Kiss your free checking account goodbye.

[Ragns]

Wat? You're telling me all these years I could've moved my money in America and not pay any fees for a checking account?

[Conrad]

My bank isn't one of the four, but they are a Top 10 bank so I wouldn't be surprised if this happens.
Then again, I'm an employee of my bank...I wonder if I'll be charged with those fees.

[Hiryo]

I too had the free checking account from Bank of America because of their online promotion. They are having the same change in practice to this account. Basically, they gave me a couple of options:
A) Create an E-Checking account for free, so long as I conduct withdrawals and deposit solely at the ATM.
B) Get the BoA credit card and tie it to the account.
C) Maintain a balance of a certain amount in the Checking, or a new Savings Account.

[solanis]

My bank isn't one of the four, but they are a Top 10 bank so I wouldn't be surprised if this happens.
Then again, I'm an employee of my bank...I wonder if I'll be charged with those fees.

jew banker? mah nigga

[hey]

College students...

Many will make one large deposit each semester, sometimes put small chunks in there parents give them, and they like the convenience. They should keep some free student account.

Ok, fair point.

Still, unless other banks require a lot more than that $500/month mentioned in the article or only have a minimum balance requirement, i don't really see it affecting many people.

[Eanae]

Anyone who doesn't use a local bank or a credit union had it coming. Never used a major bank and never will.

[*Shinzon*]

Gonna have to find out if HSBC is going to start phasing in these fees because I gotta pick a new bank when I move to buffalo, although I do a lot of online buying because I like the convenience but if I don't buy stuff I don't want to go about getting charged. M&T bank and HSBC are really the only options I'll have though.

[solanis]

Anyone who doesn't use a local bank or a credit union had it coming. Never used a major bank and never will.

do you not expect to ever make enough or have enough saved to have a fee-free account? damn son that is dire

[Dryr]

Wells Fargo just informed me that the min bal for free checking is now $1500, but I was told by the teller that the fees can be waived for almost any reason.

[Gwynplaine]

Burdensome regulations get passed on to the customer to compensate. So here's your concrete reminder.

[Yuri-G]

My local credit unions did the change in December. It's $5 a month now if you don't keep $500 per account. When all my bills come out at the start of the month, my balance usually drops below that. Right now, I'm overdue on several because of unemployment, and catching up on them is going to keep me under $500 for probably the rest of the year.

the way I read the story, the one lady had to have either a $1500 balance (which I could have easily, though I'd rather put that shit in savings to remove temptation to spend it) OR at least $500 in deposits per month. not a $500 balance. of course, every bank is going to be different.

[solanis]

if you want to hide it from temptation, invest it. vastly better than having it languish in a checking account getting eaten alive by inflation and earning like one basis point lol

[Tyrath]

Am a college student myself and they started charging my account $12 monthly fees. Ended up getting it refunded and made my account an E-checking one. Works well enough for me.

[Yuri-G]

if you want to hide it from temptation, invest it. vastly better than having it languish in a checking account getting eaten alive by inflation and earning like one basis point lol

oh I fully intend on investing it. savings accounts are a relatively wasteful place to put money once you have enough in there to cover emergencies, and I know it. been reading up on investing as a matter of fact. there's just one problem: I am so goddamn lazy.

[Hyan]

I've heard so much shit about American banks that this doesn't surprise me.

Working as a cashier in a scandinavian bank myself this is pretty interesting. We really seem to have more benefits at the end of the day (or less fees).

No fees for debit cards, any accounts and e-accounts as well as very competitive currency exchange rate (if you're 18-28 yrs old).

But what are the general interest rates on the other hand? I can only get around 2.6-4% without any risk included.

[Ksandra]

BoA has been doing this for awhile. to me it's somewhat shady practice. A lot of these accounts were and were sold as "free for life" . This really is false advertising by them imo, but I dunno if anyone will/could actually file a lawsuit against them over it as even though they were sold as free for life they have notices actually written in the agreement that they could change the policy at anytime.


I'm wondering if Chase is going to no longer consider wamu customers "grandfathered" in. I'll have to check with them to see. I had a free checking from wamu because I had someone paying me in the past who used wamu but didn't always have fund sin her account so I didn't want to get stuck with bounced check fees. I stuck with chase after leaving BoA since I already had the account there.

I'll probably switch to a credit union if they do start charging me...

[Conrad]

jew banker? mah nigga

an accountant, even

[Ksandra]

But what are the general interest rates on the other hand? I can only get around 2.6-4% without any risk included.

on a checking account? lol for free checking = no interest. The lower fee checking like .1%

Savings are about 2%? right now.

[solanis]

an accountant, even

even better

oh I fully intend on investing it. savings accounts are a relatively wasteful place to put money once you have enough in there to cover emergencies, and I know it. been reading up on investing as a matter of fact. there's just one problem: I am so goddamn lazy.

read the intelligent investor by ben graham: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-In.../dp/0060555661

Savings are about 2%? right now.

savings accounts do NOT get 2% right now lol

[Hyan]

on a checking account? lol for free checking = no interest. The lower fee checking like .1%

Savings are about 2%? right now.

Oh yeah I didn't specify. Checking is pretty low here also, 0.15 to 0.55% (still free tho). Savings are usually 2% and up.

On the other hand, the government taxes 28% of the yearly interest so in reality it's not that much.

I was wondering if you could make up for the extra fees with the added interest, guess not. But you're paying so little taxes so I guess it balances out with fees like this.