Good-bye Checking Account, Hello Prepaid Card

The big banks are tired of you leeching off them.

For years, they have given you free checking in the hopes you would also take out a mortgage, run up your credit card balance or stash away a tidy sum in your savings account. But instead, you've been content to use your checking account and bypass the bank's other offerings. In short, you aren't making them any money.

So the free ride is ending at many banks. Big names such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase have either enacted fees or restrictions that make their free checking not so free or are said to be planning these changes. According to a Wall Street Journal report, bank customers must now maintain an average minimum checking balance of $723 to avoid fees.

What's more, the average monthly fee on non-interest bearing checking accounts has risen to a record $5.48. Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, but then you have your rising ATM fees, overdraft fees and even, at some institutions, maybe even debit card usage fees.

Enter the prepaid credit cards

To avoid fees and keep spending in check, recent reports suggest more Americans may be turning to prepaid credit cards and debit cards instead of traditional checking accounts. Prepaid cards offer the opportunity to load a preset amount of money onto a card which can then be used anyplace the sponsoring card issuer -- typically Visa, MasterCard or American Express -- is accepted.

A recent study from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found one in four households have used alternative financial services, such as prepaid debit cards and credit cards, in the past year. In addition, 10 percent of households have no checking account, which may indicate some consumers are skipping their local bank and exclusively using a reloadable card to manage their money.

Walmart hopes Bluebird will soar

While the American Bankers Association reports nearly 60 percent of banks offer their customers prepaid cards, the game-changer for 2013 may be the introduction of American Express's Bluebird card.

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