Bank accounts typically come in two primary types: checking and savings. The former is the one you use for your regular transactions. It’s an account from which you regularly put money into and take money. The latter, on the other hand, is geared more toward accumulating more money through interest returns. The cash inside savings accounts is often not withdrawn until a specific date or a certain event.
In this article, we will focus more on the former type of bank account, which is the checking account. Specifically, we are going to highlight the advantages of opening a checking account. If, after having read this article, we have convinced you to open a checking account, be sure to check out our list of the banks that offer a checking account bonus if you decide to open an account with them.
Early salary payments
First off, you can typically get your salary earlier in comparison to receiving it through payday cash. If you opt for a direct deposit on your contract with your employer, then the bank may give you access to your cash whenever they have already received a notice of deposit from your employer. This notice of deposit is often sent to the bank weeks ahead of the actual payday. What this means for you is that you can have access to your money earlier. This could be very helpful if you really need the cash for some specific purposes.
Keeping less cash with you
It’s a general rule of thumb, when talking about finance strategies, to keep only a few amounts of cash with you wherever you go. Especially in your regular daily activities, there’s no need to carry bundles of cash in your wallet, pockets, or bags. Also, it’s not a good idea to store lots of cash in physical storage units at home. Things like piggy banks or metal safes can be sufficient for small amounts of cash, but it is impractical and unsafe when storing huge amounts of money. This is because you run the risk of theft, natural damage, and other unforeseen events and emergencies. This can all be solved by resorting to a bank checking account. By keeping it at the bank, you can have the peace of mind that your money will be kept safe and away from potential threats.
Better monitoring ability
Controlling your expenditures is one thing. Keeping track of the movement of money that you have to spend is another. Monitoring your cash in physical form is undeniably difficult. You would have to have a list of some sort that you keep in notebooks or in the notes app on your smartphone. Nevertheless, both systems are manual in nature, so it is prone to errors, delays, and other issues. If you open a checking account with the bank, all of the processes and procedures as regards monitoring your cash will be digital and automated. For example, all your expenditure data will be forwarded to you within a day or two.
On top of that, you have a digital official receipt of all your transactions, which can be helpful in case of warranties, returns, and other customer service issues. Finally, you can perform all of these things through your smartphone. This is a very accessible and convenient approach to personal financial management, which can help you to be wiser when it comes to how you manage your cash.
Easy money transfers
Aside from using bank transfers to pay vendors, you can also use them to transfer money to your friends, family members, and relatives. If you are working with the same bank, you can generally avoid having to pay bank transfer fees. Again, this is yet another secure way of moving cash from one entity to another. It even applies to your own set of checking accounts. If for whatever reason, you have multiple checking accounts, you can easily transfer money from one account to the other. This provides you with better control of your money, so you won’t be facing any issues that prevent you from accessing your cash.
