The web has made finding the best deals on banking so incredibly easy. It's gotten to where you can just pop in your zip code to see if a small community bank or credit union has a great deal available near you.

For example, some checking accounts come with very high interest rates because they're essentially funded by retailers! Merchants pay exorbitant fees whenever you run a debit transaction as a credit card and sign for it. So the bank, in essence, rips off the merchant and then passes along a part of the bounty to you.

This is similar to a checking account equivalent of a credit card company offering big cash back rewards funded by heavy merchant fees, according to Clark.

CheckingFinder.com is one website where you can search by zip code for high-interest checking account offers. The consumer champ popped in his zip and found 2 banks paying at least 4% on their accounts.

Most of these kinds of accounts will require you to do a certain number of debit card transactions each month and they may have other requirements as well.