Checking Accounts & Checks Guide: Best Accounts, Fees, Direct Deposit and How Checks Work

This guide covers checking accounts and the checks drawn on them. The first half is about choosing and running a checking account; the second covers paper checks, cashier’s checks and money orders.

Checking Accounts

Choosing an account

• The best checking accounts: fees, minimums, interest, ATM access and overdraft handling compared
• Free checking accounts with no monthly fee or minimum, and online checking accounts
• Types of checking accounts, rewards checking and how to choose a bank account
• For specific needs: teen checking accounts, joint accounts, the best bank account by age and second-chance checking (with how to clear up a ChexSystems record)

Checking account basics

• What is a checking account?, checking vs savings and money market vs checking
• Checking account fees and foreign ATM and debit card fees by bank
• Can you have more than one bank account? and how to balance your checking account

Opening, switching and closing

• Open a bank account online, including without a Social Security number
• How to switch banks and closing an account online

Direct deposit, debit cards and bill pay

• What is direct deposit?, how to set it up, when it arrives and early direct deposit
• What is a debit card?, ATM cards and what to do about a lost debit card
• Prepaid debit cards, how they work and gift card vs prepaid card
• Online bill pay

Checks and Money Orders

Writing and reading checks

• How to write a check, parts of a check and where the account number is
• What is a personal check?, voided checks, postdated checks and where to buy cheap checks

Depositing and cashing checks

• How to endorse a check and mobile check deposit
• How long a check takes to clear and cashing a check without high fees

Stopped and bounced checks

• How to cancel a check (stop payment)
• Why a check bounces, what a bounced check costs, writing a bad check and whether it affects your credit

Cashier’s checks, certified checks and money orders

• Cashier’s checks, certified checks and replacing a lost cashier’s check
• Money order vs cashier’s check, where to get a money order, how to fill one out and lost money orders

Deposits at FDIC-member banks are insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category. For savings, see our savings accounts guide.

Written by WealthVieu

WealthVieu researches and writes data-driven personal finance guides using primary sources including the IRS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve, and Census Bureau.