<p>Does anyone else find it a little ridiculous that banks are charging for people’s business?</p>
<p>Just found out that my bank (USBank) is now charging me $7 per month in a “monthly maintenance fee.”</p>
<p>Really? You’re going to charge me to have my money in your bank?</p>
<p>Luckily I have a sister who is a member of a Credit Union. I’ll probably end up switching…I just find it absurd that they’re charging me money to keep my money in the bank.</p>
<p>Or maybe I’ll just start putting it under my mattress…</p>
<p>Why would you think it was ridiculous? Banks are businesses, and like every business, it is their mission to earn a profit, as they are answerable to their shareholders. Should they provide their services for free?</p>
<p>Interest rates are low, although if you keep a minimum balance in your acct they may waive the maintenance fees.
Are these new fees from when you opened your acct?</p>
<p>banks are supposed to make money by loaning out some of the money that their customers give them, while always having enough on hand to meet day to day operational needs. Of course, if they can charge customers and make more money, then more power too them. I would never pay money for a checking account.</p>
<p>I second the credit union suggestion! We’ve been members for 25 years. Never had any problems. No fees except for the $1 to use a non credit union ATM (where I was also charged a $3 ‘guest fee’ by the bank.</p>
<p>We use TD Bank and pay no fees. We have been very happy with them. I love it that I can go to the bank any day of the week, even Sunday until 4 pm! I’m treasurer for a few organizations, and it makes my life much easier.</p>
<p>Check to see if there are any provisions that would grant you free checking. This isn’t what they put at the top of those letters! You may find that it’s not all that hard to get free checking under some circumstance. </p>
<p>We have a credit union account and an account at a local bank. They are both great. </p>
<p>You just have to decide if you like your current bank enough to pay $84 a year to use them…if you really like them, it might be worth it. If not…go to the credit union!</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages when I first got a checking account, a basic fee PLUS a per-check fee was standard practice. And there was no such thing as an interest-bearing checking account. </p>
<p>The bank I used then would pull the trick of deducting its charges for each check before putting through a check if you were cutting it close, balance-wise, so that they could bounce a check for lack of 10 cents in the account, then they could charge you a fee, and then they could proceed to bounce more checks in a cascading manner because of the fee(s), which you didn’t find out about until many days later.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that banks don’t really want little accounts. They cost the bank money. And the people who get socked by the fees they impose on small customers are mostly the young and the poor.</p>
<p>The only issue we’ve had with a credit union is because of our mortgage. We got a great rate (at the time), but we didn’t realize that they don’t handle escrow accounts the same way that banks do. I was used to the bank notifyiing us each year when we needed to adjust our monthly escrow payment so there would be enough in the account to pay property taxes and homeowners’ insurance. </p>
<p>Out of the blue, we got a notice from our town that our property taxes were late, and we owed a penalty! The credit union explained that the escrow account is a courtesy to customers, but they don’t calculate how much should be going into it. They had our tax bill, but since there wasn’t enough in the account to cover it, they just didn’t pay it and didn’t let us know! They wouldn’t agree to cover the penalty, either. I wish they’d let us know at closing how that worked!</p>
<p>Errors and problems in handling escrow or impound accounts seem to be the most common mortgage servicing problems. It is generally thought that, if you can budget the property taxes and insurance yourself, that paying them directly simplifies matters and reduces the risk of error (and, in some cases, can allow you to time property tax payments in your choice of income tax deduction years). However, lenders tend to be reluctant to trust borrowers to pay their own property taxes and insurance unless they have substantial equity or downpayment.</p>
<p>Ditto on not having our prop. taxes in escrow and we are also at the credit union. We have our mortgage with our CU and I really like that as they hold the paper. I never liked the idea of a bank selling my mortgage to someone else. </p>
<p>Most credit unions allow non members to open accounts.</p>
<p>My sister is indeed helping me get into her Credit Union, and I will be telling my current bank why I’m leaving. It probably wouldn’t be such a big deal to me if I were making more money, but I only make enough to make ends meet and I don’t need any extra fees if there’s any way I can avoid it. Thank you all for the tips, I really just wanted to vent a little And I won’t be thinking about escrows/home shopping for quite some time, but I will keep that in mind when the time comes.</p>
<p>weird situation at S’s bank. We need a $25 deposit into his savings each month. the next day that is on auto transfer into his checking. That is the only way he avoided a $7 monthly fee.</p>
And I won’t be thinking about escrows/home shopping for quite some time, but I will keep that in mind when the time comes.</p>