Checking Accounts Guide
1. What's a Checking Account?
Checking accounts are some of the simplest – and least lucrative – financial accounts out there. They usually offer pretty low interest rates compared to savings accounts, CDs, and other places where you can easily stash your cash.
Generally speaking, you want to keep only the money that you need to easily access for monthly bills and everyday purchases in your checking account. You should try to keep additional funds (your savings) in another account with a better interest rate, such as a CD or high yield savings account .
Back in the day, most people opened checking accounts at the brick and mortar bank where they also had a savings account, a mortgage, and a credit card. Now, however, there are few, if any scenarios where one financial institution can offer the best deals on all of these accounts.
As a result, fewer people do everything in one place, and the bank that handles a checking account may not be the best credit-card provider.
Back in the 1990’s, a number of banks set up shop on the Internet. They sent out ATM cards and checkbooks and paper statements and everything else, but you couldn’t go see them in person. Then, they funneled all of the money they saved by not paying rent into offering better deals. Today these Internet banks are thriving and they offer some of the best deals out there.
Credit unions also offer checking accounts. They essentially are non-profit membership organizations that otherwise work just like banks. Since they don’t have to pay as many taxes as a regular bank, they can be more generous with customers.
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