Kiss your free checking account goodbye.

[Necronus]

If I ever had less than a few thousand in the bank, some small fee is likely the least of my worries as I'd never allow myself to bottom out my account. Odds are if I got that low, something catastophic happened and I'm screwed well beyond a bank fee.

As for college students, yeah, checking accounts are nice and in the grand scheme of things the way I managed money was rather ... dumb ... but I kept all of my money in a can at home and used cash only for years. Back then I just felt it was stupid to open a checking account without at least $1500-2000. Once I started to steadily have >$1000 in the can is when I started to feel unsafe about that much money on hand. Either way, even if the way I did it was EXTREMELY stupid, naieve, and careless ... it seems its about to become popular for other people.

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.

One reason I keep ALL of my money in my checking is cause BoA has a 0.05% APY. No, thats not a typo where I forgot to move the decimal. As you said, other banks have checking accounts with bigger interest rates.

[Callisto]

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

lol'd heartily

[Ksandra]

But you're paying so little taxes so I guess it balances out with fees like this.

not really. Banks have turned the main concept of "put your money here and earn some interest" to "fucking pay us to keep your money safe". I mean keeping the money safe was always a part of it but not the main selling point. Now that's all it is. I think when I left BoA they tried to change my checking to $9 a month with a free savings. So a years worth I'd have to make $108 worth of interest just to break even on the account. Not impossible for some, but for the average person, they're getting screwed. (and considering I had a free one elsewhere, fuck that. )


People were actually better off doing one of their risk free CDs that allowed them to pull the money out once a month, over a savings account. When I left (note that was 3+ years ago) savings were at 2.2%~ but the CDs were around 5%-6%.

[aurik]

Keep in mind that they are charging these up-front fees because they are no longer allowed to charge the other deceptive/unfair/abusive fees.
All regulations get passed on to the customer to compensate, burdensome or otherwise. The nature of capitalism.

[Necronus]

People were actually better off doing one of their risk free CDs that allowed them to pull the money out once a month, over a savings account. When I left (note that was 3+ years ago) savings were at 2.2%~ but the CDs were around 5%-6%.

You'll love my above reply then. BoA is 0.05% now if you missed it. Good luck earning $108 in a decade let alone a year.


Edit: Looked up the CD's for ya too

BoA Risk Free CD: 0.30%
BoA Featured CD: 0.55%

[solanis]

You'll love my above reply then. BoA is 0.05% now if you missed it. Good luck earning $108 in a decade let alone a year.

seriously, expecting to grow money in a savings account or CD is a joke. you LOSE money by putting your shit there.

[Ksandra]

You'll love my above reply then. BoA is 0.05% now if you missed it. Good luck earning $108 in a decade let alone a year.

lol, ya boa is rotten.

honestly unless you a. travel a lot (but aren't military, since navy fed exists) b. have over the FDIC amount there's zero reason to have BoA.


Their fees are always higher than anyone else and their rates rarely are the best. I honestly wouldn't even trust my mortgage with them even if their current rate is the lowest (rarely, but it happens)

[Callisto]

Keep in mind that they are charging these up-front fees because they are no longer allowed to charge the other deceptive/unfair/abusive fees.
All regulations get passed on to the customer to compensate, burdensome or otherwise. The nature of capitalism.

This. The implication that the banks wouldn't attempt to buttsexually assault you of their own free volition were these regulations not in place, especially considering that the reason the regulations were drafted was that they were already doing so, was p. funny.

[Guyverarmor]

This is why I love being with USAA. They had sent out a letter about this already and told us that free checking will continue, and even raising the amount of covering ATM fees by 10$... fuck yeah !

[Diamicles]

lol, ya boa is rotten.

honestly unless you a. travel a lot (but aren't military, since navy fed exists) b. have over the FDIC amount there's zero reason to have BoA.


Their fees are always higher than anyone else and their rates rarely are the best. I honestly wouldn't even trust my mortgage with them even if their current rate is the lowest (rarely, but it happens)

we just refinanced our house there last year and all fees are now waived from any other accounts we had, and get a higher interest rate on our savings accounts (not that it is very high anyway). at the time, their refinancing rate was the lowest we could find. no problems with them since I've been using them (about the last 8 or so years)

[Necronus]

lol, ya boa is rotten.

honestly unless you a. travel a lot (but aren't military, since navy fed exists) b. have over the FDIC amount there's zero reason to have BoA.

Ya know, it was a couple of factors for me. I used a local bank when I lived in PA, but when I moved to MD in a sudden 1 week rush for a new job, I needed to get set up quick, so I went with names I knew. I tried to go to an M&T first since they were closest to my new apartment and they told me to fuck off since you needed to live at the address for ... i dunno, X months or a year or some crap, they saw my PA drivers licence and said GTFO. So I went to BoA (which at the time I moved barely existed in my region of PA) but I knew the name.

Ever since its just about familiarity. I'm sure other banks have similar features, but once you're like me and have BoA auto-pay all of your bills and that Portfolio page that tracks my checking + my two credit cards + my 401k + my roth IRA all on one nice website ... I dunno, I'm really reluctant to move. Heck, the same laziness is why I went for years without a rewards based Credit Card ... I didn't want to go out to every auto-pay or preconfigured website and change my card. I finally did it, but it has kinda sucked trying to make sure I didn't forget any bills so that they don't bounce off a cancelled card.


Oh ... one other reason. My new car I got 5 years ago. SunTrust was the one who originally accepted my loan and they buttfucked me good. Eventually I got BoA to take it once they saw I paid SunTrust for 2 years flawlessly and my payments literally dropped in half and I finished paying off the car 3 years early.

[Ksandra]

This. The implication that the banks wouldn't attempt to buttsexually assault you of their own free volition were these regulations not in place, especially considering that the reason the regulations were drafted was that they were already doing so, was p. funny.

Not surprising, just sad really. The sad part is how many people will still stick with these banks instead of switching to CUs that either don't do it, or have smaller fees. I'm sure some will switch, but not enough to effect the big wigs at all.

Ya know, it was a couple of factors for me. I used a local bank when I lived in PA, but when I moved to MD in a sudden 1 week rush for a new job, I needed to get set up quick, so I went with names I knew. I tried to go to an M&T first since they were closest to my new apartment and they told me to fuck off since you needed to live at the address for ... i dunno, X months or a year or some crap, they saw my PA drivers licence and said GTFO. So I went to BoA (which at the time I moved barely existed in my region of PA) but I knew the name.

Ever since its just about familiarity. I'm sure other banks have similar features, but once you're like me and have BoA auto-pay all of your bills and that Portfolio page that tracks my checking + my two credit cards + my 401k + my roth IRA all on one nice website ... I dunno, I'm really reluctant to move. Heck, the same laziness is why I went for years without a rewards based Credit Card ... I didn't want to go out to every auto-pay or preconfigured website and change my card. I finally did it, but it has kinda sucked trying to make sure I didn't forget any bills so that they don't bounce off a cancelled card.

ya I get ya. it is a pain, which is what they hope for lol. But ya I can't think of any bank I know of that doesn't offer the online feature anymore.

I always laughed when I worked there and they were like "TELL THEM OUR ONLINE IS FREE".....I was like.."wtf so is every bank's, who gives a shit?"

[Headspace]

Keep in mind that they are charging these up-front fees because they are no longer allowed to charge the other deceptive/unfair/abusive fees.
All regulations get passed on to the customer to compensate, burdensome or otherwise. The nature of capitalism.

I'm not sure if the legislation went through, but retail corporations are lobbying to pay .12 cents on every transaction instead of 3% on every transaction.

Banks gotta make up for that on the customer as well.

[Uzor]

Why not everyone use USAA is beyond me, especially if you're a government employee since they'll still pay you even if the government doesn't.

[solanis]

well, no one is holding a gun to your head to keep money at a brand-name bank. they aint obligated to provide services for charity. harsh, but true.

[aurik]

Personally I keep my money in a giant swimming pool in the form of dubloons.

[Callisto]

Not surprising, just sad really. The sad part is how many people will still stick with these banks instead of switching to CUs that either don't do it, or have smaller fees. I'm sure some will switch, but not enough to effect the big wigs at all.

I likely won't switch myself, though I mainly use TCF because of their hours(8am-8pm every day but xmas day) and their minimum balance is low(like $350). Credit union/small local bank sounds appealing at times, but I have to wonder how much of the savings I'd get would be offset by ATM fees from when I needed cash and wasn't near my local bank.

Checking accounts really only offer two things, liquidity and insurance. I'm sure you can replicate the liquidity end using pre-paid debit cards but I'm not sure how much that costs compared to monthly bank fees. Good luck replicating FDIC coverage though, lol.

[solanis]

Personally I keep my money in a giant swimming pool in the form of dubloons.

if you actually did that, you'd be in pretty fucking good shape right now lol

(depending on when you filled the pool with dubloons, of course)

[Hyan]

not really.

Yeah, I guess not. It's also a burden for the poor, not the rich, so that's pretty disgusting.

I mean we have our "key-customer" programs here (more you have, less you pay) but at least the basics are free or everyone pays the same fee.

Lol, slightly offtopic but I was amazed when I found out there's no larger than a 100 dollar bill. I've found 500 euros to be quite damn useful. I don't get why you stopped at 100.

[Necronus]

Personally I keep my money in a giant swimming pool in the form of dubloons.

A guy we work with is one of the handful of people trying to put those Gold Dollars into circulation ... ya know, the ones the government is REQUIRED to keep making with eack of the 44 presidents even though the average American doesn't seem to want them. Sounds like you need to order a pile of boxes. (It's also a great way to get free points on a credit card at absolutely no cost to you, regardless of whether or not you do it the HAX way).