According to the article below by David Morrison, Minnesota-based Twin Cities Federal (TCF) claims to have lost approximately 250,000 previously free checking account customers after it began charging them a $9.95 monthly fee beginning January, 2010. To give you some perspective on this amount, in a January 21, 2010, article on TCF dropping free checking which appeared on the Star Tribune website, it was mentioned that, in 1986, TCF had just 35,000 checking accounts. After adding free checking to its product menu, the bank’s checking customer base grew to 1.7 million by the end of 2009. So a loss of 250,000 checking customers is a major blow to the bank. It’ll be interesting to see what changes, if any, TCF will make to its checking account product line to stem this outflow while attempting to increase its checking customer base.
Read more: Credit Union Times