Monthly Maintenance Fees

What is a monthly maintenance fee?

A monthly maintenance fee is a recurring charge for having an account. It is not tied to anything you do. It arrives whether you make one transaction or a hundred.

It is also one of the more avoidable fees. Many accounts that charge one also list conditions that waive it, so the conditions matter as much as the price.

How much does it cost?

The national median monthly maintenance fee is $7.00, across 1,904 institutions. Most fall between $5.00 and $10.00, and the highest recorded is $50.00. 110 institutions list a $0 monthly fee on their published schedule, which can be one account only, so check the account you would open.

Two related fees usually travel with it. The minimum balance fee, median $6.50, is charged when your balance drops below a threshold. The paper statement fee, median $3.00, is charged for receiving your statement by mail.

Those two are worth knowing about because they are common waiver levers. Switching to electronic statements can remove one of them outright.

Read the waiver conditions rather than the fee. Two accounts advertising the same monthly fee can be completely different products depending on what it takes to avoid it. A fee waived by any direct deposit is easy to avoid if you have one. The same fee waived only by a large minimum balance may be a fee you pay every month.

Watch for a waiver you have quietly stopped meeting. Changing jobs, splitting a direct deposit across two accounts, or moving savings elsewhere can each restart a fee that had been waived for years, and the first sign is often a statement line.

Who charges the most, and who charges the least?

The chart below compares the monthly fees banks and credit unions publish. A median hides the account: one institution can offer a free account and a fee-charging one side by side.

Read the waiver conditions next to the price. Those conditions decide whether you will pay it.

How to avoid or reduce this fee

1. 1Set up direct deposit if your account waives the fee for it. Check what counts as a qualifying deposit and whether a minimum amount applies.
2. 2Switch to electronic statements. It removes the paper statement fee, median $3.00, and at some banks it counts toward the maintenance waiver too.
3. 3Check the minimum balance rule carefully. Some banks use your average daily balance and some use the lowest balance in the cycle. The second is harder to satisfy, so it is worth knowing which you have.
4. 4Ask whether linked balances count. Some accounts let combined balances across checking, savings and a certificate meet the threshold.
5. 5Ask about student, senior and military accounts. Many institutions offer them with fewer fees, and they may not be offered unless you ask.
6. 6If none of that works, compare accounts elsewhere. Moving a checking account takes some planning, because direct deposits and automatic payments must follow it.

Questions to ask your bank

• What exactly waives the monthly fee on my account, and how often is it checked?
• Is the balance rule based on my average daily balance or my lowest balance in the cycle?
• Is there an account on your schedule with no monthly fee, and what does it leave out?
• Will you tell me if my account is converted to a different account type?

What regulators say

That advance notice is the part people ignore. Fee increases arrive as a statement insert or an email that reads like boilerplate, and the increase takes effect whether you read it or not. If your monthly fee has changed recently, look for the notice in your email or mail, because it will also restate the current waiver conditions.

There is no federal cap on account maintenance fees and no federal requirement to offer a free account. The protection is disclosure rather than price control, so comparing is up to you.

Compare your own bank

Then check whether you actually pay it. Look at the last three statements. If the fee has been waived every month, the headline number does not matter. If it has been charged even once, find out which condition you missed and whether you can meet it every month.

If you have held the same account for years, ask your bank what it offers today. Banks do not always move existing customers onto newer accounts, so an older account can carry a fee a newer one does not.