When my sister was in college, she used the ATM a lot. Whenever she needed some money, she’s go to the machine and pull out $20. Sometimes she’d check her balance. Then one day she realized, or my dad realized, that she was using an out of network ATM which charged around $5-7 (combined) each time she withdrew money. For every $20 she withdrew, she was paying a $7 fee. Every time she checked her balance, that’s another fee. Over the course of a semester, she racked up around $100 in unnecessary fees. In her case, she wasn’t aware it was happening but it’s a hard pill to swallow nonetheless.

Fortunately, with a few quick tips, being dinged by ATM fees is completely avoidable.

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Credit Unions kick ass.

If you found yourself complaining about the “Too Big To Fail Banks” and still have your money at one of the TBTF banks, then you, my friend, have lost the right to complain. If you want to remedy that, or if you simply want better rates, then a credit union is a fantastic almost-perfect substitute for a commercial bank.

The key difference between a credit union and a commercial bank is that the depositors and borrowers of a credit union are its shareholders. With a commercial bank, the shareholders are the owners of its public stock or investors in the corporation. When the credit union counts you as a shareholder, it gives you better rates on your deposits (high yield savings accounts may still offer higher rates) and better rates on your loans. Finally, credit unions are NCUA insured up to $250,000, just like commercial banks and the FDIC, so your money is safe.

The main trade off is that credit unions are smaller and so they lack the enormous geographic footprint of much larger banks.

So how do you find a good credit union?

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There are five finance related accounts in the personal finance world that I think every single person must have and they should get it as soon as possible. They run the gamut of the obvious, an accessible checking account, to the not so obvious, a high yield savings account (as surprising as it sounds, this is not obvious to most people because they are amazed when I tell them you can get 5% from a regular savings account). So, please enjoy this list of five accounts you absolutely must have and three that you absolutely must avoid.

These Five Accounts You Absolutely Must Have

1. High Yield Online Savings Account

Number one definite must have account is a high yield savings account getting you at least 4%, at the very very least. If you assume inflation at around 3%, anything less and you’re losing money. Take your pick of ING Direct, FNBO Direct, Emigrant Direct, Citi, and you’ll get over 4%. My recommendation is that if you have a Citi or an HSBC bank account, go with one of them because your transfers will be instant between accounts. If you don’t, I use FNBO Direct but both they and HSBC offer 5.05% APY.

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