Fees, Fees, and more Fees. What are all of these *&%# Fees?

Thanks to my dad with Save You a Mint for the snappy lead.

Yes, I’m displeased with fees. Specifically with banking fees, and honestly banks in general.

First, in a clever slight of hand in the marketing department Community National Bank in Midland, Texas has stopped referring to all of its accounts as free checking accounts. The reason according to a customer service representative at the main bank branch is, “Because we charge NSF fees we are not able to call it a free checking account”. So I’m informed by the rep that all accounts are now basic checking accounts. However, the bank is still offering a free checking account on its website. Furthermore, the rep informed me that “we sent a letter to all customers about this change”, but I and my wife, who also works at the bank, never received a letter and according to her no company wide e-mail has been sent out. Oh, and the basic checking account has a monthly fee, but because the website is still out of date and nobody at the bank seems to have an answer I don’t know if the fee applies now that our account has been unilaterally changed.

Next, when my wife moved to Midland in August 2008 we opened her a free checking account with Bank of America. I say free because at the time no account documents said anything about a fee with the account and no requirement was present in the documents to direct deposit any funds to keep fees off the account. This account was made a joint account in May 2009 after we were married. Then in October 2009 BofA began charging a fee to the account for a reason that nobody with BofA has been able to explain to me other than repeating the company line.

Last, I run a small business and I need an account for the business. Currently I’m with Bank of America which doesn’t charge a monthly fee for my account if I use my business debit card once a month. Chase does the same thing, but for five uses of the debit card per month. I really want to use a local bank though for my personal and business banking. However, as I discussed last month over at the Outright Community local banks like the fees which is why credit unions are the most liked financial institutions according to an annual survey.

I’m a huge fan of internet banking, mainly because I might visit a branch four times a year and then it’s only because I have no other option. However, my wife likes the idea of a physical bank which I really don’t understand. I like what is going on with ING Direct and with the new Ally Bank which came out of the implosion of Government Motors and GMAC. Ally Bank was recently chosen by Kiplinger Personal Finance as the best savings account. One reason I like Ally is they compound the interest daily unlike the other internet banks plus they have live chat available 24/7.

This means if I’m in the middle of working on the household budget late at night and have a question about my savings account I can get a question quickly.

For my business though I’m still limited to a physical branch. The internet bank that begins to offer free online business checking accounts will have my business immediately.

What are your thoughts on personal and business banking. Do you agree with the fees banks charge? Do you feel you get something for your fees? Why or why not.

Do you like your bank?

I just read that customers of big national banks don’t trust them. I can understand this and the survey from Forester Research points out that the same seven banks are always at the bottom of the list because, “They are public institutions who are in business to make money for their shareholder and inevitably, that shows to customers”, according to Forester VP Bill Doyle.

I can tell you I personally don’t trust these big banks myself. I’m currently in the process of closing all my accounts at Bank of America. I cannot get Chase off my files because they hold my mortgage, but I don’t like them either.

I’m also getting close to not liking community banks. Mainly because I dislike fees of any kind, and I’m starting to really like internet banks and credit unions even more than before.

It is very interesting in the survey to see that banks like USAA and ING Direct ranked at or near the top of the list.

Other interesting takeaways from the survey included Insurers ranking high in customer advocacy and investment firms falling below banks, but Forester says investment firms drop in the rankings when the market is down.

How about you. Do you like your bank? What about your insurance company or investment firm?