Call it account inflation: A new study shows that checking accounts have gotten even more expensive for customers in 2012, …
free checking
It’s No Coincidence That Changing Banks Is a Huge Pain in the Butt
Planning to switch banks? Hope you have a bottle of aspirin handy because, odds are, the bank is going to do everything it can to keep you around, and that adds up to a major migraine for you. A new report documents all the roadblocks banks throw up to keep their customers from leaving, from charging you money to generating as much …
Hey, They Were Listening: Some Banks Reinstate Free Checking
Consumers love to gripe about the scarcity of free checking and ever-increasing bank fees. But something funny happened in the second half of 2011 that belies the narrative of being nickel-and-dimed by the big banks: The …
5 Banking New Year’s Resolutions
This year was a tumultuous one for banking: Occupy Wall Street protests around the country focused Americans’ anger against the financial industry, while widespread outrage over banks’ attempts to charge fees for debit card use …
Fighting Fees: 3 Ways to Negotiate With Your (Big) Bank
Bank fees are an annoyance, but is there an alternative besides either paying up or pulling up stakes and leaving? Maybe. If you want to keep your bank for other reasons — say, convenience — but the fees are pushing you out the …
10 Steps For Choosing an Online Bank
A recent chart in American Banker magazine highlighted that free checking at larger banks is getting scarcer. As recently as 2009, 96 percent of banks with more than $50 billion in assets offered free checking; now, that number …
Bank Accounts: Do the Free Cash Come-ons Outweigh the Fees Sure to Follow?
Major banks are offering cash incentives—$100, $200, even up to $300—to entice would-be customers into opening new accounts. But just as the banks giveth, they’re also more apt to take away in the form of new and rising fees. Oh, and when you look closely at the fine print for many of these cash reward come-ons, the banks aren’t …
There’s Still No Reason to Pay for a Checking Account
Recent reform measures that restrict debit-card overdraft fees and tighten credit card regulations are expected to save consumers as much as $5 billion this year. No one expects the banks to sit back and do nothing while once-easy revenue streams dry up, and the speculation is that one tactic banks may soon bank on is the reintroduction …
