Benefits of Having a Checking Account

1. A Banking Relationship

Banks often offer more than just checking and savings accounts. Banks, like Huntington, provide a full range of services to help you with life’s milestones and setbacks. In addition to checking and savings accounts, they may also offer investment services, retirement planning, mortgages, auto loans, wealth management, and other forms of financial support.

At Huntington, our bankers are here to help you navigate how to buy a home as well as handling the financing of the loan. Establishing a checking account with us is often the first step to opening the door to additional resources and assistance we have to offer.

2. Digital Budgeting Tools

Creating a household budget can be tricky. Checking account holders at Huntington have access to a whole suite of digital tools we call The Hub. Spend Analysis in The Hub, analyzes up to two years of spending habits. This helps you set a realistic budget based upon a real-time analysis of your spending. Then Spend Setter^℠, a personal budgeting tool also inside The Hub, helps you monitor your spending levels and easily set a budget; no spreadsheet skills required.

Our Look Ahead Calendar^℠ can help you stay ahead of your spending by keeping track of expected payments and paychecks. It’s fully customizable to help you track exactly what you want to track. These budgeting tools, when coupled with our mobile alerts^¥ and mobile banking can help you take the guesswork out of your finances.

3. Direct Deposit

Setting up direct deposit for your paycheck means you no longer need to rush to get to the bank before it closes or waste time and money waiting in line at a check cashing store. Your money is automatically deposited right into your bank account when you’re paid.

Depending on how your employer has it set, you may find your money available to you earlier if your payday falls on a weekend or a bank holiday. No rushing. No waiting. And, most importantly, no more wasting money on check cashing fees.

4. Keep More of Your Money

A big money saving tip is to eliminate unnecessary fees and expenses.

Check Cashing Fees

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identified a check cashing store that charged consumers a 5% fee to cash a check^†. That comes to $50 for a $1,000 check.

Why give up $50 a paycheck just to have access to the money you’ve earned? At Huntington, we believe it’s important for you to keep more of your hard-earned money in your wallet, so you can spend it or save it for financial goals.

Convenience/Processing Fees

If you don’t have a checking account, you may need to log into the company’s website portal, who you’re paying the bill to, and pay directly, which could result in “convenience fees” or “processing fees.”

Convenience fees typically run 2%-3% of the bill^§. A checking account with Huntington gives you access to Bill Pay, which can easily allow you to schedule your bill payments through the Huntington online portal with no additional fees.

Money Order Fees

If you’re not able to pay your bills online or by check, you may have to get a money order to mail in a payment. Money order fees can vary, and these fees may need to be paid per payment^¥. These seem like small amounts of money, but they add up over the year.

Applying for a no minimum to open, no minimum balance checking account, like Asterisk- Free Checking^® with Huntington helps eliminate these unnecessary fees.

5. Funds Accessibility

Checking accounts provide the luxury of your money being readily available to you. Debit cards let you pay for items at checkout with a swipe of your card. You don’t have to worry about carrying cash, but you can still get cash at an ATM if you want it. With our mobile banking tools, account alerts, and online banking portal, you have access to what you need to know: your account balance, what’s cleared the bank, what’s still pending, and the availability of your funds.

6. Financial Security

Keeping your money with you in cash may seem like a secure way to handle it, but cash can easily get lost or, worse, stolen. At Huntington, we take your account security very seriously. We are an FDIC-insured bank, which means your money is protected up to the FDIC insurance limits. The standard insurance amount provided by the FDIC is $250,000 per dispositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category^‡.

For more information regarding deposit insurance provided by the FDIC, visit their website.

Also, some people worry about the security of banking online. At Huntington, we take precautions to help make online banking more secure. For example, Huntington’s online banking is a secure, SSL-encrypted system. Also, if you lose your debit card, you can lock your card online or from your smartphone.

Checking accounts can help save you time and money. You can open a checking account online and put your money to work for your financial goals.