I saw a bit on the tele today regarding the cost of having a checking account. I already forgot the exact numbers, but I believe that they stated that in America the average cost is about $30US to $40US (per a US gov't study). The US gov't claims that this is more than fair compared to what people in the rest of the world pay, and that in some nations individuals pay as much as $600 a year for their checking account.

I am just curious as to what you pay where you live for the privilege of allowing a financial institution to hold your money, and disperse it at your request.

Personally, I don't pay anything for my bank account. I have my payroll direct deposited, and the bank waives all fees, including online bill paying.

I don't want to make this difficult, so if you want to participate, but are not it the US and don't want to convert your currency to US$, please just give the amount you pay in your native currency, and if you know it an approximate exchange rate.

Or if you would like, here is a simple currency converter for a lot of common currencies.


http://www.xe.com/ucc/

The array of options available in terms of different bank accounts and their respective fees and interest rates makes it very difficult to answer your question. I tend to find that if I have an account that pays high interest then it tends to have higher fees. Or an account with a low monthly fee might have a higher transaction fee (and vice versa). The stastic of $600 per year is probably correct but massively distorted in that it most likely refers to some ignorant person who is putting a lot of transactions through an account that has a high per-transaction fee. That same person would probably be better off with an account that has a higher monthly fee.

I guess it is the same principle as mobile phone tariffs.

There are other factors to throw into the mix. For example I pay £6 per month for my account (equivalent to US$137 per year). But this fee is for a package that covers my current account, my credit card, free travel insurance, free insurance on products purchased with my credit card, and discounts on music purchases. So it would be almost impossible for me to extract out the cost of my current account alone.

I hope this is of some use / interest to you.

Harbourboy,

Thank you for your response. I do realize that everyone will have different services that they utilize as I used to work for Bank of America. Some people get free checking because they have a mortgage with their financial insitution or maintian high enough balances. Some, like you, appreciate a value added account with extra services and are willing to pay for it.

This isn't a scientific inquiry, it is a curiosity, and a check on what the US gov't tells its citizens. I appreciate the description you give of your account, it does help to evaluate the value of what you receive in comparison to what you pay.

I am hoping that a few people will be curious like me, and will post what they pay for the services their financial institution provides to them, and if they receive more than the basic services I hope the will say so. If someone wants to make a commentary as to the value of the service they receive compared to the price I would find that interesting as well, though I would rather this thread not turn into a rant on banks.

Again, thanks for your reply! :)

Well, as far as I can tell my banking is done pretty much exactly like yours Darkwolf. I dont pay anything for my account (actually I have several different accounts in the same bank, mostly to ease my own savings. My savings account is not connected to my visa so I cant access the money on that account without first transfering them to my salary/visa account), I dont have a checking account though as using checks is something that is very very rarely done here. I pay five bucks a year for my VISA and another five for internet banking. That is about it, no transaction fees or anything.

I have only 2 accounts (non-chequê), and I pay of both about 2€ per month -that only because paying bills costs 50c per bill :p

I don't pay anything at all - I even get my checks for free - but that's because I'm with Bank of America and my mortgage is through them. But it doesn't cost my anything to use their services.

I don't have to pay anything because I have direct deposit of my earnings, otherwise I would have to pay 3.95 for my campus checking account with Bank of America.

No fees of any sort on my Checking Account (including Debit Card and Free Checks!), no fees on Statement Savings, no transaction fees, free online bill paying and transfers. I've also got a free credit card with basically no interest on it (it's about 5-8% lower than any other card I've seen). I've also got free Identity Theft Insurance and other features. I do not maintain loans with this bank.

It's been the same at most of the banks I've been to. The service wasn't quite as good, but everything was still free.

Nothing so far as I know, I never got charged anything, only when in overdraft and forget to pay it back :D

No charges on my accounts, either.

@ Harbourboy:
I pay £6 per month ... for a package that covers ... free travel insurance, free insurance Wow, you sure have a strange definition of the word "free". :p I'm sure I can find something to give you for free, too; I'll only charge you $100. :p :p

OK - 'free' is the wrong word to use. I pay that for a whole package of stuff. But I travel so much that I get value from the travel insurance alone. Plus I used my 'free' product insurance once when I broke my digital camera (worth £200) and they replaced it for 'free'. So I am happy with my piddling £6 per month.

I pay no monthly or transaction fees. I have unlimited chequing, ABM, telephone and internet banking. I also pay no service charges on money orders (domestic or foreign currency). Actually, I am fairly certain that if my bank does it I get it for free.

My interest rate is double whatever the current normal chequing account rate is (of course twice nothing is still nothing). I also have a linked line of credit which I have never used as well as a premium savings account (also with no fees but it actually pays a decent amount of interest).

I did have to pay to have custom cheques printed but that was several years ago (I generally use internet banking whenever possible).

Slovakia, VUB (bank), VUBenefit (account type, or a bunch of services):

$240US ($60US + $30US + $150US) per year for
personal account with 2 debit cards, 10 free transaction per month special account (better interest rate) - this is a subaccount of personal account Internet banking, Contact banking (you call your bank on a phone - standard voice communication with operator), GSM banking (I don't use the latest) 10 "free" transactions per month credit card ($30) with insurance ($150US) (when I lose my income insurance will pay money I spent through this card)
I pay bills with my credit card - this is counted as one transaction against my account per month - monthly clearing. No rates when paying it at time (10 days after clearing). I pay this way also for gasoline when using company car and get cash from my company then. This way I don't need to withdraw cash (only in december :) ).

I don't use debit cards. Only for cash withdrawal. They belong to this type of account.

This covers my average banking. I make more than 10 transaction per month only three or four times in a year. Then it makes 8US cents per transaction.

Withdrawing cash with credit card: $6US - I don't use this.
Withdrawing cash with debit card: free or $1US according which bankomat I use (to which bank this bankomat belongs).
No fees when paying with credit card.
Transaction fees when paying with debit card.

Withdrawing cash abroad: 1,5% of withdrawal with minimum $5US.

Using cards in operations with interbanking clearing: $6US.


The basic bunch of services (VUBasic) with one debit card, 3 "free" transactions per month, Contact banking, would have the basic fee: $15US per year.

The basic account (no other services): $11US per year.

This makes: $20US - $200US according to account type and number of operations for a personal banking in a year (the lower boundary is virtual, it would be around $30US-$40US for a common bank usage with debit cards, $50 with credit card).