Stop Being Nickel and Dimed: How to Avoid Bank Fees

Is your bank nickel and diming you with their bullshit fees?  Learn how to avoid them and dispute the ones you may have already been charged.

Banks have enough of your money that they use to make more money for themselves.  Don’t let them steal more with tacked on fees.

Maintenance fee, minimum balance fee, foreign transaction fee, paper statement fee.  Those are just a sampling of the fees that some banks charge.

Banks rake in a ton of cash on these fees because they know a lot of people either won’t notice them at all or if they do notice them, can’t be bothered to dispute them because calling the bank is a hassle.

It just takes some research.  There are banks that don’t charge fees and various types of accounts that don’t come with fees.  There is usually some kind of catch, you need to have direct deposit, pay a bill via the bank’s auto-pay system, or maintain a certain balance.

 Banks offer new accounts that are fee free but check the fine print.  The fee-free period may only last a certain length of time before fees kick in. If you do notice a fee, call the bank and complain.  Don’t be rude, remember, more flies with honey and all that.  But if you are persistent enough, they will usually waive whatever you are complaining about.

While you have them on the phone, be sure to ask what you can do to avoid being charged that fee in the future. There is no reason to pay a bank fee.  Shop around before opening an account.

Show Notes

Mint.com:  Mint will alert you to any strange fees.

Simple.com: A new online bank that promotes no bank fees.

Fidelity: The bank account that  Andrew recommends. They reimburse ATM fees!

We’d  like to give a shout out to Grayson at DebtRoundUp.com, for helping Matt out with my business bank fees.

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