Is my checking account costing me money?

By Amine, founder of Lirandel. Last fact-checked October 28, 2026. General information, not financial advice.

Short answer: it can, in two ways: fees (monthly maintenance, minimum-balance, paper-statement, out-of-network ATM and overdraft fees) and interest you don't earn on cash that sits there. To check, look through your last few statements for those fees and add them up for a year, then compare the cash you keep in checking with what a savings account pays. Some banks offer checking with no monthly fee and no overdraft fee (4 are listed below), and the online savings accounts Lirandel tracks pay 3.20% to 3.50% APY, against a national average of 0.38%.

The fees to look for

Search your statements (or your bank's transaction list) for these words. They're the same ones Lirandel looks for when it reads a statement.

Fee	Words to search for	Can a different account avoid it?
Monthly maintenance or service fee	“maintenance”, “service fee”, “monthly fee”	Yes. Some accounts charge none.
Minimum-balance fee	“minimum balance”	Yes.
Paper-statement fee	“paper statement”	Often: switch to e-statements, or to an account without the fee.
Other banks’ ATM fees	“ATM”	Partly: use your bank’s no-fee ATMs, or an account that refunds ATM fees.
Overdraft or returned-payment (NSF) fee	“overdraft”, “NSF”, “insufficient funds”, “returned item”	Yes. Some accounts charge none.
Foreign transaction fee	“foreign”, “international”, “exchange rate”	This one depends on the card you use abroad, not the account.

How to add them up: total each kind of fee over the months you looked at, divide by the number of months, and multiply by 12. For overdraft fees, which don't happen every month, use what you actually paid over the last year rather than projecting one bad month forward.

How much a fee is depends on your bank: each bank lists its fees in its account agreement or fee schedule.

How big is this, overall?

Banks with over $1 billion in assets reported about $5.8 billion in overdraft and NSF fees in 2023, down by more than half from the $11–12 billion a year they collected before the pandemic, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (April 2024). Many banks have cut or dropped these fees, but not all.

What to do about fees

Ask for a refund. If you were charged an overdraft fee, ask your bank to refund it. It costs nothing to ask, and there's no guarantee. See how to stop overdraft fees.
Ask what it takes to waive the monthly fee. Your bank's fee schedule says whether yours can be waived.
Compare with an account that doesn't charge them. Switching is real work (direct deposits, autopays, a new debit card), so Lirandel only suggests it when you pay at least $50 a year in fees a new account would avoid.

Checking accounts with no monthly fee and no overdraft fee

From each bank's own page, on the date shown. Terms change, so confirm them on the bank's page.

Account	Monthly fee	Overdraft fee	Worth knowing
Capital One 360 Checking checked 2026-10-23	$0	$0	No monthly fees and no minimum balance, per Capital One's page. Overdrafts: choose auto-decline, a free transfer from savings, or no-fee overdraft (needs $250+ deposited in two of the last three months).
Ally Spending Account checked 2026-10-23	$0	$0	No monthly maintenance fees, overdraft fees or minimum balance, per Ally's page. CoverDraft covers up to $100 of overdrafts ($250 with qualifying direct deposits), without a fee; larger ones are declined. 75,000+ no-fee ATMs, and other banks' ATM fees refunded up to $10 per statement cycle.
Discover Cashback Debit checked 2026-10-23	$0	$0	1% cash back on up to $3,000 of debit card purchases a month, per Discover's page. No account fees except outgoing wires ($30); 60,000+ no-fee ATMs. Overdraft protection draws from a linked savings account, without a fee. Doesn't pay interest.
SoFi Checking and Savings checked 2026-10-23	$0	$0	No monthly, overdraft or minimum balance fees, per SoFi's fee page; it charges for outgoing wires and Instant Transfers. Overdraft coverage is limited to $50 of debit purchases and needs $1,000+ of direct deposits. Checking pays 0.50% APY with direct deposit or $5,000+ of deposits every 31 days (not counted).

If you have a credit card you pay in full, paying with it usually earns more than debit-card cash back. See how Lirandel picks cards.

The cost you don't see: cash that earns nothing

Many checking accounts pay little or no interest (your statement shows your rate). Cash beyond what you need for bills could earn more in savings.

National average savings rate: 0.38% (FDIC, as of 2026-10-19).
Online savings accounts Lirandel tracks (each bank's own page; all variable): Marcus by Goldman Sachs Online Savings 3.50% APY (checked 2026-10-29); Capital One 360 Performance Savings 3.20% APY (checked 2026-10-29); American Express High Yield Savings 3.20% APY (checked 2026-10-29); Ally Online Savings 3.20% APY (checked 2026-10-29).

Example, using those rates: $10,000 for a year at 3.50% APY earns about $350, against about $38 at 0.38%: roughly $312 more. Rates are variable, so the real figure will move with them.

How much to keep in checking: enough for what leaves the account. Lirandel's rule of thumb is 2 months of money out (bills, transfers, card payments), more if a big payment is coming. See is your savings earning what it could.

How Lirandel checks this for you

Upload a bank statement and Lirandel looks for the fees above, adds up what they cost you a year, and compares no-fee accounts by what each would save you. It also projects your checking balance for the next 30 days from your own paychecks and bills, and warns you before an overdraft rather than after.

How Lirandel earns money: Lirandel earns nothing from any product on this page today: it has no partner agreements with these companies. If that changes, what Lirandel would earn will be shown next to each one before you click, and it never changes the order.