ATM fees hit record high, free checking declines

Banks are hiking ATM fees to record levels and cutting back on free checking accounts, according to an industry report issued Monday. The financial research firm Bankrate,com said ATM surcharges -- the fee charged when you use a machine that's isn't your bank's -- rose for the eighth straight year, up 4%, to a record high of $2.50.

In addition, the fee your bank charges to use another bank's ATM rose 11% to $1.57. So for many customers, using an ATM from a competing bank costs $4.07, an increase of 7% and a record.

Banks traditionally provide ATMs for free to their own customers, and cover their costs by charging consumers who use out of network machines, according to Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. But people are getting smarter about using only in-network ATMs, which means that the companies are trying to make up for that lost revenue. Read more >>

Bank fees rise for checking, ATMs; fewer credit unions offer free accounts

Checking and ATM fees are rising at the nation's banks, and fewer credit unions are offering free accounts, two new studies show. MoneyRates.com's semi-annual bank fees survey found that, by nearly every measure, the fee environment for consumers has worsened since the end of 2011.

The average minimum checking-account balance needed to avoid a monthly service fee jumped by $856, to $4,447. Overdraft fees jumped to an average of $29.83, up from $29.23, said the data provider about bank rates, personal finance and savings accounts. Among banks that charge a monthly fee, the average cost was $12.08, up from $11.28. ATM fees also rose.

"This is the most comprehensive rising fee trend we've seen in one of our checking account surveys," Richard Barrington, MoneyRates.com senior financial analyst, said in a statement. Typically, credit unions have been a haven for fee-sensitive consumers, but the ranks of those offering free checking is shrinking, according to a Bankrate.com study, also released Monday.

Seventy-two percent of the nation's 50 biggest credit unions offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance required, down from 76 percent last year, Bankrate.com said. Read more>>

Banks Robbed Customers of Nearly $30 Billion in Overdraft Fees Last Year

Americans incurred $29.5 billion dollars in overdraft fees at the nation’s 12 largest banks and credit unions in 2011. That’s nearly $100 for every U.S. citizen, charged for overdrafting a checking account.

Overdraft fees, for those lucky enough to have never encountered them, occur when a bank withdrawal leaves a customer’s account below a pre-determined level. For some accounts, customers can draw the funds all the way down to zero and only incur a fee when the balance goes negative. Other accounts come with minimum balance requirements, forcing customers to keep at least, say, $500 or $1000 in the checking account at all times.

99% of the 237 unique checking accounts studied charged an overdraft fee of some kind, with the median penalty fee costing a customer $35. You might not know that, though. As the Pew study points out, the median length of a checking account disclosure statement – the fine print that most customers gloss over en route to opening their account – is a whopping 69 pages. That length is down from the 111-page average in 2010, but it’s still not exactly light reading. Take this Bank of America disclosure, for example; at 37,000+ words, it’s about 8,000 words longer than Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men. Read more >>