Savings and Checking Accounts – Pros and Cons
A major milestone for a young adult is reached when they open their first savings and checking accounts. They are both considered as pivotal financial tools and are extremely beneficial. While checking accounts help us pay our bills, savings accounts help us save money for the future. Here, we’ll discuss with you savings and checking accounts – pros and cons .
- Savings account – pros and cons
Though there are several pros of savings and checking accounts, they do have their share of disadvantages. Hence, those thinking of starting a fresh account should be aware of the savings and checking accounts – pros and cons. Let’s find out what they are.
- Pros
It is an ideal account for individuals who wish to save a portion of their earnings while simultaneously earning interest on this saving. One of the pros of this account is that you can withdraw anytime. Moreover, you need only a small investment account for opening your savings account. Some of the savings accounts get insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, i.e., FDIC. Also, the monthly fee on the savings account is minimal, and you can set the auto-pay setting on the savings account to ensure that your bills are paid timely.
- Cons
Since the savings account is easily accessible, it gets hard for some people to save some money. The interest that you get on the savings account is lower than all the other saving alternatives. A few savings accounts require maintaining a minimum balance. If you fail to maintain this balance, you’ll have to pay a fee for the same, which is often higher than the interest that you earn with the account.
- Checking account – pros and cons
- Pros
Every holder of checking account gets access to both mobile and internet banking. Furthermore, they get ATMs using which they can withdraw money or make purchases from the money in their bank account. A lot of employees make use of the checking account to deposit the pay-checks. Moreover, with the direct deposit facility, the employer can directly transfer the payroll amount in the bank account of the employee. This prevents an unnecessary trip to the bank for encashing the pay-check. Interestingly, almost all the US-based checking accounts get insurance coverage of an amount up to 250,000 dollars by the FDIC. So, this implies that the money that is stacked in your checking account is safe. - Cons
There are checking accounts on which a certain fee has to be borne. This would include the fees paid in the form of maintenance charges, fees for the bank transactions, withdrawals fee on ATM transactions done via a 3rd-party machine, and the phone transaction charges for using the customer service. Furthermore, there are banks, which charge a small fee for not maintaining the minimum required balance. Additionally, the other cons of the checking account are overdraft fees, limitations on ATM withdrawals, and fees for using a debit card.