Fee for closing an account

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
I had two accounts at a local bank, so I decided to close the smaller one and transfer the balance to the larger account. I was shocked when the teller told me there's a $92 fee for closing an account. Is this normal?
 

Banks can charge any fees they want. If you're a long-time customer, complain to the manager and see if you can get the fee waived.

Slightly OT, one charge most people aren't aware of is that any time an IRA is closed or even transferred to another institution, there's usually a charge of $100. Standard fee, every institution we dealt with in the CFP's office, did it.
 
debodun said:
I had two accounts at a local bank, so I decided to close the smaller one and transfer the balance to the larger account. I was shocked when the teller told me there's a $92 fee for closing an account. Is this normal?
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I never heard of such a stupid thing. I would tell her that you will close the larger account as well and move the money to another bank if they don't waive that stupid $92 fee.
 

It's been 15 years since I changed banks but I have never heard of this. Anyway someone can make money...
 
Lon said:
I never heard of such a stupid thing. I would tell her that you will close the larger account as well and move the money to another bank if they don't waive that stupid $92 fee.
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Sounds like the ideal way to deal with it Lon!
 
Wow! I hope that doesn't happen to me. I had to open a checking account to get a better rate on a CD a couple of years ago. It will mature in June and I want to close out the checking account at that time. I had to keep $2000.00 in the account. Seems to me they made enough off of that money. I'm going to throw a fit if they try to charge a fee.
 
debodun said:
I had two accounts at a local bank, so I decided to close the smaller one and transfer the balance to the larger account. I was shocked when the teller told me there's a $92 fee for closing an account. Is this normal?
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That sounds ridiculous. If you want to get back at this bank, leave the account open....but with a balance of $1.00. It will cost them their $92, over a year or two, just to manage and maintain the account.
 
Don M. said:
That sounds ridiculous. If you want to get back at this bank, leave the account open....but with a balance of $1.00. It will cost them their $92, over a year or two, just to manage and maintain the account.
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Except that some banks are now charging a "service charge" to have an open account with a small balance and no or little activity, so this could backfire. A bank here tried to charge me $6.00 per month for an account that I believed I had closed, but in reality had less than a dollar left in it.
 
A lot businesses now try stupid fees only waiving if the customer ask. So even if half the customers complain they still made money on those that didn't. This is the age of opting out, not in.
 
Okay, here's the story as I understand it: I called the main bank office and talked to a rep (no use doing it at the branch bank). The rep said that there's a $25 fee to transfer funds between accounts. To me this seems so bogus just - click a few buttons on a machine? And they aren't losing anything - my money is still in the same bank. She added that since I opened the small account less than 6 months ago, there is also a penalty for "early closure" - some calculation they do from the time the account is close until it would become "penalty free". She also said that it was good I went to the office in person. If I had done it electronically, the transfer fee would have doubled! No matter how they explain it, I just don't understand.
 
debodun said:
Okay, here's the story as I understand it: I called the main bank office and talked to a rep (no use doing it at the branch bank). The rep said that there's a $25 fee to transfer funds between accounts. To me this seems so bogus just - click a few buttons on a machine? And they aren't losing anything - my money is still in the same bank. She added that since I opened the small account less than 6 months ago, there is also a penalty for "early closure" - some calculation they do from the time the account is close until it would become "penalty free". She also said that it was good I went to the office in person. If I had done it electronically, the transfer fee would have doubled! No matter how they explain it, I just don't understand.
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Wuh oh. Sounds like the bear trap they call fine print.

A lot of banks want your money longer term so they can invest it for even more money.
 
Are these regular accounts or some kind of money market account?

Charging you money to transfer funds between accounts is outrageous! I've never encountered that in any bank I've dealt with (and I dealt with a lot of them at work). I would change banks and get away from those rip off artists at your current bank. I transfer funds back and forth between accounts all the time at my bank and never have been charged a fee!
 
I have read or heard of fees for account closing at major banks, something my little CU doesn't do. I remember that some of them were going to charge a fee just talk to a teller either in person or phone, don't know what happened with that. I would dump them fast, there are too many that want your business for free.

Speaking of fees & I'm not trying to hijack this thread. I was paying my monthly utility bills this morning, I came to DirecTV/CenturyLink. I remembered that when you get to the bill payment sequence of the D/CL online payment, one page asks do you want to pay with a bank account or debit/credit card? If you chose D/C there is a $3.50 charge. My total bill is just shy of $80 so that figures out to be a 4.3% surcharge, the normal charge to the ISP from the bank is somewhere between 2-3%. Sneaky ISP is making additional money on my convenient use of a D/C card. I opt for the bank account (which I hate using willy-nilly online).

Another fee based service I eliminated was my automatic auto insurance payments, for years I had been selecting the monthly option. When we changed insurance company I asked them if they charge a monthly convenience fee, NO! Yeah, that was a lie also, they started charging a $2 a month fee for auto pay. This March I paid the 6-month invoice by check saving myself an additional $22, so $2 shows on my statement but the other $10 was hidden somewhere in their convoluted 'only the phantom knows' bill, they were gouging me for an additional 6.5% overall. Between the two (utility/insurance) accounts I save an annual amount of $86 just in convenience fees. Not a huge amount but like most being on a fixed income, the small ones can erode your disposal income.
 
I agree. Dump that bank and go with one of the major ones who are begging for your business and don't charge fees for everything. I don't pay fees for use of my checking account or anything else. I can even wire transfer for free.
 
Son_of_Perdition said:
Speaking of fees & I'm not trying to hijack this thread.
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Another thing that "gets" me is being charged for receiving a mailed monthly paper statement from utilities instead of opting to be emailed the statement. I like to have a paper copy sent because I don't have a printer. What if someone doesn't have email, Internet or even a computer? It's like being punished for not being electronics savvy.
 

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