the Price of Combination Checking and Savings Accounts

I opened a free checking and regular savings account with a local bank when I lived in Illinois, this bank had several options to add on to the accounts that had some extra fees. Overdraft protection, Fraud alerts, Insurance, and unique credit card options. For a few dollars extra a month you can have a lot more than just a normal account, you can have a sense of security, a sense of value, and most of all a very wise financial move to keep your money safe and still have it able to make you money.

The extra fees are the obvious ones ($2.00) for atm usages at other banks' machines, $10.00 overdraft protection (if you go into the red they automatically transfer the funds from you other account and charge you the $10.00 instead of the normal $30.00 return check fee plus the fee from the retailer.

This service is more then I could ever ask for from a small institution. They treat you like you are a millionaire when you are 1/100th of a millionaire. The security and Identity Theft protection is superb for the cost. If you know what it is like having your identity stolen then you know what I am talking about. Paying a few bucks a month is not even comparable to the costs and stress of having your identity stolen. The only downfall to this account is that the bank only has one atm machine, so you pay the $2.00 service fee quite often if you are like me and never carry much cash on me.

When you are looking to open an account don't turn away because of some of the fees associated with it, I've found that 9/10 times it's for your own good.