TIL my bank was hitting me with a $12 monthly fee for 14 months before I noticed

I was going through my statements from last year trying to track down a weird charge, and I found this $12 'maintenance fee' that kept showing up every single month. Turns out my checking account dropped below the $1,500 minimum balance back in May 2023 when I had to replace the condenser unit on a customer's AC, and I never realized it. The bank didn't email me or anything, just quietly took $168 total over that time. I called them up and asked if they could reverse it, and they said they could only go back 3 months because of their policy. So I closed the account and moved everything to a credit union downtown that has no minimum balance and no monthly fees. Has anyone else found a sneaky fee they were getting hit with for way longer than they expected?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagejackson5d ago

Man, I feel your pain on this one. The "only go back 3 months" thing is what really gets me, like they know most people won't notice for a while so they can keep the extra cash. I had the same thing happen with a bank that hit me with a $10 "paper statement fee" for over a year because I forgot to go paperless after I moved. Good on you for switching to a credit union, that's probably the best move since they usually don't pull that kind of stuff.

adam1865d ago

That "only go back 3 months" line is such garbage. They know exactly what they're doing with that policy. It's like they're banking on people being too busy or embarrassed to notice for a while. Good for you for closing the account and moving to a credit union. Those big banks count on people just accepting the loss and moving on. You probably saved a bunch of other people from the same crap by taking your business elsewhere.

zarat375d ago

Oh man, the paper statement fee thing you mentioned really got me thinking. My old bank charged me $15 a month for "account maintenance" because I didn't keep a minimum balance of $1,500. I had no idea for like six months because I never checked my statements that closely. By the time I noticed, they said the same thing, only three months back. I couldn't even get mad at the teller, she just shrugged and pointed at the fine print. It's wild how they design these policies to catch people who are just trying to get through their day.