Checking accounts, also known as demand or transactional accounts, are terms used for deposit accounts held in any bank or other financial institutions. One can avail various checking accounts services such as withdrawal and deposits through electronic debits, checks, automated teller machines and various other forms. Checking accounts can be of different types as per their services.

1. Free checking accounts
These accounts do not charge any monthly fees, however, they do charge against overdrafts of accounts. Different types of banking services including dealing with paper bank statements.

2. Joint checking accounts
They allow multiple users and hence are suitable for married couples who can deposit their money in a single account to be used for managing household finances.

3. Online checking accounts
These types of accounts are gaining popularity as they offer various banking services 24/7 for their users and do not charge monthly fees.

4. Money market and high-end checking accounts
They offer a higher rate of interest in comparison to conventional checking accounts. The checking account services of these accounts often come with limiting the number of monthly transactions of an account holder and minimum account assets.

5. Business checking accounts
These types of accounts specialize in managing large amounts of money and dealing with a huge number of financial transactions. Both small as well as large scale business organizations prefer these types of accounts to carry out their banking activities.

6. Students checking accounts
These accounts are designed especially for students and they often require very low or absolutely nil minimal balance. They offer several attractive deals for students to encourage their use of these accounts.

7. Common fees charged by checking accounts
Apart from the variations in checking accounts, one can come across various types of fees associated with it that are discussed below:

• Minimum balance fees
  Similar to many businesses, many banks have set minimum balance requirements for their customers.
• Checking account fees
  These types of fees are charged for the services involved in managing the accounts of the users.
• Returned deposit fee
  These fees are charged to cover the expenses involved in handling the missing funds when a cheque that is deposited by a customer gets bounced.
• Bank overdraft fees
  These are counted among the highest bank fees and hence are a threat to the customers that end up overdrafting their checking accounts. This leads to a negative balance which occurs when the total amount of payment and charges exceeds the existing amount in the account.
• Paper statement fees
  These fees are charged for checking accounts services such as handling the paper statement as requested by the account holder. Most of the banks prefer their users to check their statements online in a secure way. However, they are required to prepare the paper form of the statements and mail them to their customers for which a fee is charged.

Customers have the liberty to request the bank to waive off certain fees. In some cases, banks might as well agree to it due to the growing competition and for the sustenance of their business.

With the above points, one can get a comprehensive understanding about checking accounts and the chargeable fees.