Checking Accounts

You could be in for higher fees if you don't keep an eye on your checking account. Fees for bounced checks and withdrawing cash from an out-of-network ATM rose again this year, according to a survey released Monday by Bankrate.com. The average cost of using another bank's ATM is now $3.43, while a bounced check now costs an average of $28.95, up 2.5% from a year ago, according to the survey. The good news is that avoiding such fees is easy.

Ada Bonds, a 67-year-old disabled retiree, pays a check-cashing store in South-Central about $13 every month to cash her $620 Social Security check. And Bonds pays $10 for every $100 worth of personal checks and money orders she cashes. A bank would be less expensive--a checking account at the nearest bank 13 blocks away would cost at most $20 a year.

Consumers paid more for banking services and got less in return during the past year, according to a new national survey by a coalition of consumer groups. Monthly fees and per-check charges for interest-bearing checking accounts rose 9.9% in the 12 months ending in April, about the same as increases in the previous three years, the survey found. During the same period, the survey found, interest paid to consumers on checking and savings accounts dropped and people had to pay more for loans.

A growing number of California savings institutions are offering low-cost checking accounts, but most carry restrictions that reduce their attractiveness to elderly, low-income and non-English-speaking consumers, a survey by a San Francisco consumer group contended Monday. However, officials of some major California banks said their low-cost accounts have been popular among low-income and elderly consumers, despite restrictions.

Bank of America promotes itself as "doing a job for more Californians." But to Claire Giannini Hoffman, the bank her father founded 85 years ago is doing an unflattering job on his memory. Hoffman, a frequent critic of Bank of America in recent years, is fighting mad over a series of recent B of A advertisements that show a picture of her father, A. P. Giannini, and invite customers to open checking accounts. She spent much of the weekend contacting newspapers and radio stations around the state to condemn the ads, calling them "an insult to my father."

If your check bounces, you'll probably have to pay your bank $10 to $12 as a fee for handling it. Some might call it a penalty. But take heart. You'd pay a lot more everywhere else in the country, except New York City, according to a survey by an industry newsletter. The survey by Bank Rate Monitor shows that fees charged by major banks and savings and loans for bounced checks have increased nationwide to an average of $16.13 this year from $15.30 two years ago.

Washington Mutual Inc., which has made free checking a cornerstone of its marketing campaign, is about to start imposing a $5 fee on noncustomers who come into a branch and cash a check drawn on a WaMu personal account. In other words, let's say you're a WaMu customer and you write a $30 check to your buddy Bob for his collection of vintage Peter Frampton records. If Bob, who doesn't have a checking account, cashes the check at his local WaMu branch, he'll only get $25. WaMu would keep $5.

Things to do this weekend with your money Rising interest rates have translated into higher yields on certificates of deposit, money-market funds and even checking accounts. 4 Today: Taxable money markets now average 5.48%, while tax-free funds average 4.4%, according to IMoneyNet Inc., a financial data research firm. To shop for a higher-yielding fund, visit http://www.imoneynet.com. 4 Saturday: Certificate of deposit yields are at five-year highs.

Wells Fargo & Co., heeding the protests of angry customers, has decided to reinstate free checking for thousands of its customers. The bank's decision Friday reverses an earlier one that eliminated fee waivers on the checking accounts of about 164,000 customers. That announcement, made in May, prompted a flurry of angry calls and letters from account holders, who believed that they would not have to pay fees for as long as they had the accounts.