Feel as if you're paying more for your checking account? You probably are.
A semiannual study by MoneyRates.com found that checking account fees of all sorts climbed in the first half of the year.
Previous studies have shown varied results, with some fees rising and others falling. But the latest review shows a “comprehensive trend toward checking accounts becoming more expensive,†MoneyRates found.
The analysis is based on banks that are included in the MoneyRates Index, which includes the 50 largest banks by deposits and an equal number of midsize institutions.
In part, banks are raising other fees to make up for lower revenue from debit-card swipe fees, which are now limited, said Richard Barrington, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com. More regulation and a slower lending environment are also helping to crimp bank revenue, he said, so banks are trying to make it up in other ways.
Among banks that charge a monthly fee, the average crept up to $12.08 from $11.28. That totals roughly $145 a year, unless you can avoid the fee by keeping a minimum required balance.
Overdraft fees climbed, too, to an average of nearly $30 from about $29.
The study found that online banks and smaller banks are offering lower fees than their larger counterparts. So if you are unhappy with your bank's fees, you may find a better deal by shopping around. Checking accounts with no monthly fee were offered by more than two-thirds of the online banks in the survey, compared with roughly a third of traditional banks.
Among traditional banks, nearly half of smaller banks (those with less than $5 billion in deposits) offere d checking accounts with no monthly fee, while only 21 percent of the accounts offered at larger banks (those with more than $25 billion in deposits) offered them.
The average monthly maintenance fee was just under $14 at large banks, while it was less than $10 at small banks.
Have you noticed fees creeping up at your bank? Are you considering switching to a smaller bank, or an online-only bank? Or are you trying to maintain the minimum required balance in your account?
