Friday, October 11, 2013

Checking Fees, Unsurprisingly, Are Going Up

By Cornelius Nunev


MoneyRate releases a survey about every few months about checking charges and other bank charges and so on. Give credit where it's due, banking institutions are consistent, in that the fees are going up again.

Checking fees and other bank charges increasing a fact of life

Banking institutions have been adding more and more fees to try and see what they can get away with without losing consumers. Apparently they hit their threshold last year with the $5 debit card fees mistake Bank of American made last year. Banks will always make an effort to add extra fees.

There have been numerous rounds of bank fee increases noted already this year, and checking charges and bank fees are anticipated, as shown by a MoneyRate survey, to go upward a lot over the course of the year, according to Forbes. Banks are at least being consistent in the increases in fees.

Categories of increased fees

MoneyRate releases the survey every few months, using data from more than 100 banking institutions, according to CNN, including the 50 largest banking institutions. This edition of the survey found that, among other fees which were elevated, the minimum opening balance reached an average of $408.76, according to Forbes, up from $391.41 in the previous survey.

Overdraft fees, which many people keep away from by getting payday loans and are often a subject of frequent criticism of banks, increased slightly from $29.23 to $29.83.

The largest increase was in the minimum balance required to avoid account charges, which shot up more than $850 to $4,446.57, a 24 percent increase from the previous survey, when it was $3,590.83.

Larger banking institutions were charging more fees than smaller ones, which is to be expected. The average large bank charged $13.88 in account fees while medium and small banking institutions saw an average of $11.87 and $9.88. Average monthly service fees increased from $11.28 to $12.08. The yearly cost averages $145, according to CNN, considering the monthly fees.

Out of network ATM charges increased 18 cents to $1.29, though regular ATM charges hardly increased also. There was a three cent increase for non-customer ATMs to $2.40.

Credit unions offer checking totally free

Only 21 percent of big banking institutions offer free checking right now, and 46 percent of small banks offer it too. Only 35 percent of banking institutions total offer free checking, which is a decrease from 39 percent last year.

Credit unions are the very best option for getting accounts with no checking fees still. About 76 percent of credit unions in a Bankrate survey offered free checking, which has now declined to 72 percent of the nation's largest credit unions, according to the Chicago Tribune. That is still much better than banks.




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