Best No-Fee Checking Accounts Of July 2023

The Axos Bank Rewards Checking account offers a winning combination of features: Not only can you expect no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance requirement, but the bank also provides unlimited reimbursements for domestic out-of-network ATM charges and does not charge a non-sufficient funds fee for overdrafts.

However, if you do not link a savings or money market account to your Rewards Checking account to cover overdrafts, they will be covered by an overdraft line of credit, which is not exactly free (see Details).

The Rewards Checking account pays up to up to 3.30% APY total. Balances above $50,000 do not earn interest, which outstrips many interest-bearing checking accounts. Note that Axos has several rewards tiers, each requiring certain transaction or direct deposit qualifications within a statement cycle.

You can open an account with $50, and there is no minimum balance requirement for either earning interest or maintaining a fee-free account.

Read our full Axos Bank Review.

The Axos Rewards Checking account has interest tiers that allow an account holder to earn up to 3.30% APY total. Balances above $50,000 do not earn interest. These are the steps required to build the highest APY:

• 0.40% APY: Receive monthly direct deposits totaling $1,500 or more. This must be met in order to be eligible to earn any interest during the statement cycle.
• 0.30% APY: Sign up for Personal Finance Manager (PFM) “Account Aggregation” in Online Banking or use your Axos debit card for a total of 10 transactions per month (minimum $3 per transaction).
• 1.00% APY: Maintain an average daily balance of $2,500 per month in an Axos Invest Managed Portfolios Account.
• 1.00% APY: Maintain an average daily balance of $2,500 per month in an Axos Invest Self Directed Trading Account.
• 0.60% APY: Use your Rewards Checking account to make your full monthly Axos consumer loan payment. Mortgage, personal and auto loans are eligible.

Though PenFed’s Access America Checking account has a monthly maintenance fee of $10, the credit union makes this fee easy to avoid. If you either set up at least $500 in monthly direct deposits or maintain a daily balance of at least $500, then your account is maintenance-fee free.

Additionally, account holders have access to more than 85,000 surcharge-free Allpoint and CO-OP ATMs, many of them within several common retailers, such as Target, CVS Pharmacy and Safeway, among others. PenFed also charges no fees for U.S. out-of-network ATM usage, although you will still be subject to any third-party fees those ATMs charge, and PenFed does not offer reimbursements. You will receive your first 50 checks for no charge from PenFed, and additional checks cost $5 for 50.

The credit union offers a fee-free overdraft line of credit to Access America Checking account holders. This line of credit provides $300 or more in overdraft protection, with a fixed 17.99% APR. There is no fee for the line of credit or for individual overdrafts.When an incoming payment bounces, PenFed charges a $30 non-sufficient funds fee, or a $10 uncollected funds fee if the money is in the payer’s account but is on hold.

PenFed also offers a decent APY of either 0.15% or 0.35% for checking account dividends (the credit union term for yield) that are compounded daily and credited monthly. Account balances of between $20,000 and $50,000 earn the higher APY. You can open an account with a $25 minimum opening deposit.

Read our full PenFed Credit Union Review.

The yields earned on credit union accounts are referred to as dividends rather than interest. To make your Access America Checking account eligible for dividends, you must set up a minimum $500 recurring direct deposit. Eligible accounts earn 0.15% APY when you maintain a monthly recurring direct deposit of $500 or more and maintain a daily balance of up to $19,999.99 and 0.35% APY on daily balances between $20,000 and $50,000. Amounts over $50,000 don’t earn dividends. Dividends are compounded daily and paid monthly.

Editor’s note: In December 2022, Discover temporarily stopped accepting applications for Discover Cashback Debit Checking. Visit Discover’s website to sign up for an email notification when Discover begins accepting applications again.

Discover Cashback Debit Checking has no monthly maintenance fee—and no minimum balance or activity requirement to maintain a fee-free account. Additionally, customers can access more than 60,000 surcharge-free ATMs across the country. Standard checks, official bank checks and a replacement debit card are provided at no charge. There’s also no charge for expedited delivery of a replacement debit card or standard or official bank checks. Stop payment orders are free as well.

There is no non-sufficient funds fee for overdrafts even if you sign up for the option overdraft protection (see Details). There is no deposited item return fee if a payment you receive from a third party bounces.

In addition to largely lacking fees, Discover also offers a flexible rewards structure: Account holders receive 1% cash back on up to $3,000 per month of eligible purchases using the Discover Bank debit card.

Read our full Discover Bank review.

Discover offers optional overdraft protection, for which there is no fee, by linking a second Discover account to your checking account to fund any overdrafts, other than those caused by an ATM withdrawal or point-of-sale debit transaction. Those will simply be declined if there are insufficient funds. Without this protection, or if you have insufficient funds in your secondary account, the bank will simply decline or return transactions that overdraw your account.

Discover does not charge an out-of-network ATM fee, but you may be subject to a third-party fee, which will not be reimbursed.

This bank based in the Kansas City area (where the “kc” part of the name comes from) offers customers a low-fee checking experience with its Everything Account. There is no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum monthly balance or activity requirement. Everything Account holders also get access to more than 37,000 fee-free ATMs in the MoneyPass network, and nbkc will reimburse up to $12 of U.S. out-of-network ATM fees per month.

nbkc bank charges no fees for overdrafts, returned items, cashier’s checks, money orders, stop payments or foreign transactions. The account comes with optional overdraft protection, which requires you to link a money market savings account to your Everything Account. If you overdraw your checking account, the bank will automatically transfer funds from your money market savings account to cover the overdraft, at no charge to you.

Another benefit is nbkc’s low outgoing domestic wire fee of $5—although the fee for outgoing or incoming international wires is $45.

As a nice added bonus, you earn 1.50% APY without having to meet any qualifications and with no minimum balance.

Read our full nbkc bank Review.

Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly.

TIAA Bank offers its checking account holders a Yield Pledge, which guarantees that the interest rate you earn will be among the top 5% of competitive accounts (see Details). At this time, that means you can expect an APY of 0.10%, compounded daily and credited monthly.

The Yield Pledge Checking account comes with no monthly maintenance fees, carries no minimum balance or monthly activity requirements, and replacement debit cards are complimentary. But there are fees for wire transfers, stop payments and official checks.

Customers can access a network of more than 55,000 surcharge-free Allpoint ATMs or a network of more than 37,000 surcharge-free MoneyPass ATMs using their free TIAA debit card. The bank will also reimburse up to $15 worth of U.S. out-of-network ATM fees monthly for all Yield Pledge Checking account holders, and will reimburse an unlimited number of those fees for account holders who maintain a minimum average daily balance of $5,000.

Expect zero non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees with this account, no matter how you choose to handle overdraft protection. If you don’t opt for protection, the bank will simply decline transactions that would overdraw your account. With the optional overdraft protection, you can link another TIAA Bank account that will transfer sufficient funds to your Yield Pledge Checking account to cover any overdrafts. There is no fee for this service.

Read our full TIAA Bank Review.

Fees applicable to the Yield Pledge Checking account include: stop payment ($25), official check ($10), outgoing domestic wire transfer ($25), outgoing international wire transfer ($30 to $65, depending on whether in U.S. dollars or requiring foreign currency, with or without currency exchange).

Interest on this account is compounded daily and credited monthly.