How does your bank compare to Everything Checking?

“Hidden Fees” are one of the biggest everyday annoyances for Americans - according to a December 2009 survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. If you count yourself among these Americans - Fight Back… with Everything Checking!
We created the Everything Checking Account Package just for you! No hidden fees, no fine print, no “gotcha’s.”

Use this list of common bank fees and practices to compare your present bank’s fee structure with the Everything Checking Account Package only from LowellBank.

Monthly Account Maintenance Fee: It’s your money, why should you have to pay to use it? Some banks require a minimum balance in your account in order to avoid “maintenance fees.” If you don’t typically maintain a significant balance, be on the lookout for additional or higher monthly account maintenance fees.

Everything Checking – no minimum balance required and no maintenance fees!

Overdraft Fee: When you spend more than you have in your account most banks will cover your bad check or debit purchase for an overdraft fee of $20 to $40. But “overdraft,” which used to be an embarrassment to the consumer, has now become a revenue stream for many banks. How much money is your bank making from your overdraft fees?

Everything Checking – Overdraft fee $15!

Sustained Overdraft Fee: If you don’t pay off the overdraft amount in full, an additional fee gets tacked on. Sometimes it’s a per-day fee and sometimes it’s a flat fee.

Everything Checking – no Sustained Overdraft fee!

How can you “Fight Bank” against these Bank Fees?

• Keep a close eye on your balance to avoid overdraft fees.* Most consumers find avoiding overdraft fees a simple matter of keeping track of their transactions and maintaining a “cushion” in their account of a $100 or so that they deposit and forget about.
  
• “Opt out “of overdraft programs. Ask your bank to either deny a transaction when there isn’t enough money to cover it or to link the checking account to a savings account to cover any overdrafts. The fee for overdrawing from a linked account is generally cheaper than overdraft programs.
  This option is FREE to Everything Checking customers who also have a LowellBank Savings account.
  
• If you are an On-line Banking customer set-up an online banking alert to notify you when your balance falls below a certain threshold.

Counter Charge or Cash Handling Fee: This is a fee charged to customers who opened their account online, but want to access their money through a teller at a walk-in branch. Talking to a live person could also cost you.

Our “personal business banking” service is, and always will be- FREE to our customers!

Processing Fee: Watch out for miscellaneous fees for paper statements, check copies, and ATM withdrawals above a set limit.

These are all free services with Everything Checking!

Telephone Banking Fees: Does your bank charge you for using the phone to check your account balance?

Telephone Banking is free with Everything Checking!

“Reordering Transactions” or “Stacking the Debt”: Does your bank process your debit and checking account transactions in the order that they are received? Some banks re-order transactions presented for processing so that the largest amount is processed before the smallest transactions. In the case of multiple transactions presenting in one day, this could result in more overdraft charges for you and more money for the bank. For example, a customer makes three debit card transactions ($5, $25, and $80) in one day with an account balance of only $100. By shuffling the transaction order around and processing the largest the $80 transaction first, the customer is over drawn faster resulting in two overdraft fees, as opposed to processing them in the order they were received which would result in only one overdraft charge.

With Everything Checking, checks are always processed in the order they are written and debit transactions in the order they are received!

ATM Usage Fee: Does the cost of using an ATM that doesn’t belong to your bank just keep going up and up? It’s not only your own bank’s foreign ATM fee you need to worry about. You may be paying one charge to your own bank and another to the bank whose ATM you’re using.

Everything Checking includes FREE ATM transaction at any foreign ATM and we’ll rebate any other bank usage fees back to your account monthly!

Account Cancelation Fee: How much will your bank charge you if you close your account within a year of opening it?

We’re confident that you won’t want to, but your Everything Checking account can be closed at any time without a fee.

Mailing Fee: Believe it or not, some banks charge their customers a fee to receive their bank statements by mail instead of online. Does your bank?

Online or through the mail – statements are always free with Everything Checking!

* Banks are required by law to disclose their fee structure to new customers upon opening a new account. This is usually done through a series of printed disclosures provided to the consumer. Then it’s left to the consumer to weed through the complicated verbiage to make sense of the bank’s fee structure. The FDIC recently instituted new regulations designed to protect banking customers from excessive overdraft fees from debit card use. These regulations went into effect on July 1, 2010 for new bank accounts, and August 15, 2010 for existing ones. They require banks to obtain consumers’ permission before enrolling them in an overdraft protection program and to give consumers the opportunity to “opt out” of such a program. Banks stand to lose a considerable amount of income from this legislation and many have already figured out how to make up the loss - at the expense of the consumer – with new fees. You don’t have to accept these fees.
Fight Back!… with Everything Checking!