Has Your Bank Stopped "Free Checking"?

[Ava]

I got that letter too. I lover Commerce but TD is the pits. I inquired about Ally and ING but we need a physical bank too. I wish I could live without a bank, period!

If ING would issue paper checks & come up with a way for customers to deposit paper checks electronically (like that thing Chase advertises where you take a photo of the check w/ your phone), I would close my TD account & just use my ING checking account. The only thing I'd miss about TD is their coin counting machines, but I only use those a few times a year so I'd come up with an alternative.

 

[Dismom55]

I have two checking accts with our bank, one is the joint acct for household bills and such, the second is my Disney checking acct, it is an interest bearing checking account, both are totally free, if they would change I would convert them both to savings accounts to avoid any fees. Might be a hassle, but I can pay all my bills online except one and hubby could just pay that in cash on his day off. So in short, I will not pay bank fees to have an account. We also have our savings acct and one and only credit card at the same bank, hope no changes are in store for us.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

If ING would issue paper checks & come up with a way for customers to deposit paper checks electronically (like that thing Chase advertises where you take a photo of the check w/ your phone), I would close my TD account & just use my ING checking account. The only thing I'd miss about TD is their coin counting machines, but I only use those a few times a year so I'd come up with an alternative.

Exactly!! I dont even need the paper checks, just let me deposit/cash checks electronically. I can't stomach the thought of MAILING a check for deposit. It's 2011!!! I would just spend the change and save the bills, no big loss there. I wish there was a happy medium. I honestly think I would have signed up with ING as my primary bank and kept the TD for check cashing if balance transfers were immediately and didn't take 2-3 DAYS.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

I bank through Chase and since I have at least one $500 direct deposit each month I don't have to worry about the monthly fees...yet.

My small Credit Union that I use for free savings hasn't added any frees to their free checking so if Chase changes things again I will switch over to them.

The only reason I don't have checking through them is because they only have the one ATM and it is not near my house. This is not a big deal for my savings but I like to have ATMs available where ever I go without being charged a fee to use it. I would deal with this though if chase decides to charge me.

 

[JB2K]

I banked with First Union/Wachovia now Wells Fargo since I was a little teenager. Everything was fine even the fees if you use other ATMS....UNTIL I tried to transfer money from one account to another and WF said they would have to charge me a fee to do this(long story but that is the jist). Screw that and them.

Before you go "screwing" with Wells Fargo, do keep in mind, most banks will charge you a couple of bucks to tranfer your funds from their bank to another financial institution.

Wells is pretty much in line with the rest of the big players...

 

[JB2K]

Our bank is still called Wachovia as far as signage but all the mailing is Wells Fargo etc.

Even though the signs say Wachovia in some east coast states, the banks, themselves are owned by Wells Fargo.

In case anyone is curious on when their Wachovia branch is changing signs, you can check, here.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I have an account with a community bank and another with a credit union. As of now, neither have monthly fees as long as you keep $500 in the account at all times.

 

[Swimalie]

Our bank is still called Wachovia as far as signage but all the mailing is Wells Fargo etc.

Yes, they tried to charge me to transfer money.

Our mailing still says Wachovia. It's in the TBD category now and I hope it stays that way. I lived in a Wells Fargo area and chose not to bank with them and I wasn't happy when the bought out a bank that I picked when I moved to the east coast.

I did a transfer last week and again, no fee to do so. In fact, I do 2 monthly to an ING account and I've never been charged by them.

 

[poohbearbt]

Before you go "screwing" with Wells Fargo, do keep in mind, most banks will charge you a couple of bucks to tranfer your funds from their bank to another financial institution.

Wells is pretty much in line with the rest of the big players...

Yeah, this was from a Wachovia account to another Wachovia account. They tried to charge me because of the way my accounts were listed in a certain order.

Back when it was strictly Wachovia, you could transfer between accounts even over the phone without a charge. This is strictly a new charge implemented by Wells Fargo.

 

[SunnieRN]

The fees with Chase aren't per check fees. They charge your account $12/month if you do not meet the requirements they set in place. Depending on whatever your bank comes up with for fees, it could affect you more than you expect. They are getting crazy with the fees and policies.

I miss WAMU! When Chase took them over, an accounts person told me NEVER to make any changes to my account, to avoid fees from Chase. Well I never authorized a change, but suddenly started having fees. They mailed me a pretty little gold debit card. When I went in to question this, they said I agreed to 'upgrade' my account. Ah, no I didn't! Close my account please, switched my direct deposit and changed banks.

No fees yet...

 

[diamondpixienc]

Well, if you have Direct Deopsit it is still free. But as far as my little SAHM stash account w/no DD after 13 years I am now switching to ALLY bank. It is an online bank w/ no fees, free standard checks, debit card, etc. And the rates are just like having a savings account.

 

[Lisa_M]

I guess we bank at a mega bank. They have many branches across the state. Our free checking is still free, however our free savings is no longer free. To avoid the service fee we have to have at least $25 auto transferred from the checking to the savings each month. Easy enough!

 

[Swimalie]

Yeah, this was from a Wachovia account to another Wachovia account. They tried to charge me because of the way my accounts were listed in a certain order.

Back when it was strictly Wachovia, you could transfer between accounts even over the phone without a charge. This is strictly a new charge implemented by Wells Fargo.

That stinks! I do this all the time with my Wachovia accounts. If they start to charge me- bu-bye!

 

[figmentfan0724]

As someone who works in the industry, all banks are starting to do away with free checking. its disappointing, but I can understand why they are doing it.