I have two words for you.

Multiple banks.

/pick and choose the best features from each bank, while avoiding the worst features.

/yeah, I have accounts with ING as well :P

I use the Virginia Credit Union. No checking fees, free ATM if I use the WAWA, and friendly, helpful employees.

Easier to blame than to find yourself in that situation sometimes.

As long as you can keep sufficient funds in your account to pay all your re-occuring bills by "auto pay" the Credit Card scammers can never nail you for "late payment fees", even tho they keep changing the dates around to trap you.
One less thing to worry about in these "trying times".

My current CU reimburses me up to $4 a month so I really don't worry anymore. If I know I go over that, I'll just get cash back from a store.

I stay completely away from the big banks... In West Michigan I used Macatawa Bank, with free checking and no ATM fees and they refund the foreign ones automatically. In Dallas/Fort Worth, I now use Bank of Texas, same thing but to get a rebate for your foreign ATM fees you need to send in a form with receipts... no big deal.

And keep a good buffer in your checking account, to cover things you haven't budgeted for. And, for God's sake (Pete's sake for you athiests), make a budget! And then you will never need to worry about overdrafts.

I don't get why the banking industry needs to treat new money-handling systems like they are still on the old ones.

How much do they get you for each time?

Did that while I was in New Orleans, when I needed cash. Only major banks that I saw everywhere were Chase, Capital One and Whitney Bank.

I had a Washington Mutual and Commerce Bank debit card at that time. Bought a low priced item at Walgreens and asked for $20/$40 cash back. Not only did I sidestep the ATM fees, I also was up 12 cents (3 cents with each debit purchase, for what its worth) too.

Ironic. Now, Chase and WaMu customers can use each others ATMs free of charge and North Fork Bank in NYC has been rebranded to Capital One. All of them just shortly after I came back from NOLA.

NSF: Keep an eye on your savings, and have checking & savings linked to cover "overdrafts". My local bank charges a paltry $5 for emptying your checking in one transaction. I have NEVER paid an actual overdraft or NSF fee of double-digit magnitude.

ATM surcharge: I'll give you that one. However, that's why I switched to a bank that covers ATM fees from competing banks up to a certain amount each month. If I can help it, I will NEVER do business at a bank that charges fees for their own ATM's.

Interest checking account: Each bank has their own definition of such an account, so I'll just take your word for it. I had a Money Market Checking account with Countrywide until recently, but I doubt the minimum to avoid fees was above $1000.

Average minimum to open online checking account: Never had one, so I can't comment.

The two banks I happily use right now are:

HSBC: Still has one of the highest CD and online savings rates in the nation. At the least, they have the best minimum-balance to return-rate ratios. Both, I believe, have $1 minimums to collect interest. Early withdrawal fee for the CD is a meager one month's interest.

National City (to be PNC): Fee-free checking, free checks, ATM surcharge reimbursement, low or no minimum balances, rewards program (whether or not it sticks around after the merger, we'll have to see).

@Uglyshoe:
They do that because thats about the cost to send a check by express mail, so they figure that at least they saved you a trip to the post office.

Were not these "Synergies of Savings" from mergers supposed to bring down costs? Not that I'm insinuating that banks would raise fees because of less competition.

[www.schwab.com]

Was it ganked from Superdickery?

Applies to bank fees, gas prices, food prices, etc.

The one that has been a real pain to me is the "Unavailable Funds Fee" which in my case is the penalty for withdrawing money before it's cleared. With online banking and Quicken (or similar) it's easy to get ahead of yourself if you are not paying attention!

Granted, with USAA, Etrade ING or some other online banks you don't have to worry so that helps.

I know on campus we had a lot of bank reps come and open "college" accounts for students, only to upsell a different product with a minimum balance. We want it because it gives us something free (i.e. checks) and sounds better than a "student checking account."

I would've probably fallen for that had I not have already opened a free checking account from WaMu and an free interest bearing (no minimum account balance) from USBank.