Best Checking Accounts and Rates – July 2026

Funds in your bank checking account are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and similarly protected in federal credit unions by the National Credit Union Administration. Individuals are insured for their deposit accounts – checking, savings, money market and CDs – up to a combined total of $250,000. This takes care of protecting your money against a bank failure, but what about other kinds of protection?

If your debit card is lost or stolen, you should call your bank or credit union immediately and report the incident. This will help you avoid being liable for any unauthorized charges made by a thief.

Most banks will cancel your previous debit card and send you another one with a new number. Log into your account frequently after the theft or loss occurs and monitor it to see if there are any transactions you don’t recognize and inform your bank as soon as possible.

The Fair Credit Billing Act and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act protect consumers against fraudulent charges on a debit card within parameters. If you contact your bank within two business days and the fraudulent charges have already occured, your maximum liability is $50. Within 60 days after the bank mails your statement, the maximum liability is $500. If you wait more than 60 days after you receive the next statement, you are responsible for the entire amount of unauthorized charges.

One major concern for consumers is if your account or debit card number is stolen by hackers.

These days, checking accounts are a fairly safe bet when it comes to protecting your deposits from technical attacks by cybercriminals, says Nathan Wenzler, senior director of cybersecurity at Moss Adams, a Seattle-based accounting, consulting and wealth management firm.

“What we commonly see in movies where a hacker breaks in and stealthily transfers all of the money a bank holds into an offshore account isn’t very realistic, as most banks are heavily regulated and have put in fairly strong technical controls,” he says. “Most people can rest assured that their money is safe from a direct hacking assault launched from the outside.”

The concern lies with many forms of online attacks that are successful at siphoning money from individual checking accounts. These kinds of attacks can range from identity theft that allows a hacker to pretend to be the legitimate owner of your account to the use of phishing emails to gain access to your system and then your banking credentials to steal the funds right from your accounts.

Unauthorized use of your debit card is also becoming common, says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra, a San Jose, California-based provider of automated threat management solutions.

“I worry even more about credit card skimmers at the gas pump,” he says. “Yes, I check every single gas pump before I ever stick a card in the slot. That is the easiest way for someone to grab a credit card or debit card details. This is information a thief would then use to make online purchases, which in the case of a debit card would withdraw money directly from a bank account.”

Criminals can also gain access to your checking account through your mobile phone, says Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at Thycotic, a Washington, D.C.-based provider of privileged account management solutions.

“Storing money in a checking account is completely OK, but the methods on which you make transactions is what increases the risks, such as mobile and internet banking,” he says. “If cybercriminals obtain access to your checking account as a result of poorly secured mobile phones, websites or via phishing scams, you could quickly have your account emptied and owe money to the bank. It is much safer to use a credit card to make online purchases … (which) limits direct access to your money.”