Consumers Who Keep An Eye On Their Bank Accounts Avoid Fees
With the state that the economy is in right now, the rising unemployment rate and the continuing rise of the cost of credit, American consumers are desperate to find strategies that can help them keep their finances from collapsing.
It seems that a simple and comparatively hassle free tactic which many American consumers may have missed is to simply keep a tight watch on their bank accounts.
Actually, a few American consumers do keep a close eye on their finances. These are usually consumers who prefer to be on top of their financial situation and who understand that banks and financial companies are not going to balk at charging their customers fees and the best way to avoid these fees is to never give them a reason to do so. Since the regular consumer is now struggling with very unstable finances, this practice, which up to now has been followed only by a few, should become a habit for every American consumer.
It is not even very hard for American consumers to check the status of their savings, checking or credit card accounts. Most, if not all financial companies offer online services that their customers can use to check the status of their accounts. It would be a trivial exercise for consumers to check their account status. With just a few seconds of effort, consumers can log-in to their financial company’s site, check their accounts and log out. The benefits that they will be getting would be far from trivial too.
According to the recently held annual study of the consumer-oriented, bank monitoring website, Bankrate.com, the average fees for insufficient funds and bounced checks rose to an average of $29.58 for this year. While a lot of financial institutions offer protection against these, its a money trap as well. So called overdraft fees, these are fees issued when consumers use overdraft protection which is a service banks offer so that transactions that exceed the available credit or balance of a consumer is covered.
According to figures collected by the nonpartisan, nonprofit group Center for Responsible Lending, $24 billion was collected from American consumers in overdraft fees last year, 2008. The figures also show that that is 35% higher than the amount collected just two years earlier.
These figures ought to show just how important it is for consumers to keep an eye on their bank accounts. Although a certain amount of effort has to be placed into it, being as up to date as possible on bank accounts is a must for American consumers nowadays. Certainly the alternative is much worse. The penalty fees for going over a credit or balance limit is quite considerable - and it is not getting cheaper either.
