Everyone needs a checking account.

Just follow our list of seven "gotta-have" features and you'll get a great one that's:

• Free, with no monthly fees, big minimum balance or charges for writing checks.
• Convenient, with electronic bill payment and up-to-the-second statements on your computer.
• Accessible, with debit cards that cost little -- or nothing -- to use at any ATM.

Checking accounts like that aren't hard to find.

Start with our extensive database of checking account rates and terms from across the country. You might find a great deal just down the street. Don't be surprised if many of the best accounts are at Internet banks. They're new, but safe, and we can show you how easy it is to get started with an online bank.

Then stop by a local credit union. These member-owned cooperatives usually have great checking accounts and are particularly helpful to low- and middle-income families, or 20-somethings just starting out in life.

Wherever you go, show them our list and tell them this is what you've just gotta-have:

First Gotta-Have: No fees

Don't sign up for any checking account that imposes:

Monthly maintenance fees. These will eat your wallet alive. Whether they're $5, $6 or $7 a month -- typical service charges from large banks -- they add up. Think about it. A $6 a month maintenance fee on your checking account adds up to $72 a year.

Per-check fees. There should be no charge and no limit on the number of checks your can write each month.

Starter check fee. Any bank that charges you for the blank starter checks that tide you over until your personalized checks come doesn't deserve your business.

Fees for paper statements. If getting a monthly statement in the mail is important to you, you shouldn't have to pay extra for it. (If you're happy with electronic statements, ignore this.)

Second Gotta-Have: No minimum balance

Free checking shouldn't be dependent on keeping $10,000, or $1,000 or even $100 in your account -- or a combination of accounts. You want a checking account that imposes no monthly fees even if your balance is $1.

If you've ever had a checking account with a minimum balance, odds are you've either gone below it and been hit with a fee or have wasted time worrying that you've gone below it and might be hit with a fee. Either way it's a hassle you don't need.

Third Gotta-Have: No fees for using your bank's ATMs

Virtually every checking account comes with a debit card -- which is like a credit card except that purchases and cash withdrawals are immediately deducted from your balance, just as if you wrote a check.

You should never, ever be charged for using that debit card at one of your bank or credit union's own ATMs. It doesn't matter if you're making a deposit, withdrawing cash or moving money between accounts. Any transaction should be free.

Fourth Gotta-Have: Low fees -- or no fees -- for using another bank's ATMs

When you use a debit card at another bank's ATM, you can be charged a fee by the other bank and your bank -- typically $2 to $3.50 a whack.

The gold standard is an account that imposes no fees for out-of-network ATMs and pays whatever fee the other bank imposes on you. In other words, it costs you nothing to use any ATM, no matter who owns it.

Most of the accounts that offer totally free ATM use require high-minimum balances or charge regular maintenance fees -- which you don't want -- or come from Internet banks. Since they have few, if any, ATMs of their own they're willing to pay to let you use other bank's machines.

Lacking that, look for a checking account that charges minimal fees for using out-of-network ATMs -- 50 cents, say -- and reimburses you for some of the fees you pay to other banks -- $4 or $6 a month.

Fifth Gotta-Have: Free online bill payment

The days of being charged to pay your bills over the Internet -- or to conduct any type of online transaction, such as moving money from one account to another -- are long gone.

Sixth Gotta-Have: Free Overdraft Link

Bouncing checks is one of the most expensive banking mistakes you can make. Most banks charge from $25 to $40 for "insufficient funds" and the business that the check was bounced on probably charges a fee as well. Ouch.

Bounce a couple of checks and the fees add up fast. So what to do?

The best solution is a checking account that allows you a free link to another account in the same financial institution, such as a savings account.

With such a set up, the credit union or bank will transfer $50 to $100 from your savings account to your checking account if you become overdrawn.

Avoid banks that want you to use a credit card for overdraft protection.

Any money transferred to your checking account will be treated like a cash advance. You'll be charged a transaction fee and interest until the loan is paid off.

If the transfer pushes you over your credit limit, you'll have to pay a penalty fee and a higher interest rate on your credit card balance.

Seventh Gotta-Have: Checks paid "smallest to largest"

Banks and credit unions use one of two systems for processing checks.

The bad way is to pay the biggest checks first. If the first couple of checks overdraw your account, that allows the bank to bounce all of the smaller transactions, charging a fee for each of them.

The good way is to process the smallest payments first. If that final, big check overdraws your account, you only get dinged for one penalty fee.

Look for a checking account agreement that says "items presented for payment on the same day will be paid in amount order, smallest to largest," not "we reserve the right to honor checks in any order we may choose."

A final piece of advice: Some stores and Web sites are pushing prepaid debit cards as an alternative to checking accounts.

They're not. Not even the best of the bunch, the Wal-Mart Money Card.

Prepaid debit cards offer less, cost more -- usually a lot more -- and are no easier to obtain than a checking account. Federal law requires applicants to provide the same information, and present a government identification card, to obtain either one.

By Amy Buttell Crane

Interest.com Contributing Editor

Have a question about your finances? Ask us at editors@interest.com