How we rank checking accounts
Every ordering on this site is produced by code you can read about here. There is no editorial thumb on the scale.
Where the data comes from
Account records come from the CFE Fund's Bank On National Data (BOND) Hub roster of certified accounts, combined with the fee schedules the institutions themselves publish.
Monthly fees, opening deposits, overdraft policies, and feature flags are the institutions' own published figures. They are not our estimates and we do not adjust them.
The four sort modes
On any results page you can choose how the list is ordered:
- Recommended — ordered by the score below, highest first.
- Lowest fees — ordered by monthly maintenance fee, lowest first, with the opening deposit breaking ties.
- Most free ATMs — ordered by the number of surcharge-free ATMs, highest first.
- Local first — local institutions, then regional, then national, with the recommended score breaking ties inside each group.
The recommended score
The score is a sum of points awarded from published account terms. Higher is better, and the maximum possible score is 90.
| Factor | Points |
|---|---|
| No overdraft fees | +30 |
| $0 monthly maintenance fee | +25 |
| Monthly fee above $0 | 25 minus 5 points per dollar of monthly fee, never below 0 |
| Opening deposit of $25 or less | +15 |
| Opening deposit above $25 | +5 |
| Mobile check deposit | +10 |
| Online bill pay | +10 |
Maximum score: 90 points.
What the score deliberately ignores
- Interest rate or APY
- Branch count and physical footprint
- Brand recognition or size
- Any commercial relationship we have with the institution
Limitations
- Fees change without notice, and an institution can revise its schedule before our next refresh.
- ZIP-to-state mapping is done by USPS prefix, so a ZIP code near a state line may return accounts from the neighbouring state's roster.
- Always verify the current terms directly with the institution before opening an account.
Reporting an error and review cadence
If a fee, feature, or link is wrong, tell us and we will check it against the institution's published schedule and correct it.
The full roster is reviewed against the BOND Hub and the ranking code is re-checked on a quarterly cycle, plus whenever a reader reports a discrepancy.
More about this projectAbout the author
Brian Farrey
Founder & Editor
Brian Farrey is a technology executive who has spent his career building data systems for operations-heavy businesses. He built LowCostChecking.com after finding that the CFE Fund's Bank On certified account roster — the best public list of no-overdraft-fee checking accounts in the United States — existed only as static documents, with no way to search it by ZIP code.
More about this project