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.

A good checking account will have (ranked in order of subjective importance):

No fees, particularly monthly maintenance, incoming wire, etc

ATM Fee Reimbursement: ATM fees from other banks are reimbursed

Ask yourself: “Why is my bank better than the other banks?” If you don’t really know, you are missing out on free money, plain and simple. So what should you look for in a better savings account?

A good savings account will have (ranked loosely in order of importance):

No Fees- particularly monthly maintenance, incoming wire, other ATM fees etc.