Thaindian News

December 20, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The ‘Check it Out’ module of Money Smart provides guidelines to users on how to manage their checking accounts discreetly. Money Smart is a user friendly educational curriculum developed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2001.

This guide has basically pointed out the questions that each individual must answer when addressing one’s checking account needs. These include:

1. How many checks one may write per month?
2. Does one prefer a bank that is in close proximity to one’s home or work place?
3. What are the working hours of the bank and does the bank provide an ATM that is close by?
4. How often one may use ATMs and what other banking services one may require?

For cost purpose, one may go through some of these questions in their mind:

1. How much money does one plan to deposit in the checking account?
2. Will one have to shall out a fee for writing extra checks?
3. Will there be a monthly fee and of what amount?
4. Will there be a charge to use the bank’s or any other bank’s ATMs?

Checking Account Fees: This is one of the most important points to be addressed according to the FDIC’s guide. You need to ask your bank about the fees structure. The fees may come in various forms including Monthly service fee or maintenance fee which the bank charges to maintain your account. Per Check Fee is another type of fee that may be charged in case you exceed writing a certain number of checks monthly. A Check printing Fee is deducted from your account in case you buy fancy (expensive) or plain (cheaper) checks from the bank. You may also be asked for an ATM-use fee every time you use the teller machine of your bank or some other bank. Overdraft fee is levied in case your check gets bounced owing to insufficient amount in your account. Some institutions provide a ‘bounce protection’ or ‘courtesy overdraft protection’ service to save the customer from such an eventuality.

Banks may also charge Returned Deposit fee if one of your deposited checks bounces. In case, you order your bank to stop payment after losing your check, the bank is likely to levy a Stop-Payment charge. Some banks also take a Fee for Helping You Balance Your Check book.