Back in the 1980s and some of the 1990s, I kept a checking account and linked savings account at my local bank. The money in the linked savings account met the minimum balance requirements to avoid fees and was not an onerous amount, in the $1,500-$3000 range. The checking account was the hub of my finances, taking in money from my paychecks while paying the bills, mostly through paper checks but gradually shifting to ACH. Any excess money, starting in the 1990s, left the bank to go to an investment company. My ATM card could be used at nearly any bank in the NYCE (New York Cash Exchange) system without fees, even at one other than my own bank.
But then came a bunch of bank mergers and takeovers in the mid-1990s. Banks began raising their minimum balances to avoid fees and charging fees to use another bank's ATM. The latter began the term, "double-dipping," where your own bank and the other bank each charged a fee, and for contradictory reasons. I didn't want to tie up more money earning nearly zilch to avoid a fee, so I combined the savings and checking accounts, forgoing the tiny interest the savings account was earning.
For a time the checking account paid some interest, a few pennies per month, a bigger hassle to keep track of than it was worth. I was actually relieved when that ended.
It took me a while to enroll in online banking but I was eager to add ACH to more of my monthly bills to reduce the checks I wrote. I still need to have a local bank to deposit 1-2 checks I get every month, get some cash, deposit some coins once in a while, and get cash. My local bank is very close by (walking distance), and has many branches in case I am out somewhere and need cash (this was important in my working days when I often got cash from ATMs near my office or Penn Station).
The balance I keep in the checking account covers the minimum balance requirements plus a small buffer or cushion which acts as a small, first-tier emergency fund, as it has since the late 1990s when I combined the checking and savings account.
