To avoid a minimum balance fee, review your bank's policy to see what amount you have to maintain.
4. Returned deposit fee.
If you deposit a check that bounces, your bank could charge a fee. Customers of Sovereign Bank are charged a $15 fee ($25 for an international check) when a check that's been deposited is returned unpaid. Similarly, Bank of America charges a $12 fee ($15 for international checks) for a returned deposit item.
A majority of big banks charge a returned deposit fee, but many small banks and credit unions don't tag on this fee, so it might be worth looking into changing where you bank if you think you're going to encounter a lot of bounced checks.
[See How One Man Rebuilt His Retirement Savings.]
5. Foreign transaction fee.
If you buy something from another country with a U.S. credit card, the bank may charge you a conversion fee. For example, Bank of America generally charges a 3 percent fee on foreign purchases used with its credit cards. So for an $80 purchase, the bank charges a $2.40 transaction fee. With Bank of America, it's also important to note that even if a transaction is in U.S. dollars, the bank still applies a foreign transaction fee if it's processed outside the U.S.
"There's a greater potential for fraud with international transactions, so it costs the banks money to protect the consumer," explains Feddis.
If you want to avoid this fee, you can use any number of cards that don't charge for foreign transactions, such as Capital One's Venture and Platinum Prestige cards or Chase's Sapphire Preferred card.
6. Lost debit card fee
Accidentally misplaced your debit card? It'll cost you. Bank of America charges $5 to get a replacement debit card; PNC charges $7.50.
"There is a cost [for the bank] to providing a new debit card, and it's not just the manufacturing," Feddis says. "Banks also pay for the mailing and the fraud protection systems connected to the card."
In addition, some banks charge extra for rush orders, like PNC's $25 expedited delivery fee for a new debit card. To lessen the blow, you don't have to request expedited delivery on your new card—you can simply use cash for payments or a different card in your wallet until the new one arrives.
7. Paper statement fee
If online banking isn't your thing, receiving paper statements could be costing you. TD Bank offers a $1 discount on checking, savings, and money market account maintenance fees when you opt for online statements only. Meanwhile, U.S. Bank charges customers who opt for paper statements up to $2 a month on some checking accounts. Such paper statements are expensive to produce and they're not environmentally friendly, so banks try to dissuade people from getting them, Feddis says.
"The price of postage keeps going up, and it costs banks more than $1 to send a paper statement," Papadimitriou says. "If they do that once a month, that's a lot of money going out."
If you're being charged for paper statements, you have the option of searching for banks that don't charge the fee or looking into an account that enables you to bank entirely electronically.
8. Redeeming rewards points fee
A few banks have begun charging customers a fee for redeeming the points they've accumulated on their rewards cards. At Wells Fargo, for example, you have to pay a $24 processing fee for each airline ticket issued through the bank's rewards vendor. However, this type of fee isn't particularly common, Feddis says. Nonetheless, if you want to avoid paying for using your rewards points, Feddis says you need to shop around and compare various banks' policies.
Reader Comments (