Say goodbye to traditional free checking

Article

The days when you could walk into a bank branch and open an account with no charges and no strings attached appear to be over. Now you have to jump through some hoops — keep a high balance, use direct deposit or swipe your debit card several times a month.

Almost all of the largest U.S. banks are either already making free checking much more difficult to get or expected to do so soon, with fees on even basic banking services.

It's happening because a raft of new laws enacted in the past year, including the financial overhaul package, have led to an acute shrinking of revenue for the banks. So they are scraping together money however they can.

Bank of America, which does business with half the households in America, announced a dramatic shift Tuesday in how it does business with customers. One key change: Free checking, a mainstay of American banking in recent years, will be nearly unheard of.

"We are now in an era where consumers will be buying products from banks, even if it's a checking account," said Brian Riley, senior research director for bank card practice at consultant TowerGroup. He noted that several banks have started charging $7.50 for paper statements.

I dont really know much about banks....because I dont use them. Is this supposed to be cheaper than it used to be or is this making banking more expensive? Did the financial overhaul package have this included it in?

The only stuff I can really get out of this article, is that everything about banks seems to cost money now, even though there was free checking in the past.

I don't know about the big banks. I have been in a credit union going on 15 years now and I love it. Banks are a money making business anyways these days. I remember going with my grandfather to the bank to deposit my money into a savings account and it would actually grow. My mom tried to do the same thing for my kids but the service charges would just take away money every month. I sponsored an account for her at my credit union and it is the exact opposite. They simply don't charge the fees. That might change one day.

reply to post by buni11687


Wellsfargo now has a $10 charge for moving money from account to account more than 6 times a month. I learned that the hard way the last week of September..

Needless to say.. I'm shopping for a new credit union.. hell, the only reason I left the credit union was with wellsfargo it was easier to pay my loans by transferring the funds. Well not anymore, it cost me $10!

Hate banks.. so desperate it's not even funny..

Do what I do, use that thing you sleep on.. Ya know.. a mattress.. It works wonders.. I dont have to worry about getting jacked or anything.. take out as much as you need, then throw in as much as you need to save... Works wonders man, and the best part.. Its free..

Credit Unions are certainly more "customer-friendly" as they have a vested interest in maintaining their user base.

Credit Unions are the way to go. If you can join one and haven't, you are throwing away money.

Fee free really isn't "traditional," it's only the new normal. Only 20 (probably less) years ago it was pretty standard to pay a monthly maintenance fee for a checking account with a smaller balance.

The new banking regulation limits the egregious fees banks have charged for "overdraft protection" on checks and debit cards. Other regulation has somewhat curtailed some of the fees that have been assessed on credit cards and stops some of the other interesting ways the banks have earned money. Of course the banks aren't going to reduce their earnings, they'll just get it another way.

Sadly, it has been the poorest of the poor that have subsidized the free checking for those of us who haven't had the misfortune of writing a check against insufficient funds. Personally, I'll be happy to go back to paying a nominal fee for maintenance to not have to hear some of the horror stories. I've seen overdraft fees gobble up my son's entire paycheck over a couple of Redbox rentals.

BTW, it was a credit union that did this... multiple times. I had a different local credit union gobble up a small SAVINGS account with fees. While a credit union is "member owned" it's still all about earnings. I know this for a fact because I worked for one in the 80's as a "loan officer." The credit union decided to stop writing loans for their members because they could get a better return just investing it because interest rates were so high back then.

reply to post by ThichHeaded


There is No Interest in you Matress .

Banks are the bane of society.

I wish we could still hide our monies under the mattress.

Someone needs to stop these banks and bankers once and for all.

They are destroying us, bit by bit.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
Do what I do, use that thing you sleep on.. Ya know.. a mattress.. It works wonders.. I dont have to worry about getting jacked or anything.. take out as much as you need, then throw in as much as you need to save... Works wonders man, and the best part.. Its free..

sounds fantastic...till your house burns down when your out

Here in Australia banks have begun to drop their charges.My bank has zero fees.Zero charges on transactions.Use any ATM with no fee or charge.

If one bank offers a no fee transaction account you guys should jump at it,the other banks will have to follow suit if it means that people are taking their money out and going eles where.

Even in these no fee accounts, banks will still make money from your money,but to be charged from them to have the privilage to make money from your savings is obscene to me.

This will cause a big shift in customers like people on social security, government pensions, and others that get there checks deposited in bank accounts.
As for bank of america they s**k and i closed my acount 40 years ago after i left the navy.
The only reason i ever had a account with them in the first place was they had offices on military bases world wide for service members.
After 4 years with them when i was in the navy i vgot bout and moved back to my home town and found out my checks were useless as some one in the town with the same name but spelled differently bounced checks all over town.
The only help i got from BOA was that it was not there problem and they could care less.
Yet they gave out my address and phone number to bill collectors that were trying to collect on these bounced checks.