The accounts on this list have no monthly maintenance fee, low or no minimum balance requirements and few other fees.
To create a list of the best free checking accounts, Forbes Advisor analyzed 157 checking accounts at 66 financial institutions, including a mix of traditional brick-and-mortar banks, online banks and credit unions. We ranked each account on 17 data points within the categories of fees, customer experience, digital experience, access and minimum requirements.
The following is the weighting assigned to each category for free checking accounts:
- Minimums: 35%
- Fees: 30%
- Branch and ATM access: 15%
- Customer experience: 10%
- Digital experience: 10%
Specific characteristics taken into consideration within each category included monthly fee, ability to waive the monthly fee, overdraft fee, non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee, ATM fees, minimum deposit requirements and minimum balance requirements. We also considered customer service ratings, mobile access, online access, mobile app ratings and the availability of the account.
Checking accounts with no or very low fees and low minimum requirements ranked the highest. To appear on this list, the checking account must be nationally available.
To learn more about our rating and review methodology and editorial process, check out our guide on How Forbes Advisor Reviews Banks.
