Bankers introduce checking accounts to help their customers for everyday transactions. If we have a checking account we can access and manage our funds by using cheques, debit cards transact over the counter at our branch or do it online. A checking account gives us experiences being safety in paying bills, making deposits or payments, transferring funds and get bonus reword offer up to $500.
We can say our first checking account is the entering point in financial institutions. Having own checking account can give new access to other financial entities. Now, let’s discuss the characteristics of checking Accounts and how to get $500 bonus offer.
Let’s get started.
What is a Checking Account?
Checking accounts are a type of deposit account it’s a bank account used for everyday deposits and withdrawals—available at traditional brick-and-mortar banks, online banks and credit unions.
A checking account allows you to deposit and withdraw money at your convenience, providing easy access to your cash at any time. Enables you easy access to pay bills, make purchases and otherwise manage your daily financial transactions from anywhere around the globe.
How Does A Checking Accounts Work?
Checking accounts allow you to deposit money and withdraw at your disposal and convenience. A few ways you can typically deposit cash into your account:
- Direct deposit
- Mobile deposit
- ATM deposit
- At your local bank or credit union branch
Nowadays, there are numerous ways to withdraw cash from the account, including:
- ATM card
- Debit card
- ACH transfer
- Wire transfer, unlike yester years where we used self-drawn checks to enable to with draw money from our account.
Opening a Bank Account : New to banking. Opening new checking and savings accounts. How much you can save depends on which account you open and the bonus requirements.
Features of Checking Accounts
- Convenience (provides ATM, Debit Card, Bills, online banking)
- Safety and Protection of the money.
- Spending and Withdrawals limits
- Earns interest
- FDIC insurance coverage
- Monthly fees
List Of The Banks To Consider Looking At First
- Citi
- Bank of America
- Chase
- PNC
- Wells Fargo
- Fifth Third Bank
- HSBC
Visit the nearest branch and start earning by calculative and wise investments.
The Best Checking Accounts Suggestions
The best checking accounts are those that meets your basic needs. This means selecting an account with a perfect mix of low fees, less maintenance and nearby ATMs. Interest earnings and overall experience matter as well.
When zeroing onto a specific account with all the offers to meet your eye the ease of daily transactions comes forth.
It’s Viable if it’s Feasible
Out of 140 checking accounts at 56 nationally available banks to find some of the best options available. Capital One 360 or Discover Bank are few among good online banks offering great offers. If you don’t need local branch access, this is a free way to get a debit card and have a place to enrol in direct.
How to Choose a Checking Account?
Having a lot of bank checking accounts to choose from is always good. Confusion creeps in moment we get hooked on the offers and skip the details,
Following is apt analysis to remember before choosing an account :
- Fees/Hidden charges: The checking account is for daily use purposes, it’s wise to keep the overhead charges minimum. Hence the overdraft charges, monthly maintenance charges, the low balance charges, etc. should be compared and then finalized.
- Balances: There is always a certain minimum deposit amount to open a checking account. One has to meet particular minimum balance requirements to earn the APY or avoid paying a fee. Before you open an account, make sure you can meet the requirements or look for an account with no minimum requirements whatsoever.
- APY: If you’re looking to earn interest on your cash, keep APY in mind but keep in mind not all banks provide interest for your cash.
- Service: It’s important that they are helpful and responsive. If a bank is online or at a branch, it’s important to be able to get in touch with a customer service representative should a problem or question arise?
- User-friendly/Digitized: Today’s needs are banking to be a click away from the user’s reach. Especially if you often bank online or via mobile app, look for banks and credit unions with creditable & innovative online and mobile banking technology.
- Security: Countercheck that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures your account at a bank. A fixed sum is assured for insurance per depositor, per bank, for each account owner in the event of a bank defunct. Look for insurance from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) at credit unions. Your cash is safe if the banks follow the regulations.
Banking habits to be kept in mind for checking account features which are most valuable to you.
The following is the Weightage Given to Each Category
| Fees | : 35% |
| APY | : 20% |
| Customer & Digital Experience | : 20% |
| Minimums | : 20% |
| Availability | : 5% |
Synopsis of Best Checking Account Benefits
Advantages of Checking Accounts
Looking to open a bank account, there are lots of benefits of having a checking account.
- FDIC insurance: We want our hard earned money to be secure. Mostly all checking accounts have FDIC insurance and are insured up to the maximum permit able limits.
- Ease of access: Checking accounts guarantees easy access to your cash. You can typically withdraw by visiting a bank, using your debit card at an ATM, or making an online transfer as per your needs and feasibility.
- Debit card: Tap and Go and you are done with the transaction. Instead of paying with cash, and choose to go cashless. One can also pay online using a debit card by entering the requested details, name & card number, etc.
- Track spending: There is a record of your deposits and spending, so you can monitor where your money is coming from and where it’s going. To prevent unauthorized use, one can even raise a request to block the card.
- Direct deposit: You can set up direct deposit into your checking accounts. Salary gets directly credited into the account. Hassle-free payday,
- Earn Interest: Your money grows even when it’s just sitting in the account as these accounts offer variable interests.
Disadvantages of Checking Accounts
A few shortcomings to be aware of, One must bear in mind that checking accounts vary from bank to bank, so be sure to look into what rules and guidelines come with yours.
- Less Interest: Some checking accounts earn interest, most don’t. Few checking accounts have a considerably lower interest rate than savings accounts. A checking account is used like cash and isn’t idolized for your money to sit idle, whereas a savings account is extensively used for long-term saving investments that are normally in a lock period.
- Charges: Majorly all checking accounts have monthly fees. Amounting to paying money to use your own cash. There are some free checking accounts that don’t have monthly charges, which means you save more of your hard-earned money, so be certain to assure when choosing your account.
- Minimums: Always the banks require you to keep a minimum balance in your checking account. If you don’t want to comply with maintaining a minimum balance, look for a checking account that doesn’t have one.
Difference Between Checking Account and Savings Account
There are two major types of bank accounts – Checking and savings.
Checking account is designed for free access of money. They can use for depositing checks, pay bills and even transfer money between accounts. Plus, they have no limits on ATMs or online transfers and come with both checks and a debit cards. This makes them an ideal home base for the money. In contrast, saving account have no online bill payments and no debit card, plus, all ATM withdrawals and online transfers are limited to six times per month, beyond which a hefty fee is charged.
So clearly, savings account are inferior right? Well not so fast.
Unlike most checking accounts, all fund kept in a savings account earn a small amount of money each year called interest. While this money very large, and normally way smaller than anything we will earn with any investment account, the money put into a saving account.
Types of Checking Accounts
Here are some common types of Checking Accounts we will find in the markets
1) Traditional Checking Accounts
We will find this Traditional checking accounts in brick and modern financial institutions. This is suitable for someone who is old school and love to deal face to face with bank employees for the transactions. The features of these will depend on bank we are opening an account with.
2) Online Checking Accounts
If we are ok with banking without the need for physical branch, this is one good option. They usually offer higher interest rates on the deposit, lower fees and more extents ATMs.
3) High-Interest Checking Accounts
With this types of Checking Accounts, we can earn extra money while helping the account grow. The catch is we should comply with bank balance and transaction requirements to qualify with the interest.
4) Student Checking Accounts
There are financial institutions that offers Student Checking Accounts that often carries no maintenance fee until the student reaches a certain age usually 24. Just remember, if the student is below 18 years, the bank maybe require a joint account with parent or guardian.
Top 5 Bank $500 Bonus Offer For Checking Accounts
1) Associated Bank Axis Checking Account
Associated Bank is one of the most recognized bank in the United State of America. It is evident by the fact that Associated Bank has the largest bank headquarters in the area of conference. If we create a checking account in the bank, we will get a bonus offer as high as $500 and more over we don’t pay any monthly fees at all.
The offer expires on May 2021. Just make sure that we shouldn’t have an checking account with this bank for last 6 months otherwise we can’t get the $500 bonus offer.
2) HSBC Premier Checking Account
Again, HSBC is the most known and trusted bank out there. The services of this bank in quality is real and we should definitely consider. This means, the bank provides free of cost foreign transactions and we need just 1$ to open a bank account. Other than that, you can get on your checking account bonus rewarded offer with up to $500 or $600 and also get preferential mortgage rates if you are premier customers.
But one of the drawback is, we have to pay 60$ maintenance fee ever month. This offer is valid till 30th June 2021.
3) Investors E-Axis Checking Account
If we make a new account in Investors E Axis, then we get a bonus of 250$. This will be paid in 10 instalments, 25$ each and will continue till 10 months. If this will be our first ever bank checking account, then we will be entitle for this offer other than that we need $500 per month direct deposits.
4) PNC Bank Virtual Wallet
Get rewarded with minimum of 50 dollars which goes as high as $500 as a welcome gift offer, if we create a checking account on PNC Bank Virtual Wallet service. If we haven’t make a bank account in PNC Bank in last 90 days and have not taken benefits of previous year bonus, then we are ready to get the money from bank; if only applying before 30th June 2021.
5) Huntington 5 Checking Account
It is probably the fastest and easiest method of earing a bonus. Huntington 5 checking account will give us a bonus of 200$ if we make an account before 7th July 2021. All we need to do is make a transaction of at least a 1000$ within 60 days opening a bank account. Keep the account open for next 3 months and say hello to 200$. The amount will be reflected in our account within 15 days.
Helpful Article : The Best Bank Bonus Now Without Direct Deposit Requirement
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the Interest Rate?
High-yielding checking account interests may vary widely. Online bank accounts offer competitive rates. Normally the banks have a tabulated list of details of interests according to their requirements. One must go through them, compare and then decide the type of account.
What Are the Minimum Balance Requirements?
Majorly all bank accounts ask for a nominal opening account charges as well as amount for minimum balance maintenance. Non maintenance charges are normally high for such requirements.
What Are the Account Fees?
Unlike online bank accounts which are super savvy these account charges includes
- ATM fees for using an out-of-network ATM
- Cashier’s check fees
- Check reorder fees
- Foreign transaction fees
- Minimum balance fees
- Monthly maintenance fees
- Overdraft fees
- NSF (non-sufficient funds) fees
- Wire transfer fees (incoming and/or outgoing)
What options does each checking account offer?
Account balance, Interest Rates, unlimited transactions, etc. are valuable queries to all users that one must clarify before opening an account.
Conclusion
Grab the latest offers at the earliest and avail all the benefits. Invest wisely and visualize your money scale sitting in these bank accounts at great offers and interests for the year 2021.
A checking account is a type of bank account that permits customers to approach their cash easily. It is clearly an account of everyday expenditures. Nevertheless, it is more than just a location where everyone can make deposits and withdrawals. It’s the center of personal finances. With the correct bank account, customers can boost their money management skills.