As an increasing number of consumers become better educated about the banking services they need, and demand more from their local banks, these banks have been forced to offer better products to their customers. One very popular product has been the interest-bearing checking account. In contrast to the checking accounts of a generation ago – which paid no interest and may have even charged a fee for maintaining the account – many of today’s consumers insist that their checking account pay them interest. With so many banks offering different types of interest-bearing checking accounts, what’s the best way for you to...

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Banking fees may be looked at as a necessary evil. It’s no fun having to pay for access to your own money, but the bank is providing a service and deserves to make a profit. But lately, fees have been getting higher and higher, and they can take a big bite out of your savings and checking accounts. Nobody wants to pay out more than they have to in fees. If you’re not careful, you could lose hundreds of dollars to your financial institution in a year’s time. Here is some banking advice on five common fees that banks impose and...

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Even when spouses have decided to combine their finances upon marriage, it’s increasingly rare that each won’t have at least one account that’s solely in their own name. Unfortunately, spouses don’t always do a good job of keeping one another informed of their important individual information. While the death of one spouse is the most severe example of a situation where the other will need access to their banking information, it’s certainly not the only such case. A serious accident or illness could easily incapacitate your spouse to an extent that you’ll need to handle various financial transactions for the...

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Checking accounts are essential to managing our day-to-day personal finances. We deposit most or all of our paychecks into our checking accounts, and we use that account to pay our bills, manage our households and conduct practically every other financial transactions we make. Given how important checking accounts are, it’s a bit surprising that we don’t always do the right things when it comes to how we manage them. People make far too many mistakes when it comes to their checking accounts, and while the consequences of a single mistake might not be too serious, the total effect of multiple...

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When new laws were passed in 2011 to reduce the fees that banks could charge for certain debit card transactions, the hope was that the changes would be passed along and result in lower fees to consumers. Instead, many large banks have instituted new account fees in order to recoup their lost income. Keep in mind that your bank can change the terms of your checking account upon 30 days advance notice. So when you receive a letter from your bank, review it carefully to make sure that you won’t be subject to any unexpected new fees going forward. Here are...

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ATM cards are a convenient and popular way to access the funds in our bank and checking accounts. But using an ATM card is not without risk. Unfortunately, the practice of “ATM skimming” has become a problem in recent years. ATM skimming is when a thief installs a card reader inside the ATM card slot. This device will read the information on your ATM card’s magnetic stripe when you insert the card into the machine, so that the thieves can “clone” your card and use it to withdraw money from your account or make purchases at retail stores. Many times...

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Banking accounts, and especially checking accounts, are the backbone of most people’s finances. We usually deposit our paychecks into our checking accounts and then use that checking account to pay our bills, and to fund our savings and investment accounts. But like other modern financial accounts, particularly in the age of the Internet, our checking accounts are vulnerable to attack from thieves and vandals. If someone has your checking account number, plus some other personal information about you, then they might be able to access not only the funds in your checking account, but potentially the funds in your other...

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An important part of taking control of your financial health is recognizing the value of certain types of automatic payments and money transfers. For example, when you set up your checking account to automatically transfer a specific sum into your savings account each month, this “forced” savings habit keeps you progressing towards your goals. A foundation for these automatic transfers is direct deposit. With direct deposit, rather than receive a paper paycheck from your employer every pay period, your salary or wages are automatically transferred into whatever checking or savings accounts you specify. Setting up direct deposit is a straightforward...

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We’ve all read about the changes to the financial industry over the past few years. Perhaps we’ve even experienced some of these changes ourselves firsthand in the form of increased fees for common banking services, as well as new fees for common products. New and increased bank fees seem to be proliferating across just about every type of product. Even products that were commonly available for no charge just a few years ago are becoming harder to find these days without fees. Even the free checking account, which used to be a standard offering at nearly every bank, seems to...

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Recent controversies over new bank and debit card fees have many people wondering whether it’s time to move their accounts to a new bank. Many consumers have also begun to consider the possibility of joining a local credit union to conduct their banking business. Another option, and one which isn’t getting quite the same amount of press coverage, is to use an Internet only bank. Internet only banks are different from your local banks in that most do not have any physical locations whatsoever. Deposits are handled either through electronic transfer, or by sending deposits in via the mail. Withdrawals...

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