Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Starting this weekend, new rules will prevent banks from automatically adding overdraft protection onto checking accounts.
The service was originally intended to protect customers from overdrawing accounts but banks have been making billions of dollars in fees by fronting the money. For the large part, these fees will now disappear as customers will have to opt-in to the service.
Now, banks are looking to make up the difference on some of that cash.
To say that Central New Yorker Edith Stewart is frustrated with the financial institutions she does business with would be an understatement. "I had a five percent interest rate on my Wells Fargo credit card, probably 20 years and all the sudden it's up to nine something," she said.
And it got worse when she received a letter from Bank of America letting her know unless she maintains a $750 balance in her checking account; she'll have to start paying a $12 monthly maintenance fee.
"I called my friends who also had Bank of America and they said, 'We got the letter too.' I said 'We're all getting them?'" she Stewart said.
Bank of America tells NewsChannel 9 it is reviewing the entire checking account portfolio.
Different accounts have different terms but the company says by either signing up for a payroll direct deposit or its e-banking service most customers can avoid a monthly fee.
Stewart, however, is on social security and doesn't have a computer.
Stewart said that she has hard feelings toward Bank of America at the moment. "Oh, you don't want to know [what I would say if I met the CEO of Bank of America], you really don't want to know," she said. "I'd actually tell him to go take the account and stuff it but I know other banks are doing the same thing.
She's right. Wells Fargo has said it'll take a $500 million hit when it's forced to stop overdraft fees. So it looks like free checking, may soon become a thing of the past.
Has your bank added new fees? If so tell us about it in our comments section.
