A lot of folks think they have free checking, but they don’t.
A lot of folks know they don’t have free checking, and wonder if it exists.
Free checking does exist.
First, you should know that the United States Government has defined free checking in something we like called The Truth in Savings Act. It’s a little dry, but you can look it up yourself at http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-3400.html (it’s hiding in Section 263c).
[Codified to 12 U.S.C. 4302(c)]
[Source: Section 263(c) of title II of the Act of December 19, 1991 (Pub. L. No. 102–242; 105 Stat. 2335), effective December 19, 1991; as added by section 957(a)(3) of title IX of the Act of October 28, 1992 (Pub. L. No. 102–550; 106 Stat. 3896), effective October 28, 1992; section 2604(b) of title II of the Act of September 30, 1996 (Pub. L. No. 104–208; 110 Stat. 3009–471), effective September 30, 1996]
(d) MISLEADING DESCRIPTIONS OF FREE OR NO-COST ACCOUNTS PROHIBITED.–No advertisement, announcement, or solicitation made by any depository institution or deposit broker may refer to or describe an account as a free or no-cost account (or words of similar meaning) if–
(1) in order to avoid fees or service charges for any period–
(A) a minimum balance must be maintained in the account during such period; or
(B) the number of transactions during such period may not exceed a maximum number; or
(2) any regular service or transaction fee is imposed.