Checking account fees rose significantly this year and free accounts became even more rare, a new survey from Bankrate.com found, as banks look for ways to make money from retail customers.
Banks' income from checking accounts has been pinched as new regulations have crimped debit card swipe-fee charges and cut down on overdraft fee programs. At the same time, low interest rates across the board have made money sitting in bank vaults less productive.
Industry leaders predicted other fees to increase in response. Bankrate.com's survey finds evidence that they have.
- The average monthly service fee on non-interest accounts jumped 25 percent, to $5.48.
- The average minimum balance needed to avoid those service fees increased 23 percent, to $723.
- The average ATM fee increased 4 percent, to $2.50.
- The average overdraft fee increased 1 percent, to $31.26.
Free checking accounts continued to disappear this year, making up only 39 percent of non-interest accounts. That's down from 45 percent last year and 79 percent in 2009. Wells Fargo, for example, ended free checking this year to legacy Wachovia customers who still had free accounts.
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7 comments:
What has not increased under this adminstration?
Gas has doubled
Food costs have skyrocketed
Home heating costs are heading up
Middle income wages down by $4,000
And in 2013 the lragest wave of new taxes EVER are about ready
to slam this country and the middle class.
Make sure you clowns vote President Empty Chair again.
yes and ALL of those things are Obama's fault.......riiiiiight
Like the Titanic, the band played on.
Please ignore my son's posts - he's a low functioning sociopath, off his meds and forgot to put on his tinfoil hat this morning. Skippy, get back to the basement this instant or there will be no Hannity for you tonight!
Please excuse my ex-wife's post. Typical liberal name calling, ad hominem attacks that do not address any of the substance (but at least she feels better about herself).
Is there anything that is not accurate in Skippy's post? At least pantherhands addresses whether any of those can be pinned on the President.
These higher checking fee trends further exacerbate the efficient transfer of Social Security funds to citizens because of the compulsory direct deposit policies of the Social Security Administration. The federal government is in effect forcing citizens to contribute to the profitability of certain banking corporations by failing to make checks available directly to Social Security recipients without penalty.
Congress should act to correct this bureaucratic surcharge.
First off, the Chicken Little cries about the end of free checking accounts rings very hollow. Every bank offers ways to avoid monthly maintenance fees. The one I have with B of A requires only that you have 1 direct deposit per month, and no maintenance fee.
Now, I do feel compelled to comment on what Skippy - and Skippy's detractors - said:
Skippy said:
What has not increased under this adminstration?
Gas has doubled - TRUE. Gas was about $1.70 in November 2008. If drilling in that Alaskan wasteland, where no one lives except 11 billion barrels of oil, could be accessed, as well as the other areas in the US where an estimated 20 billion barrels are, we would need almost no Middle East oil. Prices would drop just like they have for natural gas. President Obama banned all new drilling after the BP accident, and the Democrat-controlled Senate has been blocking new drilling for years before that.
Food costs have skyrocketed - True, but not Obama's fault as much as drought. And no, drought is not caused wholly and only by global warming, itself wholly and only caused by the burning of fossil fuels by American Republicans. There was an ice age 14,000 years ago, followed by a warming more intense than what is happening then. Neither coal-fired power plants nor American Republicans existed then, so save that argument.
Home heating costs are heading up - TRUE. And Obama and Lisa Jackson are as responsible as 2 human beings can be, being total slaves to the environmentalists (a number of whom are Communists who needed a place to go when the Soviet Union imploded).
Middle income wages down by $4,000 - TRUE. Obama, being far more interested in promoting himself and socialistic economic policy, is the most to blame.
And in 2013 the lragest wave of new taxes EVER are about ready
to slam this country and the middle class. - TRUE, and both parties acknowledge it. This is the "fiscal cliff" everyone is talking about. Problem is that both parties are much more interested in blaming the other party than actually doing anything about it.
I advise caution before accusing anyone of wearing tin foil hats all willy-nilly.
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