A Bank Fee You Can Easily Avoid

Smart Money has a money saving tip that tells you how you can easily avoid one common bank fee. Here's the introduction:

Consumers who use Microsoft Money or Intuit's Quicken love the way the software programs help them manage their finances. One of the biggest perks is that the programs can sync with financial institutions to help users track their bank accounts and investments. It's too bad that many banks charge for online access. Bank of America, for example, hits customers with a $9.95 monthly fee for accessing their accounts via Microsoft Money or Quicken. Over time, that can really add up.

It sure can add up. $120 per year over the years is a lot of money.

Smart Money continues by noting that different banks have different fees:

There's little rhyme or reason as to which financial institutions charge fees, and how much they charge. (See article for a handy chart that details these.)

Among the companies that charge, some offer a flat monthly rate, while others charge a low base rate and tack on additional fees per download. Some will waive the fee if you have a certain type of account or a high average daily balance, and others fold the access fees into a larger charge for all online services. Access or download fees are determined entirely by the financial institutions, say spokespeople from Microsoft and Intuit.

But there's good news -- you can avoid the fee. Here's how:

You can skip the fee in two ways: You enter your information into your program of choice manually — a tedious, time-consuming task — or you can shop around for a deal.

Option #2 sounds better to me. It sounds better to Smart Money too, who offers some tips for shopping around:

Make your overall finances top priority. Don't look at the software access fees in isolation when choosing a bank. Sure, access might be free, but you may have received that perk in addition to poor customer service, a low interest rate on your savings account or high fees in other areas.

Read the fine print. Banks tend to advertise their online services as free, and only mention in the footnotes that account management using Quicken or Money is actually classified as a separate service. You don't want to sign up for an account and then realize the free money management software access applies only if you have a high average daily balance.

Use your software as a guide. Money and Quicken list financial institutions that support their software. Most banks support both, but a few choose one or the other. If you already have the software, chances are you want to go with a bank that supports it.

If you use this service, check out the chart that's part of this article. One great piece of news, if you use or are thinking about using an account from Emigrant Direct, the bank with the highest savings account yield in the country at this time, there are no fees.

Comments

[Caitlin]

Wow. I had no idea some banks charge for this. USAA checking doesn't charge (nor does my small local bank in MA). Is this how BAC can afford to pay that juicy dividend? By charging ludicrous fees to it's customers? ;)