by Steve20

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: November 20, 2009

How to Choose the Type of Checking Account Right for You

No one wants to go through the nuisance of analyzing their personal behavior, especially on something as small and common as a checking account. When people need to write a check they write one, period, and once a month they balance their statement and pray they have enough in the account to get through next week.

When you dashed over to the ATM last Sunday to get some emergency cash, you may not have thought about how many similar trips you made in the past month, or about whose automatic teller you were using-your banks, or a different outfit's machine across the street. But those individual actions form a pattern of your personal checking behavior. The account that is just right for you probably will not be the one that is right for your child in college or for your neighbor. They are going to need one that fits their financial lifestyles.

Take stock of how you do things. Ask Yourself:

-How do you usually buy merchandise and pay your bills? By check, credit card, or debit card, or a combination of all three?

-What is the average amount of money you keep in checking account every month?

-How likely are you to let your balance slip below that level?

-How many checks a month do you write?

-Which Bank's ATM do you use, your own banks, another bank's machine in the same in the same town, an out of town ATM?

- Where do you buy your check reorders?

-Do you bounce checks or issue stop-payment orders?

-Do you ever ask the bank for back copies of your statement or copies of old checks?

Next, haul out your last three or four monthly checking statements and add up all the various fees, including ATM deposits and withdrawals, check reorders-the works. Then estimate what your checking is costing you per month and per year, because those are the bottom-line costs you want to cut to ribbons. Tape that information on your refrigerator door (or put it on your desk) - and get ready to play hardball with the banks. Believe it or not, you are on your way to putting extra money in your pocketbook.

Finally, do not make the same mistake that many other consumers make and foolishly trap yourself into a high-fee account because you do not want the headache of closing out an account or have not bothered to balance your checkbook. Get ready to switch banks by keeping a record of how many checks are outstanding and how much money you will need to cover them. Then you will not sweat the transition.

If you do not prepare,

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