Say Sayonara to These Bank Fees

Some major banks are finally throwing a bone to consumers in the guise of eliminated bank fees. For months, many financial advice columnists have been educating bank account holders on carefully monitoring the fees the investment houses have been charging them for common occurrences such as overdraft protection.

It is unclear if these revisions are being made due to increased pressure from the government, as a public relations stunt or just to help consumers keep more of their hard earned cash.

Regardless of the motivation, the changes are happening everywhere. In the state of Florida alone, four major banks including Bank of America, Wachovia (owned by Wells Fargo), JPMorgan Chase and BB&T have announced revisions to their overdraft fee policies.

Some banks and their fee revisions include:

Bank of America

October 2009:

• Fees eliminated for overdrafts less then $10 a day
• Overdraft fees capped at four, down from ten

June 2010:

• New bank customers must physically sign up for the overdraft program
• The quantity of debit card overdrafts will be capped annually .
• When annual limit is reached, the service will be automatically restricted

Fifth Third Bank

Already in Effect

• Implemented a tiered fee system for overdraft charges: instead of the previous flat fee of $33 per overdraft occurrence now the charges are $25 for a first offense, $33 for  overdrafts number 2-4 and $37 for everything else that follows

JP Morgan Chase

Beginning early 2010

• No penalties if accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less
• Overdraft fees capped at three, down from six
• All customers both new and old, must sign up for the overdraft program

PNC Financial

October 2009

• Reduction in charge for first overdraft fee in annual cycle reduced by $6 to $25
• Overdraft program will be now be complimentary to banking customers as the $15 fee is being waived

U.S. Bank

Early 2010

• No penalties if accounts are overdrawn by $10 or less
• Maximum overdraft penalties capped at three per day
• Customers can opt out of overdraft protection
• Tiered overdraft charges including $19 for the first overdraft then increasing to  $35 and $37.50.

Wells Fargo & Co.

Date tbd

• No penalties if accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less
• Overdraft fees capped at four, down from ten
• Customers may choose not to have overdraft coverage

In order for consumers to qualify for the waived fees, they have to clean up the overdrafts within a couple of days. Typically banks charge anywhere from $20-$35 as penalties for consumers overdrawing their funds.