3 Ways to Save Money on Checking

Avoid checking account service charges with these helpful tips.

Recent Changes to Checking Accounts

Before 2010, banks let their customers use their debit cards to make a purchase or an ATM withdrawal even if there weren’t sufficient funds in the account. In return, banks charged a costly overdraft fee. After recent financial regulation prohibited banks from doing this without customers’ consent, banks started looking for ways to recoup lost revenue. What does this mean for you? Services that used to be free often aren’t now. Some banks charge $1 to $3 just for talking to a teller. “Today only about half the nation’s largest banks offer no-cost or conditional checking, down from 64 percent a year ago, and the number keeps dropping,” says Mike Moebs, an economist and the chief executive of Moebs Services, an economic-research firm in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Happily, these three strategies will help you steer clear of many of the new charges.