This article provided useful ways to avoid bank fees in 2012.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/consumer&id=8489215

Recent fee hikes from some of the nation’s biggest banks have attracted the wrath of customers, some of whom are taking their business elsewhere.

Prime targets: Banks of America, which slapped a $5 monthly fee on debit cards, and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), which will start charging $20 a month for some checking customers who don’t maintain a $15,000 balance on their combined accounts.

“I dropped Bank of America like a hot potato,” said Tim O’Brien a partner in a Seattle-based television advertising agency. “I felt like I was getting nickel and dimed.”

O’Brien took his business to Key Bank (KEY, Fortune 500) — a mid-sized lender based in Cleveland that has $90 billion in assets and just over 1,000 locations.

The best part? No fees on his new account.

“They rolled out the red carpet for us,” O’Brien said. “The difference really is amazing.”

There is no industrywide data on how many customers are leaving their banks because of new fees. And experts note that it takes a lot for most people to make a move. “It’s a big hassle to change banks,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant.

Still, new fees are proving the final straw for some customers.

BofA chief: We have a ‘right to make a profit’

Ely said the new fees at Bank of America in particular seem to have hit a nerve, and that the bank is likely to lose customers as a result.

“People are always opening and closing accounts for a variety of reasons. You have kind of a normal churn,” Ely said. “The challenge is measuring the additional turnover due to a policy change.”

It’s a trend that has been going on for some time, as more and more free accounts disappear.

For Jeff Fisher, a graphic designer and author from Oregon, a new $15 a month fee on his Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) business account prompted a switch to a credit union earlier this year.

“That really was the last straw,” Fisher said of the fee. “That’s when I lost it and decided to switch.”

Changing banks was going to mean a loss of convenience for Fisher. The local Chase branch was just a couple of blocks from his home. So where to go?

Fisher took his case to the Internet, tweeting about his dissatisfaction. To his surprise, he received two unsolicited offers — one from a credit union, and one from a smaller bank.

The message? We want your business. One even asked him to come in for a cup of coffee.

“I didn’t get the coffee, but I did go talk to both banks,” Fisher said. After evaluating his options, he moved his business account to OnPoint Credit Union in February.

“I really appreciate the way I was treated as a small business person,” Fisher said. “They treated me like I was one of the biggest businesses in the city coming in.”

Banks with lower fees seem to be in the best position to capitalize on the new charges.

Navy Federal, a credit union with about 3 million members, experienced a surge in new accounts after Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) announced its new fee. Instead of the usual 2,600, Navy Federal opened a record 3,200 new checking accounts in one weekend, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Sadler.

Why have banks been hiking fees in recent days?

9 most annoying bank fees

Banks are dealing with a new cap on the fees they can charge retailers when customers swipe their debit cards.

While banks used to charge an average fee of 44 cents, now the maximum is 21 cents. They are looking for a way to make up the difference. Smaller banks — those with less than $10 billion in assets — are exempt from the new regulation.

No matter the reason — there isn’t a lot of sympathy for banks.

George Lettis, a Citi customer in Maryland, was about to be hit by the bank’s new $20 fee — unless he raised his balance by a substantial amount.

“It just wasn’t financially possible to keep that balance in there,” Lettis said.

Now he’s moving his checking account to Pentagon Federal Credit Union.

“Unless you have a big balance, the big banks aren’t working for everyday people anymore,” Lettis said.

At a local level, banks appear resigned to losing a few customers.

“We went to our local branch in Seattle,” said O’Brien, the Bank of America customer. “The manager didn’t even try to keep our business.”

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/11/pf/bank_fees_switch/index.htm

For those of you who’ve already built credit and managed it poorly (for whatever reason), you’re not going to have to build your credit; you’re going to have to re-build it. Here are some of the more common methods for each, and their pros and cons:

Opening A Secured Credit Card

A secured credit card is a legitimate credit card issued by a legitimate bank. You make a deposit at the bank and they will issue you a credit card with a credit limit equal to your deposit. Since you’ve essentially fully secured any purchases you’ll make with a cash deposit, banks are more willing to issue these cards to either new credit users or those who are trying to rebuild their credit. Additionally, you can open a secured card for as little as a $250 deposit, so it’s a nice option for people who have limited cash flow. Secured cards aren’t a good long-term option,however; the fees associated with these cards and the interest rates aren’t very good. But, you have to remember that you’re opening the card for a purpose and that purpose is to get something good on your credit reports. After a few years of paying the bills on time you may be able to convince the card issuer to convert the account to an unsecured credit card and refund your deposit. And because this is a credit building strategy, you’ll want to make sure you choose a card issuer who reports their secured card accounts to the credit reporting agencies. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

Being Added as an Authorized User

An authorized user is someone who has been authorized to use a credit card issued to another person. Most of the time, parents will add their children to one of their existing credit cards, which allows them to have a card in their name but doesn’t convey any sort of liability for payment of the balance. The good news is that the account history is reported to the authorized user’s credit reports and can almost instantly establish them a solid credit history. This is my favorite option, as it really has no downside. I call the authorized user strategy “having a credit card with training wheels.” As long as the account is managed properly, then it’s a positive addition to your credit reports. And, this is a great option for consumers who have limited (or zero) cash flow or are already working hard to get out of debt. If the account is mismanaged by your parent (or spouse, as this is also common among spouses) then all you have to do is ask that your name be removed from the account and it will also be removed from your credit reports. In fact Experian, one of the major credit reporting agencies, will automatically remove the account history from the authorized user’s credit report if it becomes derogatory, “because an authorized user has no responsibility for repayment of the debt”, according to Rod Griffin, Experian’s Director of Public Education. “We will also remove the account at the request of the authorized user.” The good news for authorized users is that the FICO scoring system gives you full benefits for a properly managed authorized user account on your credit report, as long as you have a legitimate relationship with the primary cardholder. A few years ago, credit repair companies were trying to take advantage of the authorized user strategy to boost the credit scores of consumers who had bad credit. FICO figured out a way to filter out the consumers trying to game the system, so they won’t get the same benefit as a  legitimate parent/child or husband/wife relationship.

Co-signing For a Loan

Co-signing for a loan is when you sign the promissory note (the promise to pay back the loan) and accept equal liability for payments on someone else’s loan. The newly opened loan will likely end up on your credit reports and will help you to establish or re-build your credit. Co-signed loans are normally auto loans, personal loans, or mortgages. That’s where the good news ends. I don’t like this option for three reasons:

1) It’s unnecessary. You don’t establish credit any faster by obligating yourself to a huge loan than you do by opening a $250 secured credit card. Choose the path of least resistance!

2) You can’t change your mind. There is no such thing as “co-signing for credit only” although some consumers have tried to challenge this in court, unsuccessfully. When you co-sign you’re just as liable for payments as anyone else on the loan. If the payments start being missed, it’s your problem. You have to be prepared to make all the payments if you choose this option.

3) Missed payments will go on your credit reports. If the payments on the loan are missed then anyone who has signed for the loan (yes,  including you) will have a record of those missed payments reported on their credit reports.  And, if the loan goes into default any aggressive collection actions, including litigation, it will be targeted at you. I’m not a fan of co-signing for a loan EVER, unless you need two incomes to qualify for a mortgage.

http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/building-or-re-building-your-credit-10201/

Arguments about finances are often what lead to the end of a relationship. Money matters are always a top reason for marital discontent. That’s because when it comes to money, opposites often attract.

It’s kind of a universal dynamic in relationships, says Olivia Mellan, a couples therapist and money coach. She’s seen all sorts of combinations: money hoarders marrying free spenders, or money worriers hooking up with avoiders who hate to talk or think about it.

Such combinations present challenges when the two individuals become a couple.

If you’re in a relationship whether married or not, and your significant other says one of the following, you may be on the road to one of the four biggest money mistakes that couples make.

‘Let’s talk about it later’
Problem: Conversations about money are few and far between.

Solution: Before sharing a home together and combining your bills, discuss a few key financial points. That should include how much debt each person brings into the relationship. Share credit reports and credit scores to learn how each person has managed money in the past.

Talk early on about how shared household expenses will be paid. If one partner earns more, will that person pay a higher percentage of the bills? Will there be one joint account or will each person maintain a separate bank account?

You’ll want to talk about major purchases and spending priorities. Are stainless steel appliances a must for you, granite counters?

It’s important for couples to have ongoing money discussions in order to stay on track. Some advisers say a weekly discussion around a table where paperwork can be laid out is best, while others recommend at least a monthly sit-down to talk short-term and long-term goals for retirement, education, major purchases, and vacations.

‘So what if I have some cash hidden in the back of the closet?’
Problem: Partners keeping money secrets from one another. Secrets could range from buying the occasional irresistible on-sale sweater to hidden stashes of cash.

Solution: Don’t combine all income together. Allow each partner to have his or her spending money.

“I don’t think couples should ever merge all their money,” says Mellan.

Combine enough income to pay the household bills. Try drafting separate lists of what expenses each partner thinks should be paid jointly then work together to merge those lists. The combined expenses should be paid from a joint account to which each partner contributes based on income or some agreed upon formula. Each partner then maintains a separate account to save or spend as he or she wishes.

For single-income families it’s important to realize that both individuals should be familiar with the budget and bills. It’s also a good idea for nonworking partners to have a bank account of their own.

‘It didn’t cost that much’
Problem: There’s no household budget.

Solution: A budget agreed upon by both partners will help pay down debt or avoid it in the first place. Debt is one of the most common flashpoints for disagreements over money. Budgeting also helps plan for that new car, a home, a baby, or retirement. To help keep debt under control, it’s important to budget for an emergency account. That way you can pay for the unexpected, like a broken water heater without scrambling. No one likes cold showers.

You can find a home budget calculator and other helpful financial tools at credit.org/blog/calculators.

To avoid missteps, couples should look into some of the latest tools, like Chext. It’s a text messaging service that’s allows couples to keep track of all expenses out of their account instantly, chext.net. The tool keeps a running total of an account’s balance and subtracts any spending either partner posts — sending a text message to both the spender and the partner’s phone so both are always up to date. It’s a step toward total transparency.

‘I don’t own enough to need a will’
Problem: When you’re young and single, life insurance is hardly a top priority. But even when young people start to pair up, too often they don’t think about an unexpected crisis.

Solution: Couples should talk about their expectations if something were to happen to one or both of them. Who is the beneficiary listed on insurance policies and retirement accounts? If someone forgets to update these documents, money could go to a former spouse or another family member. A will, a power of attorney, a health care directive, and other documents that ensure financial and other matters are dealt with legally are important plans to stay on top of.

The Big Banks Shakedown Consumers!

Citi is the latest big bank to slap customers with a round of fee hikes. This time, on its checking accounts.

Starting in December, customers who hold its mid-level Citibank Account will be charged $20 a month if they fail to maintain a minimum balance of $15,000 in their combined accounts. Previously, account holders had to carry a minimum balance of $6,000.

At the same time, customers who have the bank’s EZ Checking account will start being charged $15 a month if they don’t carry a minimum balance of $6,000. Citi (C) says it is phasing out the EZ Checking package, which currently carries no monthly fee, and is instead offering customers either the Citibank Account or its Basic Banking account, which also carries a fee.

Last month, Citi said it is hiking the fee on its Basic Banking account from $8 to $10. Customers will be able to avoid paying the $10 fee by either maintaining a minimum balance of $1,500 or by making one direct deposit and one automatic online payment through their checking account each month, said Citi.

Currently, account holders must make five online transactions per month in order to avoid paying the fee and there is no minimum balance requirement.

Citi’s fee hikes come just days after Bank of America announced it would charge a $5 fee for debit card purchases. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Sun Trust and Regions Financial have all also rolled out similar fees in select markets in recent weeks.

9 most annoying bank fees

“The regulatory environment has changed a great deal — particularly with the Durbin Amendment — and we’re seeing the results of that now,” said Claes Bell, banking reporter with Bankrate.com. Going forward, “we’re going to see more large national banks announce fees.”

With the new regulation that caps how much revenue banks can get from the swipe fees they collect from merchants, banks must look for other ways to cover that lost income, explained Nessa Feddis, vice president and senior counsel of the American Bankers Association.

“We don’t expect to pay nothing to ride the train, it’s the same thing with a checking account,” she said.

Citibank said it chose not to charge a debit card fee because its customers did not want it. “There’s a reason why we structured it this way,” said Catherine Pulley, spokeswoman for Citi. There are also no hidden fees, Pulley added, and customers will benefit from free online bill pay and free access to non-Citi ATM machines.

Bank accounts: Get a fair shake, not a shakedown

While the majority of checking accounts were free last year, less than half now come without a price tag, according to a recent study from bank-comparison site Bankrate, which looked at 243 interest and 238 non-interest accounts.

Like Citi’s new offerings, 92% of checking accounts have fee waivers, meaning that if you can meet certain financially requirements, most checking accounts are — or could become — free.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Citi-announces-new-fees-on-cnnm-215283525.html?x=0

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Last Friday, after Bank of America’s (BAC) announcement of new fees on debit cards, retired postal worker Victoria Lee took her adult daughters to her local USPS Credit Union. “[My daughters opened] free checking accounts with no charges for the use of debit cards,” Lee said. Like many Americans who are carefully watching every dollar, the Florida resident said she was grateful to have an alternative to retail Wall Street banks.

Meanwhile, a record-breaking 3,200 new checking accounts were opened over the weekend at the Navy Federal Credit Union, the world’s largest credit union with 3.7 million members and nearly $48 billion in assets. The weekend surge — which crushed the previous high of 2,500 — fits into a larger trend for the credit union, which serves the Department of Defense and active duty military. It has had annual growth between 6.3% and 6.7% since 2007, and is on track to record a 14% uptick in membership this year, said Tisa Head, the senior vice president of savings products. In addition to its fee-free debit cards and accounts, another driver for the year’s projected double-digit membership increase has been the credit union’s willingness to post pay early for active duty members who use the Active Duty Checking account.

“You can’t help but draw some lines to current economic growth,” said Nancy DeDona, vice president of membership.

Amidst the financial chaos on Wall Street in the last few years, and with the biggest names in retail consumer banking getting monthly, if not weekly, black eyes, credit unions have been steadily gaining ground. Since 2007, the credit union membership in the United States has increased from 86.8 million to more than 91 million, according to figures from National Credit Union Association. Total assets have increased from $755 billion to more $942.5 billion at more than 7,290 credit union organizations.

Patricia Briotta, a spokeswoman for National Association of Federal Credit Unions, attributes the recent growth to people’s rising desire to find alternatives to dealing with Wall Street.

“[The growth] mirrors the time when people were looking and giving [credit unions] greater value. This is a Main Street option,” she said. The organization launched an online credit union search engine called CU Lookup in 2008, which allows consumers to search for local organizations.

Technology Reduces the Stigma of Smallness

The 55-year-old NAFT Federal Credit Union, an acronym for Neighbors and Families Together, in Pharr, Texas, is another of the thousands of credit unions dotting the American financial landscape. It has grown steadily to a membership of nearly 9,000 members and assets of $57 million. That’s small by industry standards, but NAFT does what these nonprofit financial institutions do best: It caters the needs of its local community, providing a high level of personalized customer service. Five locations, two of which are at local high schools to promote financial literacy, serve the hard-working community.

“We are not trying to grow assets but we are trying to take in new members,” said credit union president Suzy Brinkman-Doughty.To do that, her credit union is focusing on attracting younger clients. “We have to meet needs of younger people. They want to do online banking and have convenience and immediacy.” As a result, the Texas credit union has a basic online banking platform; there is no mobile app or fancy advertising campaign. But the credit union gets the job done, without a fee.

Credit unions are nonprofit, member-owned institutions and were created at the national level under the 1934 Federal Credit Union Act. Originally, most credit unions were associated with labor or worship affiliations, but today, many are open to all. They don’t do commercial lending, but generally offer no- or low-fee checking accounts, low-minimum balances to open account and lower interest rates for small loans and credit cards, capped by law at 18% for federal credit unions.

The historical drawbacks to credit unions include fewer locations, smaller ATM networks, and eligibility requirements. With their emphasis on saving, many credit unions also require a nominal deposit into a share account — the credit union term for a savings account. But the stigmas surrounding credit unions’ accessibility are fading as technology and more diverse financial services allow them to compete for the 24/7 customer who values mobility. The Navy Federal Credit Union has nearly 200 locations around the world, and its ATM network stretches all the way to the tiny African nation of Djibouti.

“In 1979, I closed my checking account at a bank and I have never regretted it,” said NAFT’s Brinkman-Doughty. “If you really don’t want to pay a fee, you don’t have to. [Retail banks'] goal is to make money for stockholders. That is not our goal.”

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/10/04/new-bank-fees-push-more-americans-to-credit-unions/

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As many of you know it was announced yesterday by Bank of America that they would be implementing a new fee charging all of their debit card holders a five dollar a month fee starting in early 2012. Chase and Wells Fargo are also testing $3 monthly debit card fees in select markets. Neither bank has said when it will make a final decision on whether to roll out the fee more broadly.

Why you might as? Starting Oct. 1, the regulation will cap the fees that banks can collect from merchants whenever customers swipe their debit cards. Those fees generated $19 billion in revenue for banks in 2009, (according to the Nilson Report) which tracks the payments industry. There is no similar cap on the merchant fees that banks can collect when customers use their credit cards, however.

That means many banks are increasingly encouraging customers to reach for their credit cards, in hopes of reversing a trend toward debit card usage in the past several years.

An increasing reliance on credit cards would be particularly beneficial for big institutions like Bank of America, which have large credit card portfolios.

Long story short; merchants can no longer be charged a higher fee by banks for your debit swipe, they figure, someone has to pay… So, they are passing it on to YOU the consumer. Thus forcing you into credit card usage, higher interest rates, and possibly debt.

We recommend always paying off your credit card balances so you never have to pay the high rates they charge.  If you already have the debt, call us at (877) 543-7770 and we can help solve your debt problems.

Happy shopping!

Credit card companies are trying to lure more consumers with premium cards. They often come with annual charges so beware. Also, they advertise no preset spending limit. That doesn’t mean no spending limit it just means you don’t know what it is, and the issuer can change it at will, he says. That means a shopper could be declined for a purchase without advance warning, or face much higher monthly payments, because any amount over your credit limit is due immediately. Depending on how the issuer reports your credit, it could also hurt your credit score. So like any credit card offers, buyer beware.

Buyer Beware!