With all of these competitive new online banks competing with brick-and-mortar locations for excellent checking accounts, banks are starting to offer Premium Checking products.
Premium Checking accounts come with steep monthly fees compared to your normal checking accounts, but you get a lot of benefits in return. Some of these benefits include things like high interest rates, free ATMs and ATM reimbursements, and these perks will carry over to other linked accounts at the same bank.
These benefits sound great and all, but you’re probably still wondering if these perks will outweigh the costs of having a premium checking account. Continue reading below to see how we break down the benefits and cost of owning this time of account.
What Is Premium Checking?
Basically, premium checking accounts are bank accounts that offer premium features such as high interest, and ATM rebates for customers in good standing.
A good example of a popular premium checking account would be Chase’s new Sapphire Banking, which combines with the popular Chase Sapphire credit card brand into the banking side of the business.
Perks that come from these types of accounts tend to be substantially better than regular checking accounts, but they still come with some downsides you should know about. One such downside is the high monthly fees, ranging from $25 to $30, or a high bar to waive those fees.
The Most Popular Premium Checking Accounts
Some of the best examples of premium checking accounts today come from big banks that most people will know. Here is a small list of what they have to offer:
Chase — Chase Sapphire Banking
Although this comes with a steep monthly fee, it can be waived for account holders with a certain balance in linked Chase accounts, including savings and investments. This specific account comes with free ATMs including an automatic reimbursement from ATM fees when using out of network ATMs. Some of your linked accounts may even qualify for better interest rates. If you are a holder of this account, you can also waive fees for a linked Chase Business Checking account.
Bank of America — Preferred Rewards
To persuade users to expand their banking network with Bank Of America, this account stacks with the monthly interest earned from other accounts to earn you the maximum rewards. Additionally, you can earn free ATMs fees, and loan discounts. To summarize, a high balance will waive the Interest Checking fee and a high combined balance will lead to better rewards.
Citibank — Citigold
Citigold is Citibank’s premium checking account and the account’s goal is to widen customers’ relationship with the bank. Some of these perks include ATM fee refunds, waived fees for some banking activity, free checkbooks, and discounted investment trades at Citi Personal Wealth Management.
U.S. Bank — Platinum Checking
U.S. Bank has Platinum Checking as their premium checking account and has a monthly fee with electronic statements. However, you can waive the fee by maintaining a certain balance. Additionally, this interest-bearing account comes with free MoneyPass and US Bank ATMs (no rebates), no-fee overdraft protection transfers, check discounts, safe deposit box discounts, and an ability to share some benefits with family members.
Wells Fargo — Portfolio
Wells Fargo offers their very own Portfolio checking account for a pretty steep monthly fee that can be waived if you have a certain balance across your accounts. This account gives customers perks including an interest rate bonus and fee waivers, as well as no fees for ATM transactions.
Bottom Line
Although these premium checking accounts have some great features that you want to take advantage of, it’s important to compare them to their non-premium counterparts to see if you’re really getting a good deal.
For example, some of these great features are already available on no-fee accounts from popular online banks such as Capital One, Ally, and Charles Schwab. If you’re interested posts like this, check out our Bank Guides listings!
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