Unsurprisingly, Checking Fees Going Up Again

By Cornelius Nunev


Bank fees, in a recent survey, were found to have gone down considerably, as banks have stated they want to get back to serving customers. In Bizarro World! Just joking; bank fees, including checking charges and so forth were found to have increased again in a recent MoneyRate survey.

Checking charges and other bank charges increasing a fact of life

Whenever possible, banking institutions will add more charges. Last year, Bank of America tried to charge a $5 monthly debit card fee, which ended in catastrophe. Banks are always attempting to see what they can get away with when it comes to charging additional charges.

However, if anything, banking institutions can be credited for consistency. Last year, banking account fees such as checking account fees and so forth went through several rounds of raises. Many rounds of bank fee increases have been noted already this year. A newly released survey by MoneyRate.com, according to Forbes, has revealed that checking fees and other bank fees, are indeed trending upward again this year.

Overdraft charges higher

The MoneyRate survey showed that average opening balances increased from $391.41 to $408.76, according to Forbes. There were other fee increases seen in the survey, which is released every six months. The survey looks at over 100 banking institutions worth of data including the 50 largest banking institutions, according to CNN.

Overdraft charges, which many people stay away from by getting payday loans and are often a subject of frequent criticism of banking institutions, increased slightly from $29.23 to $29.83.

There was an increase from $3,590.83 to $4,446.57 in the minimum account balance required to keep away from charges. That is a 24 percent increase, and it was the biggest increase.

Considering monthly service fees increased from $11.28 to $12.08, the average amount paid for an account per year was $145, CNN pointed out. Medium banking institutions averaged $11.87 service charges while small banks had $9.88 service charges. Average large banks charged $13.88 in account charges. It is obvious that larger banking institutions charge much more than smaller banking institutions do.

The cost of using an ATM hardly changed unless it is for out-of-network ATMs, in which case it increased to $1.29, an 18 cent increase. There was also a rise to $2.40 for the average non-customer ATM fee. That is a three percent increase.

Best choice credit unions for free checking

Overall, free checking is accessible at 35 percent of banking institutions in the survey, compared to 39 percent last year. Again, it split by bank size, as only 21 percent of big banking institutions offer free checking, compared to 46 percent of small banks.

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




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