The fewer the fees, the better the bank, generally speaking. Free checking and online banking are easily found, says Jean Chatzky, a columnist for Money (which, like Real Simple, is published by Time Inc.). And if your bank doesn’t have a convenient network of ATMs, you may be paying too much in cash-machine fees. “There’s so much competition out there, they should be bending over backward for you,” says Chatzky.

As for interest rates on savings accounts, they won’t vary much within your area. To get a better rate, Chatzky recommends online banks, which don’t have bricks-and-mortar overhead. But if you find a bank with significantly higher rates on CDs or savings accounts, “it may mean the bank’s in trouble,” says Melissa Gannon, vice president of Weiss Ratings, a rating service in Palm Beach, Florida. (To check a bank’s soundness, contact a rating service listed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, www.fdic.gov.)

Also consider: Is your bank customer-friendly? Are your statements accurate and timely? If not, says Gannon, “move on.”