Choosing between Savings and Checking Accounts

More and more individuals from different walks of life are opting to enroll in banks to secure their finances through accounts. The logic and reason for enrolling into an account is simple such as to avoid the hassles of carrying around money. But applying and enrolling for an account would take more than simple reasons. There are too many types of banks, too many types of accounts and too many requirements that account holders need to choose from and accomplish before being granted the privilege of being enrolled in an account.

Account shoppers are constantly bombarded with flowery words from agents and even very convincing marketing styles. These things will shadow them until they secure their very own account. In opening an account in a bank, account shoppers need to immediately answer the question on what type of account they are purchasing- savings or checking? These two major types of accounts are so much different in their features but for first timers they may appear and sound the same.

There is only way of answering this question intelligibly and it is through noting the different features of these accounts against the needs of the applying account shopper. There are different lifestyles that would only fit to certain types of accounts; the tricky part is knowing which is which. But still it is possible through beforehand research and informed inquiries on banks management and finance experts. There are also free counseling and consultation desks that account shoppers can go into to get the help of an expert in assessing his or her true needs.

Savings accounts and checking accounts used to be differentiated simply through their medium of transactions. Saving accounts are generalized as accounts which will pay its account holders with interest after some time of putting their money in the account. In savings accounts, account holders are encouraged to bring in more money to their accounts to increase the interest return that they will get.

On the other hand, checking accounts are characterized as accounts that issue checks to its account holders to allow them to more conveniently conduct business transactions with others. Account holders back then are simply encouraged to enroll in checking accounts because of its promised convenience and transaction speed.

Nowadays, the differences between checking and saving accounts are less defined and in a way vaguer than it were a couple of years ago. The reason for this evolution is not bad at all; it is simply attributed to the changes that finance service providers such as banks have undertaken to make the services they offer more specialized. This specialization has been able to create new types of checking accounts with features that used to be exclusive to saving accounts. The same is the case for savings accounts.

To aid account shoppers in their search for the best accounts that would not only secure their finances but also answer their needs, here are some features of both savings and checking accounts. Checking these features would allow policy shoppers to assess which is more fitting for them.

Checking Accounts:

1. Provides checks to its account holders, which they can use to make purchases and transact.
2. Connects account holders to ATM cards, debit cards and/or credit cards, allowing you to use these instruments to draw against your balance.
3. Allows account holders to earn interest rates payments. The earnings will vary depending on the type of checking account enrolled into.  
4. Most accounts involve monthly fees, but there are those which are free such as second chance and senior checking accounts.  
5. Have faster wore transfer rate as compared to typical saving accounts. 
6. Allows account holders to overdraft but in exchange of fees. This means that the bank will hold the liability of the account holder given that the account holder will pay extra fees. 
7. Can be and should be linked to other accounts under the same account holder and the same bank for easy balance transfers.  

 Saving Accounts:

1. Allow account holders to enjoy higher interest rates, particularly for long term savings accounts.
2. Only provided limited times of withdrawals per month.
3. Account holders have the option of moving their money from one account to another to allow financial mobility.
4. Savings accounts by its nature are usually free and only reward those that will opt to put more money to it through interest rate payments.