Comments on: How to Avoid Rising Bank Fees

By: Gila

Gila — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:42:43 +0000

My worst experience ever was with my CHASE credit card.
I had been a long time customer and always paid on time and more than the minimum payments.
First the Chase bank lured me into a very good deal, where the interest rate was low (4.99%) until the money was paid of. Then, Chase changed the credit card payment terms and my minimum monthly payments jumped to almost triple the previous monthly payments.
I heard that Chase has done this to many costumers already, causing great hardship to people. Trying to negotiate with the bank was fruitless.
After getting out of this “nightmare” I will never again do business with Chase.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:59:37 +0000

Unfortunately a lot of these protection services are not available in all countries. Banks want money money and more money. So many dont offer protection or services that allow you to limit fees

By: Andrew Conkling

Andrew Conkling — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:37:01 +0000

Brody, not sure if you were talking to me, but I don’t have Overdraft Protection on my accounts. The problem would come with online transactions, especially automated ones.

By: brody

brody — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:09:04 +0000

Call your bank right now and tell them you want the overdraft “protection” for your account removed immediately so that any purchase beyond $0 is rejected. Ask to speak to a supervisor, then tell him you’ll be canceling the account if they don’t remove this “convenience”.

By: Andrew Conkling

Andrew Conkling — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:02:39 +0000

In my experience, Wachovia has been the worst, e.g. $35/individual overdraft transaction. They have Overdraft Protection too, but they’ll charge you $10/overdraft transfer for that. (Yes, seriously.) I’ve been much better with my money since using Mint, but it still happens from time to time.

I switched to ING Direct’s Electric Orange account a few months ago and have been quite pleased. They have a Checking Line of Credit, basically like a “credit card” for overdrafts, which has completely eradicated that cost for me. (I’ve had three overdrafts since then, saving me $105!) Plus, it’s nice to have all my accounts in one place; I already had my savings account with them.

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By: Rajeev TIPS

Rajeev TIPS — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:20:19 +0000

I agree that we need to absolutely cut down on these habits which allows banks to earn out of us.. the fee based income for most of the banks is high due to these charges that they levy on us.. Stay out of this by choosing the correct account for you.. do some shopping as suggested in the article. In India soon the ATM withdrawl charges will be waived off and thats a welcome change.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:14:55 +0000

Wells Fargo are the worst at charging fees. They also send out the slowest letters that take about a week to reach you, meaning if you hadn’t realised you could end up spending $30 a day in fees.

I was fortunate one christmas to get a bonus, i was stupid enough to deposit the slip instead of the check. It took WF one week and $30 a DAY charges. In other words, I spent $210 in fees for that mistake, for a $120 bonus. Thanks Wells.

Even today they continue to blindside me with fees. I keep moving away from them, and the banks I moved to in the past were bought by them. Sad.

Now happily with HSBC which allow me to transfer funds between countries for no charge. Wells charged $30-$50 per foreign transaction.

Thank you Mint for pointing out there are choices!!

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By: Anurag Mishra

Anurag Mishra — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:22:35 +0000

I use hsbcdirect for checking and savings and avoid most of these fees. I do not need a checkbook with these accounts and that saves me some money as well. As an addon I earn interest for the time money is in the bank.

By: Chike

Chike — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:56:17 +0000

After 15 years with Wells Fargo, I’m moving my accounts to Schwab Bank for this very reason.

Wells is a great bank (I love their website & bill pay) but their accounts either pay low interest or none at all, and the fees are high. ($12/mo if I go below $2500 in a standard checking account? So I loan you $2500 a month and get no interest on that? Less than 1% interest on a savings account? No thanks).

While yields pretty much suck across the board, there are so many options available now there’s no reason to pay fees or have to deal with minimums on any account.

ATM fees are a non-issue and I haven’t paid them in years. You get a double hit that often costs you $5 total for the transaction, and all because you were too lazy or disorganized. Not worth it.

Worst fee experience was a bank trying to assess a $20 fee on their credit card *after* I voluntarily closed the account.

That, and those times in my 20s when I’d get hit with a series of $30 NSF fees for < $20 transactions, etc.

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By: Drew Wilder-Goodwin

Drew Wilder-Goodwin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:08:01 +0000

I use ING Direct to save money and avoid fees. Not only are they nearly absent of fees compared to other banks, but they also have the advantage that their checking account comes with an overdraft line of credit, free of charge, to help buffer against overdrafts. If you overspend your checking account, the overdraft line of credit will automatically kick in to cover the difference. There are no fees associated with using the line of credit, so long as you pay it off soon (otherwise, it’s charged interest just as a credit card would be).

I used to get hit with fees all the time, now I simply never have to worry about it. I’ve saved so much money with ING Direct, *and* it’s the only bank I’ve ever had that pays interest on both checking and savings. Furthermore, the interest rate on their checking account is STILL higher than the interest rate on most other banks savings accounts.

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