Thursday, April 9, 2009

Should You Use an Online Checking Account?

Do you have a checking account? How many checks do you write every month? Probably not many. When you do write checks, it is probably just to pay some bills. What if you never had to write checks?

If you didn't have to write checks, you would save a lot of paper and some time. Saving paper is always good for the environment, as is going paperless in any way. I will tell you there is a way to stop writing checks.

Online checking accounts are great. One popular one is Electric Orange from ING Direct. If you ever need to pay a bill or pay someone, you just send it through your account and they send an e-check. If you need to send a physical check to someone, they take care of that for you, too.

If you want to take money out of an ATM with Electric Orange account, you can. You get free ATM withdrawals at over 35,000 ATMs. Most banks charge a fee at any ATM if it's not from your bank. You don't have to worry about this.

Not sure how you're going to get the money into your checking account? It's pretty simple, you just have your money directly deposited into your account. Talk to your employer about setting up direct deposit. This way you don't have to go pick up a check and you don't have to make yet another trip to the bank to cash or deposit it.

With an online bank checking account, you can earn money from your money just as with an online savings account. The online bank doesn't have to pay for the same expenses that a brick and mortar bank has to pay for, and this means you can get a higher interest rate and earn more money.

You don't have anything to lose with this because it's free to join and set up an account. If you don't like it, then just stop using it and go back to your own checking account. You might as well try it to see if there's something you can gain.

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