If you do have an outstanding balance with a bank how can you open a cheking account with another bank?

Most bank report to a company call Chex Systems. They are a credit bureau that are used for reporting on deposit accounts at banks instead of loans. If the bank you owe money to reports to chex systems and the bank you wish to open an account at uses chex systems more then likely you will need to pay the other account off first. That doesn't mean that you can't find a bank that will open an account for you it will just be difficult to do. The best thing would be to just pay the bank what you owe money to. Most banks aren't going to open an account with an outstanding amount owed to another bank because they don't want you to do the same thing to them.