Advantage Checking

Home
Personal Banking
Checking
Advantage Checking

Refer a Friend and You Could Earn up to $500!

Even family members. You do the math. When you tell your friends about First Merchants and they open a new First Merchants Personal Checking Account or Auto Loan, you could earn up to $500 a year when referring multiple friends!

First Merchants Advantage Checking

An interest-bearing account with special benefits created for clients who are frequent debit card users, receive monthly direct deposits or retain a balance and free for seniors.

Check Rates and Open an Account Now.

OR Use Your Location

Reset Location Print Rates

Jump to Category:

Features:

Earns interest
Money Market Account with Monthly Maintenance Fee Waived¹
Loan discounts of 0.25%²
50% discount on Personal Checks
Free Official Checks and Money Orders
Free ATMs nationwide with MoneyPass
Free Overdraft Protection Transfers from any linked account
Free Mobile and Text Banking
Free Online Banking including Bill Pay (must be 18 years of age for Bill Pay)
Quickly and easily send money to friends and family with Zelle^®. Available within our mobile app. ⁴
Free Enhanced MasterCard Debit Card with ID Theft Protection
Samsung Pay and Apple Pay
Free eStatements (paper statements are $3 per month)
First Merchants Advantage Checking is FREE for seniors (62 and older)

Additional Senior Benefits:

No monthly maintenance fee
Free Specialty Checks
Free Paper Statements

How to keep it free:

Make one direct deposit of at least $500 monthly³, OR
Make 15 debit card transactions per month, OR
Maintain $1,500 minimum combined personal deposit balances
Otherwise, $15 monthly maintenance fee.

Maximize your benefits by pairing this checking account with our Money Market Account. You can open it online at the same time.

Other service fees may apply. Please see our Banking Fees.

¹Monthly maintenance fee waived for statement cycles where you maintain an open First Merchants Elite or First Merchants Advantage account. If you have an open First Merchants Elite or First Merchants Advantage account and receive the $10 monthly maintenance fee on the Money Market account, the fee will be refunded on the next statement cycle.
²With automatic payments from a First Merchants checking account. Subject to credit approval, excludes first mortgage real estate loans and lines of credit, offer valid for consumer purpose installment loans only.
³Multiple deposits of less than $500 will not qualify to waive monthly maintenance fee.

Zelle and the Zelle related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.

⁴Must have a bank account in the U.S. to use Zelle.

Please see terms and conditions of First Merchants Mobile Banking.