Opening a checking account can be a pretty important decision, since there are a lot of banks offering such services, with various offers.
However, according to The Motley Fool, a report from Moebs Services, a consulting company known for tracking trends in the banking industry, reveals which are the best types of checking accounts you can opt for right now.
First position in the top is not a surprise!
To be more specific, we’re talking about interest checking accounts, which is definitely the most popular, with 75% percent of financial institutions offering it, followed by free checking accounts, offered by 53% of the institutions. Finally, there are basic checking accounts, offered by 48%.
The results were published after a survey conducted over 3,817 depositories around the United States, which is almost half of the nation’s banks.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that these types of accounts are designed for various types of users. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the interest checking is leading the top, since it’s the most common type of account. Same thing goes for free checking accounts, which allow banks to promote their services and gain even more accounts, says the survey.
On the other side, there was a significant drop in free checking accounts, as their number is significantly lower than 10 years ago.
The financial crisis is still showing its effects
The same research points the the share of banks offering free checking accounts was at just 37% in 2015, while before the financial crisis, their share was at 75%.
Finally, Moebs Services’ report also mentions checking accounts targeted at specific categories of bank customers. Specifically, we’re talking about accounts for seniors, as well as young people and students, including several rewards for using debit cards. They’re also free, electronic-based accounts, in most cases.
“Financial institutions have consolidated checking account types for over five years,” says Michael Moebs, CEO of Moebs Services. “Yet interest checking will always remain a core transaction account service.”
