Watch Out! Bank Fees Are Bigger and Badder

By Brad Tuttle | @bradrtuttle | June 29, 2009 | +

Unless you’ve been locked in a vault, you know that the banking industry isn’t doing so hot. Faced with declining revenues, banks are creating or increasing all sorts of fees on its customers.

As The Washington Post reports, minimum balance requirements are being raised and ATM fees are hitting the roof at the likes of Bank of America and Citibank. Many banks are also making it easier for customers to spend more than what’s in their accounts—so that the bank can assess more fees.

One way of avoiding the fees is to head to the Internet. Most online banks are far more reasonable than their brick-and-mortar cousins. Minimum balances are low or nonexistent, interest rates are better, and fees are far and few between with online banks like KeyDirect and IngDirect. Check out “7 Great Online Bank Deals” at Kiplingers.

Related Topics: Bank of America, banks, Citibank, fees, IngDirect, KeyDirect, Uncategorized, Uncategorized

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chris88888

I have just closed out my account with RBC bank and I also closed out an account at Bank of America because of their predatory overdraft fee practices. Today I reached the limit of my tolerance of this overdraft fee theft when I was charged $164 in overdraft fees while my account only went minus by $11.84. They also processed the largest transaction first to insure that they whipped their slave the maximum possible amount. We are not slaves, we have the freedom to change to a bank that allows you set up your debit card to decline transactions that exceed the available balance (even if a card decline is slightly embarassing), thereby eliminating overdraft fees. I just learned that two US banks that allow this option are Wachovia, and Woodforest National Bank. If everyone closed out their accounts at banks that charge excessive and oppresive fees (such as Bank of America and RBC), and moved to more friendly banks that at least allow you an option, then this abusive banking practice would stop quickly. We can’t wait for the politicians (who don’t care about the plight of the low income, or the unemployed) to pass laws to protect us from this bank rape, we have to take action ourselves.