| Checking
survey: ATM fees hit a record high | | By Greg
McBride • Bankrate.com |
|
According to Bankrate.com's latest
survey of large banks and thrifts, ATM fees have hit a record high
and, despite rising interest rates, interest checking accounts still
don't add up. In short, consumers are finding that money sometimes
comes out of their checking accounts faster than it goes in.
Bankrate.com's semiannual survey looks at the checking
accounts and ATM fees offered by the largest banks and thrifts in
each of the 25 largest markets and compares them to a sampling of
checking accounts available at online banks.
The study's key findings are:
The fee for using the "wrong" automated teller machine
-- one owned by a bank where you don't have an account -- hit an
all-time record high. You'll be hit twice for a single withdrawal
once by that other bank's ATM fee and once by your own bank, for
a total average fee of $2.91.
Bankrate.com estimates that American consumers will
pay more than $4.3 billion in withdrawal fees for using ATMs not
owned by their own bank in 2005.
Bounced-check fees have gotten sneakier. While the
average insufficient funds fee fell a few cents, from $27.13 to
$26.90, Bankrate found more banks are instituting tiered fees that
ramp up the more often you bounce a check or leave a check uncovered.
Even at $26.90, the bounced-check fee remains the second-highest
recorded since Bankrate began surveying checking accounts in 1998.
Interest-bearing checking accounts remain an unattractive option, where you have to pay a lot more to open an account and lock up a lot more money to gain a pittance in interest.
If you feel that keeping money in your checking
account is like trying to fill up a water bucket with a hole in the bottom, you're
not alone.
What Bankrate.com found -- things like the punitive
fee for bouncing a check -- will explain that hole in the bottom
of the bucket that is your checking account. We'll also help you
plug the hole or decide if it is time to find another bucket.
ATM fees rise again
If you thought
you were the only one making withdrawals from your account, think again. Pulling
cash from the wrong ATM usually means your bank and the ATM owner each get to
grab fees out your account. The average surcharge -- the fee noncustomers pay
to use a bank's ATM -- is now $1.54. And the fee your own bank charges you for
going to someone else's ATM moved up to $1.37. Both represent a new high for ATM
fees. But just how prevalent are ATM fees, and how strong is
the tug of higher fees? To put it simply, if you use another
bank's ATM, expect to pay for the privilege -- twice. Of the banks in the survey
that own ATMs, 96 percent hit noncustomers with a fee to use the ATM, a new high.
In addition, 87 percent of banks will charge their own customers for using another
bank's ATM.
The push toward higher fees is nearly universal. Of
the institutions that were in the current and previous editions
of the study, and changed ATM surcharges, 39 increased their fee,
while just three decreased it.
Bounced checks: Small oversight
equals big fee
Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed a rare event. For just the
second time in 15 editions of the survey, the average bounced-check
fee declined. It fell only slightly though, from $27.13 to $26.90,
and is still the second-highest ever recorded.
Are banks suddenly feeling benevolent, willing to cut a break
to cash-strapped customers that occasionally bounce a check? At first glance,
it may appear so. But looks can be deceiving. Of the institutions
that were in both the current and previous surveys, 42 increased bounced check
fees and 18 cut them. But the overall average declined because the banks that
reduced bounced check fees did so in what looks like a dramatic way. | 
