To clarify, it is still possible to have free checking. Free checking just isn’t as common as it was in the past, and consumers shouldn’t expect to have the free service without jumping through several hoops. For the most part, free checking is available if a) you meet a big bank’s often-confusing account requirements, which [...]
Will eliminating free checking prove as unpalatable to banks as to consumers? Banks recently put the possibility of imposing checking fees on the table as part of their talks with legislators who would cramp other sources of fee income. Not surprigingly, consumer anger in response to the threat has emerged on the Web. More than a hundredNew York [...]
It has come to the point that every time I encounter another ridiculous media article about the pending demise of free checking I behave like one of Pavlov’s famous dogs. Only in my case, instead of salivating, I write another blog debunking the article. The latest article, “Checking changes afoot as new rules take effect,” [...]
We’ve all seen the headlines that free checking is either dead or on its way out. We’ve read the newspaper stories that the mega-banks have dropped free checking and are busy adding new or higher minimum balance requirements and adding monthly service fees to their checking accounts. Some banks are totally revamping their checking account [...]
Banks offering free checking (no monthly fees, no minimum balance) fell from 76 percent in 2009 to 65 percent this year. But the percentage offering free checking rises to 88 percent when banks offer a waiver for meeting conditions like direct deposit. Free accounts are out there, though not as prevalent as in years past [...]
The recent results of the semiannual MoneyRates.com Bank Fee Survey are turning conventional wisdom on its head. Despite claims that free checking is dead, the latest findings show that 44.2 percent of checking accountssurveyed have no monthly maintenance fees. Industry observers had speculated that new banking regulations being implemented in the past year would signal the [...]
This week Bankrate released its 2010 Checking Study, and it turns out a number of banks are phasing out free checking by introducing minimum balances or monthly maintenance fees. This shift away from free checking may be due in part to new Fed rules requiring customers to opt in for overdraft protection on debit cards and new [...]
Attention bankers and consumers: Free Checking is alive and well and isn’t going away anytime soon! On the other hand, if you believe a majority of the media stories on the future of the free checking account, you would already have come to the conclusion that your valued free checking account is going the way of the [...]