Are you tired of fees? Of course, you are. Aren’t we all? It’s almost impossible to sign up for anything these days without coming across annoying fees. Sure, banks and credit card companies have to make money somehow, but some fees are simply becoming unreasonable. To make things worse, banks and credit card companies seem to raise them every year. For tips on how to avoid, reduce, and even reverse 6 of the most aggravating, fist-clenching, forehead-slapping fees, keep reading.
The ATM Fee
What Is It? This is the fee you pay to use an ATM at another bank. Some banks charge you for going out of its network, and the ATM owner may tack on an additional surcharge. As a result, you may incur fees up to $3.00 at some machines. This really adds up over and time, and more importantly, it really gets on your nerves.
What To Do If your bank’s ATM isn’t nearby, you can get cash back when making a debit card purchase to avoid this fee. You could also open an account at a bank that offers ATM rebates. Another option is to simply ask your current bank if they’ll waive the fees.
The Late Fee
What Is It? The fee you are charged when your bill payment doesn’t arrive by the due date. The actual fee will vary by institution, but for most of my accounts, it falls in the $30 to $40 range.
What To Do What’s annoying about this fee is that sometimes it happens because of a stupid mistake. Fortunately, financial institutions realize this and if you’re late once or twice, they will usually waive the fee. Just call them and ask. To avoid being late again, set up automatic payments if possible. This saves you money on postage too. For the old-timers still using snail mail, be sure to send your check 7 to 10 days before the due date.
The Over-Limit Fee
What Is It? The charge for overdrawing your checking account or going over the limit on your credit card. These fees continue to rise, and most banks allow you overspend and then slap you with the fee.
What To Do Talk to your bank and request that ATM withdrawals, debit purchases, and checks only be approved if there are sufficient funds in your account. Some banks will let you do this. Another option is to link your checking account to a line of credit, commonly referred to as overdraft protection. At many banks, it’s also possible to set up email or text message alerts if your balance runs low.
The Monthly Service Fee
What Is It? This is the fee for dipping below the minimum balance on an interest checking account.
What To Do Avoid interest checking accounts with monthly service fees. These are usually your traditional savings accounts that have ridiculously low interest rates, so get with the times and open a high-yield savings account. Move your savings into one of these and say goodbye to outrageous monthly service fees forever.
The Foreign Currency Fee
What Is It? When you use a credit card or withdraw money from an ATM abroad, your bank charges a foreign transaction fee. This fee has shot up in recent years. A few years ago, I traveled abroad, and American Express didn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Now you can expect to pay at least 2% on foreign transaction fees.
What To Do Even after the fee, credit cards and ATMs typically give you the best conversion rate. Some banks don’t charge a fee for ATM withdrawals overseas, so check with your bank to find out. For credit card purchases, find out which one of your cards has the lowest fee and use it for your purchases.
Text Messaging Fee
What Is It? The fee that wireless companies charge you to send and receive text messages on your cell phone. Back in the day, you could receive text messages for free, but now it’s around 10 cents for every message sent or received. Some people don’t like text messaging, but if you’re a college student, you probably do it. I find text messaging really convenient — useful feature, annoying fee.
What To Do Unfortunately, I don’t know any way around this fee. If anyone has suggestions, please share. There are ways to reduce the fee though. If you send text messages regularly, you can probably save some money by going with one of the bundles offered by your wireless carrier . Depending on how many messages you send/receive a month, you’ll want to compare your options and choose the appropriate bundle.
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Great post. As for the foreign currency fee – Capital One is the only credit card issuer that both does not charge its own currency conversion fee AND that eats the fee that Visa/MC charges. (Some issuers don’t charge their own fees, but they do pass along the 1% Visa/MC fee.) If you make a fair amount of purchases in foreign currency, it can be worth it to have a CapOne card because this is the only card that eliminates ALL fees.
Thanks for the excellent tip, Anne.
Re: text messaging fees…you can call your provider and have a block put on your phone so you cannot receive texts and therefore cannot be charged for them. You will have to alert your friends and family that you will no longer be able to accept text messages, they will have to call, as they will not know it did not go through on their end.
Interesting post! What I hate the most is having to pay for spam text messages. They are doubly bad.
Best Wishes,
D4L
If you must have cash now, you can always buy a five-cent piece of gum at the grocery store. Pay with your debit card and get cash back… costs far less than an ATM fee.
sam – Thanks for the tip. That’s great to know for people who don’t use text messaging.
D4L – Spam texts used to annoy me before I switched to a data plan. Now it’s a little less annoying because I’m not getting charged extra for it, but it’s still spam.
Centsible Shopper – Great advice. It costs less, and you get to chew on it.
Another thing you can do when you unfortunately do get charged these fees is called up the bank or creditor and threaten to close your account if they don’t reverse them. This usually works if you only do it once in a blue moon.
Re: text messaging fees…you can call your provider and have a block put on your phone so you cannot receive texts and therefore cannot be charged for them. You will have to alert your friends and family that you will no longer be able to accept text messages, they will have to call, as they will not know it did not go through on their end.
There have been some rule changes regarding all these fees from a few years ago; the problem is that they are kept relatively discreet; so most people don’t know about them. Requiring a million people to call a credit card call center just to cancel a text messaging fee is impractical; only a very small number will end up doing it.