For years, I’ve been paying nothing for checks and very little in overdraft fees through the credit union I belong to.
Did you know the wrong checking account can cost you as much as $810 a year for up to 49 different fees?
The checking accounts from 35 of the country’s largest banks and credit unions were compared to find out how costs vary as well as how hard it is to find this information online in WalletHub’s 2016 Checking Account Cost and Transparency reports.
Findings from reports show:
- All consumers can save on everyday banking by getting checking accounts from credit unions and online-only banks, with cash strapped consumers eligible to save the most money on average: up to $423 per year.
- The average cash-strapped consumer has about $522 in fees a year, which shows that the less money you have, the more a checking account will cost you.
- The average checking account has about 22 fees, and 60 percent of accounts have 20 to 40 different fees.
- Credit unions rank last in terms of checking account transparency, earning a WalletHub Transparency Score of 79 percent compared to 83 percent for traditional banks and 93 percent for online-only banks.
Consumers can find out about more than 800 checking accounts based on their fees and features on WalletHub’s website. WalletHub is a personal finance website.
