Most Annoying Bank Fees (You Can Probably Avoid)

Bank fees have been around for years and even with new financial reforms restricting them, banks are looking for new ways to get revenue.

CNN Money counted the nine most annoying bank fees that you can avoid getting slammed with by your bank.

1. Forgetting to update your address

If you move and your statement is sent to your old address the bank could charge you. Typically this is a fee from regional banks since they will have to pay for handling the returned mail and tracking down a new address. Some banks will charge as little as $5, but others can wring $25 out of you.

2. Getting a Paper Statement

And speaking of statements, online banking is the way to go. Banks will often give customers money or points by enrolling in paperless statements and charge those who want statements sent in the mail.

3. Cashing in your coins

Those coin counting machines will cost you 5% or more of the coins you put through because the banks have to buy and maintain the machines. This fee is fairly easy to avoid by counting and rolling up the coins on your own.

4. Talking to a human teller

Online banking customers as Bank of America and Capital One don’t get access to branches or tellers. In fact, BofA charges its e-banking customers a monthly fee of $8.95 to access branches and talk to tellers.

5. Losing your debit card

You might think the worst thing about losing a card is having to cancel it before someone finds it and tries to use it. The cost for a new card might be only $5, but if you use that card often and need it shipped fast that fee can rocket up to $25.

6. Requesting old statements

Copies of statements or checks will cost you less than $10, but if you need research into your account history odds are it will cost $20 or more.

7. Receiving money

Wiring money costs you a fee but so does receiving incoming transfers. If you never wire money, then this fee will never rear its head, but if you frequently wire money, you’ll need to research ahead of time to choose the right bank. Otherwise, the bank could charge more than $10 a transfer in order to provide a secure system.

8. Redeeming rewards points

Sometimes when you earn rewards points by spending money you have to spend a little more just to redeem them. Luckily, these fees aren’t common, but that doesn’t mean they won’t become more popular in the future.

9. Closing your account

Since it costs a bank money just to open an account, if you decide to close it within a certain time limit of signing up the bank could charge you. PNC and U.S. Bank charge $25 for closing an account within 180 days of opening it. Chase charges the same amount within 90 days. And since it typically costs $20 to open the account, they’re making $5 off these fees.

Some of these fees are easily avoidable, but some can’t be helped if you have to use a certain service. The best thing is to look at all the fees a bank charges before choosing to make sure you’re not being charged an exorbitant amount of money for a service you’ll be using fairly regularly.