Banks With Free Checking
Finding banks with free checking
In the past several years, it's become increasingly difficult to find banks that offer free checking accounts.
For the most part, the major national banks no longer offer a strictly free checking account for their customers. However, that doesn't mean that you can't find a way to avoid monthly bank maintenance fees.
How can you get free checking at your bank?
Banks with free checking...and a catch
Many banks will let you skip a monthly fee between $5 and $15 if you are willing to do one of the following:
- Maintain a minimum balance: if you have enough money in your account, some banks will skip the fee. This amount varies at different banks. In certain instances, a bank will include other accounts in this calculation (such as mortgage accounts).
- Use your debit card frequently: for those who use their debit cards daily, there are usually banks that will remove the monthly fee if you hit a magic number of transactions.
- Set up direct deposit with your employer
Look for smaller national or regional banks
There are still some banks with free checking in smaller markets and with smaller market shares. These deals are constantly changing, but there are several sites that specialize in staying up to date on which banks are currently offering free checking accounts. Here are some of the best:
- Free Checking Accounts at pfstuff.com: this no frills site does a fantastic job of keeping you up to date on banks with free checking. Another page has even more targeted offers for local free checking.
- PT Money Free Online Checking Accounts: if you're interested in skirting fees by going strictly digital, PT Money has some great options available to you.
