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 includingBank 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.

Many people like to transfer their credit card balances from one card to another. They usually do this because the new card offers a tempting introductory grace period where interest rates on the debt are either zero or very low.

These grace periods, which can last for as long as a year (but almost never beyond that), are the perfect opportunity for people to pay off their debts because they're free from the crushing burden of a high interest rate. Although transferring the balance on a credit card to a new card is very often a way to save money, it can also cost money in the form of a transfer fee.

Fees from the balance transfer

The fees involved with transferring a balance from one credit card to another can be as low as zero, and as high as 4% of the total balance that you're transferring. That could be a pretty steep fee if you're transferring a credit card balance of, say, $10,000. Other credit card companies put a ceiling on their transfer fees, keeping them at $20 or $50.

Beware bait and switch offers

Fees involved with transferring credit card balances are not just limited to the actual transfer transaction itself.

If you read the fine print in many of these wonderful offers, you will see, for example, that the very low rate that tempted you to the new credit card in the first place will vanish if you make one late payment on your balance. That low rate that drew you to it will then be replaced by a new, much higher, and much uglier rate that will defeat the whole purpose of having transferred your balance.

Fees involved with transferring credit card balances are very tricky things, and they tend to be surprises that lurk in the nooks and crannies of the fine print. If you're going to transfer your credit card balance to a new card, be sure to go over the details of your contract. Better yet, go over it with a financial professional.

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