After more digging, we ferreted out some of those notoriously hard to find bank’s fee schedules. These list all the fees a bank can levy against a consumer’s personal checking or savings account. Most are buried to some extent, limiting consumer’s abilities to shop around.
Here’s links to the bank’s fee schedules, and their recency.
Wachovia (2/07)
Bank of America (2/07, PDF)
Washington Mutual (unknown, PDF)
Suntrust (recency depends on region)
HSBC – Couldn’t find
Chase – (varies by region)
USAA (8/06, PDF)
— BEN POPKEN





Since it seems banks have this information on hand at the branch, I guessing I can just waltz in and ask for a copy.
That Citibank fee schedule you have there is for the United Arab Emirates. Took me a while to figure out what a AED was in money terms.
I couldn’t find a fee schedule for Citibank in the US, although I think their schedules go by market, not just for the whole US. The State of New York banking department did try somewhat to figure all of this out though:
http://www.banking.state.ny.us/intrate.htm
i’m looking over the citibank one. what’s an AED?
I actually just created an account at Chase last weekend for my father’s estate. The process was a bit complicated – another story for another time – but I could scan in the forms that came with the account.
i sent an email to chase.com, requesting they direct me to the location of the fees listing on their site. will post the link here if they reply.
AED : automatic external defibrillator ! (you need one when the size of the fees give you a heart attack)
Can’t you just call up the bank and ask them to send a copy of the fee schedule ?
Here’s chase.
https://apps.chase.com/ViewDisclosures.aspx?type=PER
Any idea where to find the Wells Fargo one?
Compare that to our local credit union, who make their fee schedule accessible from the front page:
https://www.hvfcu.org/BZ/BZ_FeeSchedule.cfm
HSBC: http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/PA_1_1_39/content/usshared/Person…
Real easy to find, lol. Just search google for:
“Rules for Deposit accounts” site:hsbc.com
…and select the second link and then click PDF
@ShadeWalker:
AED is the currency of the United Arab Emirates (Arab Emirates Dirham). The fees are stated in AED’s because the link provided is for the UAE division of Citibank.
Lest you assume that it’s all the same (after currency conversion of course), it’s not. Citibank charges different fees in different countries.
@humphrmi: so… this fee schedule is of no use to me since i’m not in the arab emirates dirham?
@humphrmi:
Regarding different countries, in the UK, bank fees for overdrafts and bouncing checks etc are generating 1000′s of court cases right now.
Banks have never gone to court to defend these fees; in all cases the consumer won by default (bank failed to show up at court) or the bank made a settlement.
Its causing quite a mess for the banks; more at :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6422961.stm
@ShadeWalker: Correct, the UAE fees, even converted to US Dollars, won’t help you.
I found one page that lists the fees for all the various Citibank account types in the US: https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-bin/citifi/scripts/prod_and_service/prod_serv_detail.jsp?BS_Id=Packages&BV_UseBVCookie=yes
Note that’s Banking, not credit or investments. However the page has links (at the top) to the other services.
Haven’t been able to find anything that lists them all together.
I think it would be useful to concoct a series of checking account “accidents” and test out what the financial damage would be at all the various banks, using their fee schedules.
I couldn’t find a single listing for TD Canada Trust’s fee schedule, but there’s some information about checking here: http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/compare_chequing.jsp…
Savings here: http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/compare_savings.jsp
And “Administration Fees” here:
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/fees.jsp
Annoying that all this information isn’t available in a single place, and is likely incomplete. I’m actually consistently unhappy with TD Canada Trust, but since creating a bank in Canada requires an act of *Parliament*, the alternatives are constrained and frighteningly similar.
bank of america.. upper right corner, search for “fees”..
https://www2.bankofamerica.com/efulfillment/documents/38-11-3000ED.20070216.pdf
Wachovia charges $30 for a stop payment on a check? That is retarded. It costs them nothing to do.
that bank of america link is regional also (this disclosure is for upstate ny).
For Bank of America (I know this because I was looking for my schedule of fees just the other day)… the key is to find the “Account Services” page…
From that page, there is a link that says “Personal Schedule of Fees” that will bring up the schedule for whatever state the site is set for (if you have an account, this is automatic via a cookie, not sure what happens if you haven’t set a state on the site before). Doing this gave me a schedule as of Feb 16, 2007. Here it is for MA:
https://www2.bankofamerica.com/efulfillment/documents/21-11-3000ED.20070216.pdf
I managed to get to this without signing in so prospective customers could do so as well, though it took a bit of hunting (homepage > Checking > MyAccess Checking (any of the checking account names) > Rates and Fees tab > Detailed Rates and Fees > Account Services> Personal Schedule of Fees).
Presumably there’s an easier way to get there (hmm, maybe I give them too much credit), but this DOES work. Also can click “Deposit Agreement and Disclosures” to get the book of rules on the account.
Love the site. Excited to make my first post!
National City (for Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky):
http://www.nationalcity.com/content/personal/checking/docu…
Not exactly hard to find – just go to their home page, click on one of the checking account links, then click on the “Complete Pricing” link.
USAA
Showing 1-8 of 8.
* Broker-Assisted Trades
https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=brokerage_commission_schedule_assisted
Review broker assisted trading fees and commissions for stocks, options, USAA Mutual Funds, USAA Fund Marketplace and bonds.
* Depository Agreement and Bank Service Fee Schedule (PDF – 421 K)
https://www.usaa.com/pdf/DaD0406_BillPay0704_SvcFee0606.pdf
Read the terms of the agreement and about various fees for banking activities, including overdrafts, wires and money orders.
* Online and Touchline Trades
https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=brokerage_commission_schedule_online
Review internet fees, commissions and discounts for stocks, options, USAA Mutual Funds, USAA Fund Marketplace and bonds.
* Brokerage Fees and Service Charges
https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=brokerage_fees
See our listing and review amounts and descriptions.
mac-phisto says:
that bank of america link is regional also (this disclosure is for upstate ny).
That is correct. Here is a better link for ALL account opening documents. The first page will ask for your state.
http://www.bankofamerica.com/state.cgi?section=generic&upd…
My new Credit Union charges an “empty envelope” fee of $25. I had never seen this fee before.
My old CU put a 36 hour hold on deposits even at their branch cash machines to guard against people who deposit empty envelopes. I found this out the hard way when they delayed my deposit and that’s where the “former” part came about.
OTOH, the notorious BofA has little holes in their deposit envelopes that they (presumably) scan to prevent this little problem. However, I like my CU’s policy because unlike most fees, this one penalizes the party responsible for the error.
My credit union(UCCU), which I am convinced is run by St. Peter himself, has theirs in plain sight.
Go to website > type ‘fee schedule’ in the search box on the front page > pat yourself on the back for using a credit union instead of a bank > relax and enjoy some light reading.
Seriously people, STOP USING BANKS! Unless you’re a sucker for pain and frustration.
North Fork Bank is the worst. They charged me a $15 “Undeliverable Mail Fee” each month, even though I was receiving all of my mail from them. It was the strangest thing, I would open my statements that were delivered in the mail, and on that very statement was a 15 dollar fee saying the statement was undeliverable. I think I actually looked around for that douche from Punked.
When I called them they actually tried to blame me for not reading my statements and said it was to get my “attention” to change my address?!?! My address was correct. I told them that I will now walk around to their Manhattan banks and teabag their deposit and withdrawal slips. But I’m not really being a pervert, I’m just trying to get their “attention” that their service sucks.