Avoiding unnecessary fees on your savings account

One of the first impressions about a savings account would be that it is free from fees. Unfortunately, they are not. Banks need to charge fees for maintaining bank accounts. They spend money whenever they update and make sure every penny in their safekeeping owned by customers is accounted for. They also spend money in monitoring active and inactive accounts. The paperwork and labor force involved in the inventory of these accounts is what the fees are for so they are necessary. However, there are bank fees that you can avoid.

Maintenance fees are charged when a savings account holder goes below the minimum amount of maintaining balance. A maintaining balance is an amount that one needs to keep in the account every month. If the balance in the account goes below this amount for a period of time, you will be charged a maintenance fee. Let us say the balance should be $300 a month. If at one point you needed this amount to be withdrawn, just make sure that you will deposit it back within a month or two to avoid being charged.

Overdraft fees are also at a high right now because of the new laws regarding the limit that banks can charge on some fees. Overdraft fees are charged when you have a negative balance on your account that you are not able to replenish in a period of time. This happens when you have an ATM debit card linked to your savings account that you can use easily in your daily expenses. Let us say that there is insufficient balance on your savings account and you needed to purchase something important and you use your card. What will happen is it will record and charge the amount causing you to have a negative balance. If you are not able to bring it back in the account for a period of time, you will be charged overdraft fees consequently. So, avoid a negative balance or make sure that you pay it right away.

Lastly, you can have an online savings account. Having this will save the bank the cost in making monthly statements and other paperwork associated with the account. In return to customers who do get online savings accounts, they will waive maintenance fees or offer a higher interest rate.

In avoiding unnecessary fees, we should also be conscious on how we manage our money and how we make use of it. Spending properly and holding back on things unnecessary can really help us in keeping a savings account with minimum bank fees.