Students Bank Account : Free Checkings account

Basically there are 2 types of bank accounts here in U.S.

1) Checking Account ( No interest )
2) Savings Account ( Small interest, say 1% )

There are different varieties of account within checking and savings. But during student life, checking account is more than enough.

Almost the banks ( local, national, credit union banks) offer free checking account.

Local Bank: Banks that will be located only within your state, or just in the town where your school is located.

National Banks: These banks will have branch almost all over the United States. To name a few,

Bank of America
Wells Fargo
Wachovia
Washington Mutual (wamu)

Credit Unions: Lets talk about that later. Just say its a local bank.

But, it depends on other factors like, how close is that bank to university campus. In some schools, only local bank will have ATM/Branch within the campus. National bank's ATM/ Branch will be little far to do your banking needs.

In that case you can go ahead and open your account in local bank. If you have any national bank nearby, I strongly recommend to open the account with them.

More about the banks to come.... also feel free to compare the interest rate with bank youare opening the account and HSBC Direct
Students Bank Account :Bank Deals