Here's what they had to say about checking accounts. (Some text may be lightly edited for clarity.)
What are some good qualities to look for in a checking account?
Roger Ma, CFP® professional and author of "Work Your Money, Not Your Life":
"I would look at the ATM branch locations and then minimum balance amounts to not incur a monthly fee … I think there's other stuff that could make life easier, whether it's free checks, online bill pay, are they in the Zelle network?"
Sophia Acevedo, banking editor,Business Insider:
"I would look for a checking account that either doesn't have any monthly service fees or offers multiple ways to waive the fee. I would also look at customer support availability and mobile app ratings."
How can someone find the right bank?
Tania Brown, CFP® professional and vice president of coaching strategy at OfColor:
"Obviously, you want to make sure it's FDIC insured. Also, your banking experience — do you like walking into a bank? Well, then you need someone local. Do you just not care if you ever see your bank? Then you're okay online. Do you write checks? Do you not write checks? So it's thinking through how your experience with it is going to be before you make that decision."
Mykail James, MBA, certified financial education instructor, BoujieBudgets.com:
"The No. 1 thing about a checking account is you should know what provider the debit card is coming from. And a lot of people don't think about that, because there are places that don't accept MasterCard or don't accept Amex."
Methodology: How We Determined the Best Checking Accounts
At Business Insider, we strive to help smart people make the best decisions with their money. We spent hours comparing and contrasting the features and fine print of 200 checking accounts, so you don't have to.
Business Insider's personal finance team is editorially independent, which means our business team does not decide how we cover products and what we write about. Read more about how we rate and review products on our editorial standards page.
We understand that "best" is often subjective, however, so in addition to highlighting the clear benefits of a checking account — no fees, for example — we outline the limitations, too.
We considered 200 checking account offerings using our bank account methodology to determine the strongest options for the best checking accounts.
We gave precedence to no-monthly-fee checking accounts or those with the option to waive monthly fees with qualifying activities, overdraft protection options, widespread ATM access and/or reimbursement for ATM fees, and mobile banking capabilities.
We rate bank products on a scale from one to five stars. If a checking account has a rating of one star, that's the lowest possible, and it means the bank account requires significant improvement. If a checking account has five stars, that's the highest rating possible, and it's considered a superior option.
For checking accounts, we look at minimum opening deposit requirements, monthly service fees, overdraft protection options, ATM network/fees, customer support availability, mobile app ratings, miscellaneous features and overall ethics and security of the company. We score each of these features on a scale of zero to five, then calculate the weighted average to get an account's final rating.