Thu, 11/14/2013 – 12:47

#1

Saving Money: Bank Fees

I saved some money this morning by finally getting around to doing something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. I have two “free checking” accounts with a bank and they’ve been fine (meaning truly free) for about 10 years now.

So suddenly the one starts tacking a $5/month fee on. Totally free checking? No more apparently! So I had to go into the brick and mortar office and see what was going on. Turns out the “mother bank” made some big changes to all the branches and if I hadn’t gone in, the second account would have also started taking $5/month in December! 🙁

They found the best account option for me and I’ll be saving that $10 a month. I had planned to just empty the one account with a check for the balance, but then I wondered if that would cause overdraft fees from the second account when they went to remove the $5 and it wasn’t there. (Found out it would have!)

I’m thinking right now that the worse the economy gets for individuals, the more businesses start with the “additional fees” so that they don’t lose money themselves… which makes the individual’s financial health even worse. Huge vicious cycle!