Many Americans were outraged last month when Bank of America announced that it would start billing checking customers $5 a month to use their debit cards. Other major banks said they will soon be charging similar charges. However, with a little effort, an individual can discover a high-yield bank account with a local financial institution, a regional financial institution or a credit union that will pay you to utilize that same debit card. Resource for this article: A high-yield checking account is fee free and may even pay you

What you've to do

To be able to keep a fee-free high-yield checking account, you need to follow some rules. Those rules will vary from institution to institution, but generally are similar.

A debit card has to be swiped about ten times a month as a charge card - requiring a signature instead of a PIN. All statements must be emailed. Each month, a direct deposit or ACH transfer has to be made. If you choose an ACH transfer, you have to use automatic bill pay.

In addition to the lack of fees, these accounts will pay a modest interest, usually between 2 and 3 percent. They'll reimburse charges if you use an ATM from another bank often.

Banks to be found

Type as part of your zip code and enter at CheckFinder.com if you need to discover a bank with high-yield checking accounts.

Local banks can afford to pay interest to some checking consumers since the needs for keeping the account reduce the bank’s printing and mailing cost. A little charge is given to the financial institution with every debit swipe too. Banks used to earn about 44 cents per swipe. That fee was recently capped at 24 cents, prompting Bank of America and others to charge the debit card fees. However, some smaller banks are still willing to share part of that fee with you and not charge more on top of it.

Attempting to get it free

You could not be interested in an additional high-yield account. You are able to still effortlessly get a free bank account without charges. Free beats charge any day.

Information from

CheckingFinder

Daily Finance

Consumerist