Banks Are Still Charging Junk Fees in 2024

If you are looking for an engaging conversation topic at a social gathering, try complaining about how, unless you are rich, it costs too much money to access your own money.  Even the most taciturn and introverted people have stories about times that they had to pay to gain control of their own paychecks.  Of course, if you have enough free time to attend a social gathering of any sort, even if it is just a neighborhood block party or small talk in the lobby after a church service, there are plenty of people who have more reason to complain than you do.  Especially in today’s economy, it is obvious that if you have a bank account, then you are someone else’s idea of how the other half lives, and if your bank account has a positive balance, you should count your blessings.  The ways in which low-cost financial products exploit the unbanked are notorious.  Banks still find ways to nickel and dime their account holders, though, even though an increasing number of banks have abolished or restricted overdraft fees.  If a vast array of little expenses, including junk fees charged by your bank, are making it hard for you to pay down your debts, contact a Plantation debt lawyer.

Banks Still Charge You to Keep Your Money in the Bank

Even in 2024, after years of outcry about junk fees in the consumer finance industry, some banks still charge account holders a maintenance fee.  In other words, you must pay a small fee each month to keep your checking account open at the bank.  The worst part is that some banks only apply the maintenance fee in months where the account balance falls below a certain amount; this is just one of many situations where it is expensive to be poor.  For example, if your account balance stays above $100 the whole month, the account is free, but if it falls below that amount, you must pay the $15 maintenance fee.  This means that some people who opened their bank accounts years ago and achieved years of prosperity got an unpleasant surprise when financial long COVID hit.  Now the last grocery haul of the month brings your account balance down to $20, and the monthly maintenance fees brings it down to single digits by the time your new paycheck clears in your account.

Banks Still Charge You to Take Your Money Out of the Bank

Yes, ATMs charge a fee for every cash withdrawal, but sometimes your bank charges an additional fee.  They might charge it on every withdrawal, or only on withdrawals from certain banks, or only in months where your number of withdrawals exceeds a certain amount.  The result, though, is that withdrawing money from an ATM becomes nearly as expensive as cashing your check at a dimly lit cashier’s window in a liquor store.

Work With a Debt Lawyer About Debt Relief for The Barely Banked

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you if you have so little money in your bank account that you have to pay to use it.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Plantation, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

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