Smasharoo wrote:
Seriously? You pay $12.50 per month per account? Are these like gold plated accounts or something? Do they come with strippers? That's crazy. I pay nothing for my accounts
You should be making money on deposit based banking. "I pay nothing for the interest free loan I provide my bank!" isn't really the goal. I realize that's challenging if you have $50 in a checking account, but most people should be able generate some interest/"cash back" with minimal effort.
To be fair though, interest earned in a normal bank account is rarely going to cover the cost of inflation, so at best its a "not losing as much money in my savings account" kind of thing. Obviously, if you're paying $12.50/month in base fees (before things like check fees, teller fees, ATM fees, etc), whatever interest you're earning is doubly irrelevant. You don't put money in your local bank for the purpose of earning interest. It may be a slight bonus, but the purpose is a means to have cash available to you without having to lug it around in your pocket all the time. If you want to earn money, open an IRA, or get a brokerage account somewhere and actually invest in some way.
I look at commercial/personal banking just as a convenience. If you can avoid paying for it, that's great. If you can earn some slight amount of interest, that's even better.