[rhino369]

"Free checking" is a relatively new practice in banking that really only caught fire after ATMs were invented. Banks would charge fees on transactions--like most financial services do.

Even now, most free checking accounts only require a certain amount of money, transactions they collect fees on, etc.

With interest rates so low, they don't make much just holding onto 500 dollars for someone.

Savings accounts had less fees, but you couldn't use them to write checks out of, etc.