Better Than Your Debit Card (For Travel)
Summary: If you do a lot of international travel, apply for an account online.
I've mentioned Ally Bank twice already for having the best savings/money market and checking accounts, but that is not quite true. If you use their savings account, then it doesn't make sense not to get their checking account out of convenience, seeing that it's free and almost certainly comes with less fees than your current one. But what about when you're outside the US?
Ally’s checking account charges much less than most banks for foreign ATM and transaction fees,
$1.50 +1% for ATM withdrawals and 1% for foreign purchases to be exact. But when you're somewhere like the Philippines where ATMs can charge $5-$10 per withdrawal, the last thing you want is more stinky fees.