the Price of Checking Accounts

We use a local branch bank and we pay nothing for our service. There is no minimum for our account. There are no check writing fees or limits, no number of debit purchases limits, etc. There is, however, a per day limit to debit purchases and atm withdrawels. I believe the debit purchase limit per day is 1000 and the atm withdrawel limit per day is 400. This just protects the customer. On the savings accounts, there were fees and minimums and debit activity fees for going over the limit.

I don't feel that we miss out on anything by having free checking. We receive excellent customer service. We have online service and online payments service. You still have to buy checks, but that's normal and checks are going out of date anyway.

I have been with the big national chain banks. A lot of them are now pushing free banking. I'm not sure if there are any catches to it. If you find out there is a catch, don't go with it. There are banks out there that truly offer free checking with no catches. Go with them....save those monthly fees. You will be very glad you took that expense out of your budget.