Beware of These Bank Account Rip Offs

Getting out of debt begins with making an honest assessment of your financial situation.  This involves facing hard truths but also finding reasons for gratitude.  For example, if you have a bank account, you have more financial stability than people who do not.  It is much easier to open a new bank account if you already have an existing bank account.  A common lament of the working class is that, the poorer you are, the more it costs to use the money you earned with the work of your own hands.  If you don’t have a bank account, it costs a bundle to cash your check.  These days, some employers deposit their employees’ pay on a debit card, but you cannot use these cards in all the ways that you can use a bank account; for example, it is virtually impossible to apply for any except the most predatory loans when your paycheck arrives on an employer-issued debit card.  Having a bank account at all feels like a sweet deal, but some bank accounts manage to nickel and dime consumers in similar ways to how other low-cost financial products nickel and dime the unbanked.  To discuss a debt repayment strategy that involves opening a consumer-friendly bank account, contact a Philadelphia debt relief lawyer.

Junk Fees Are Alive and Well in Personal Banking

The good news is that overdraft fees are becoming less common, with some banks eliminating them entirely.  The bad news is that banks still charge account holders plenty of unnecessary fees, making their hard-earned money go even less far than it ordinarily goes in today’s economy.  The trashiest junk fees that banks continue to charge tend to fall into two categories, namely fees for having a bank account that does not increase the bank’s wealth in any spectacular way and fees for spending your own money.  In other words, even when you are rich enough to have a bank account, banks still charge you money for not being rich.

Monthly maintenance fees, in which the bank charges you a monthly fee simply for keeping your account open, are every bit as useless to the consumer as overdraft fees are.  Some banks charge you up to $15 per month simply for banking with them.  In many cases, you are only responsible for paying the fee in months where the average daily balance was below a certain amount.  Given that households with a $100,000 annual income live paycheck to paycheck these days, hardly anyone has $100 in a checking account at the end of a pay period; they are lucky even to be able to afford the $15 maintenance fee.

Just as bad are the fees for ATM use.  Some banks make you pay if you withdraw cash from ATMS that belong to another bank, or if you make more than a certain number of withdrawals per month.  This is, for all practical purposes, a tax on having to work during business hours instead of being able to visit the bank branch.

Contact Louis S. Schwartz About Debt Relief for Working People With Bank Accounts

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you if you are still broke, despite having a job and a bank account.  Contact Louis S. Schwartz at CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

gobankingrates.com/banking/banks/stay-away-from-banks-that-are-still-doing-this-in-2024/