Checking accounts have a lot of obvious benefits. They’re a safe place to keep your money that lets you pay your creditors and provides a paper trail that can help you keep track of which bills you’ve paid.
However, a checking account also has some less obvious benefits. Once you know what they are, you’ll gain an entirely new appreciation for checking accounts.
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Checking Accounts Teach Financial Literacy
When you get a checking account, you also get a crash course in basic financial literacy. Checking accounts show you the importance of maintaining a positive balance in your account and give you experience in paying bills, writing checks and making sure that you have the money you need to cover your basic living expenses. This benefit can be especially important for children.
Once you’ve mastered those basic financial literacy skills you can move on to more advanced skills, such as creating a budget and setting financial goals.
Checking Accounts Raise Your Credit Score
One of the factors that credit reporting bureaus use to calculate your credit score is the age of the oldest account you still have open. For many people, that’s their first checking account.
Even if you closed your oldest checking account, your current checking account can still help your raise your credit score. It can show credit reporting bureaus that you pay your bills on time, which is an even bigger factor in determining your credit score than the age of your account.
Checking Accounts Save Money
When you get a checking account, you don’t have to rely on predatory financial services like a check cashing service or Pay Day loans, both of which charge a lot of money for their services. Using a checking account instead can save you a lot of money.
Checking accounts can also save you money if the financial institution you bank at has an online bill payment service. By setting up your online bill payment service to automatically pay your bills, you can avoid late payment fees and save even more money.
Checking Accounts Make Your Money More Accessible
Ironically, you get more access to your money when it’s in a checking account than you’d get even if you simply got each paycheck in cash. While you can use your debit card to pay for purchases the same way you could with cash, you can also write checks or pay your bills through your institution’s online bill payment system, transfer money between accounts and even transfer money to accounts in other financial institutions.
Open a Checking Account at First Alliance Credit Union
A checking account can give you several obvious advantages. However, there are some less obvious advantages that can provide some solid advantages on your journey to financial success.
If you’d like to get first-hand experience with the advantages of a checking account, become a member of First Alliance Credit Union today. In addition to being able to deposit and withdraw money at any time, thanks to our Advisor Supported Kiosks, you’ll also be able to use our robust online banking platform and mobile app to pay your bills, monitor your accounts and transfer your funds quickly and easily.
