they will actually mail out the check. This is especially important because if you do not understand this part, you may end up paying late fees even though you set up electronic payments, because the payment itself although the money has been taken out of your account, has not yet reached the intended payee and your payment will be considered late by the company you are sending it to. Many banks offer free checking these days, but as with the savings accounts, do your research about the hidden fees. Some banks charge you a fee if you have your checking and savings accounts linked and money must be moved from one of your accounts to cover a payment. Features like online banking and online bill pay are also perks that some financial institutions will charge you extra for. And make sure that you are aware of the fees for insufficient funds as these can range anywhere from $25.00 to $35.00 per transaction. Also find out how they calculate these fees, some banks will pay the highest amount check first, so if you have miscalculated your balance and have 4 checks outstanding, one for $500.00, and three for ten dollars each, you will have one check paid and be charged overdraft fees for the remaining three checks, so those $30.00 worth of checks will cost an additional $75.00 to $105.00 in fees, rather than paying the three and only charging the on NSF fee. The most infamous of bank fees, however, are the fees associated with using your debit card. Most banks charge a fee when you use another bank’s automatic teller machine to withdraw funds from their bank.

The most expensive thing you really need to look out for with these particular charges is that many times the bank machine that you are using will charge you a fee on top of the fee that your own bank is going to charge you. Sometimes that twenty dollar withdrawal ends up having cost you $6.00 to $10.00 in fees just because of the ATM you used. Again, as I mentioned with the savings accounts, you can shop around and find many institutions that will not charge these additional fees. Sometimes merely signing up for a direct deposit can waive any account fees that you would have incurred without it. And if you are one to use your debit card a lot to withdraw cash, you can shop around for banks that do not charge these fees, or just find yourself a bank with a lot of branches everywhere you normally go. When you have both a checking account and savings account, there are several bank accounts that now offer you ways to assist you in saving your money. There are a few programs that will make a deposit into your savings account each time you use your debit or credit card and play Online Games. Sometimes the amount it set such as one dollar per transaction, or in other programs, your purchase will be rounded up to the next even dollar amount and the difference will go into your savings. Either way, there are numerous ways that your banks accounts themselves can help you save money. Finally, if you have less than perfect credit, there are several second chance bank branches available to you. They may require deposits to begin with and they may charge you fees for some services that other bank accounts will not, but they will offer you an invaluable opportunity to rebuild your banking credibility by allowing you to open a checking account when most other traditional banks would turn you down. If you can take advantage of this and keep you account in good standing for a determined period of time, it may be possible for you to then take advantage of some of the additional bank accounts out there with more available programs.