6 little bank fees eating away your money without you noticing

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Over time, even a seemingly harmless trickle of water can wear away a tremendous amount of earth, or even carve deep gashes into solid rock. Bank fees can do the same thing to your account balances if you’re not vigilant. Drip, drip, drip – each fee small enough that you decide to let it go, but after a while you find they have eroded away significant amounts of your money.

Here are six fees that could be eating away at your bank accounts without you noticing:

1. Monthly checking account maintenance fees

These are charges just for having a checking account. At an average of $13.09 in the latest MoneyRates Bank Fees Survey, these monthly bank fees add up to just over $157 a year. Three-quarters of all checking accounts now charge these fees, so avoiding them is difficult – but not impossible.

If you are looking for one of the banks with no fees, search for institutions offering online savings or checking accounts. Also, some banks will waive the monthly fee if you have direct deposit or maintain a specified minimum balance.

Read more: 3 banks with chip-and-PIN technology on their cards

2. Overdraft fees

Overdraft fees now average $32.44 per occurrence, so if you have a few transactions once you overdraft your account you could pay a multiple of that figure. On top of that, banks often charge an additional fee for each day the account maintains a negative balance. By law, banks now have to assume new customers don’t want overdraft protection, but since these fees are a huge profit center for them, they actively encourage people to opt in. Do yourself a favor, and don’t agree to accept this very expensive checking account feature.

3. Statement fees

You might have thought that simply having an account entitled you to regular statements. But in an effort to save printing and mailing costs, some banks are now charging for those statements.

These fees are usually just a couple dollars, but you can avoid them if you are willing to view account statements online, or if you find a bank with no fees for monthly statements.

4. Out-of-network ATM fees

If you use your own bank’s ATM or one that is part of a network to which your bank belongs, you usually will not be charged a fee. However, if you use an out-of-network ATM, you could pay two types of fees for this convenience. The bank that owns the ATM may charge non-customers a fee, and these average $2.69 per transaction.

In addition to that, your own bank might charge you for using another bank’s ATM, and these fees average $1.61 per occurrence. Combined then, using an out of network ATM costs an average of $4.30, so when you choose a bank check to see that they have a network of machines convenient to your regular travels.

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Read more: Easy ways to avoid paying ATM fees

5. Currency exchange charges

Banks will often exchange foreign currencies at their branches, but for a fee. With any per-occurrence fee, the key is to consolidate transactions to minimize the number of fees you pay. So, think ahead so you can combine your upcoming needs into a single transaction rather than paying for a series of smaller currency exchanges.

If you are going to be traveling with friends or family members, have everyone pool their money to be exchanged into one transaction rather than each of you paying a separate fee. The galling thing about paying a fee for currency exchange is that banks also make money on these transactions by providing a less-than-favorable exchange rate.

6. Foreign transaction fees

Besides charging you to exchange currency at the branch, banks also often charge an additional fee if you use your credit or debit card in a foreign country. To minimize these fees, try paying for as many small transactions as possible in cash rather than via a credit or debit card.

Don’t ignore that dripping sound. While each occurrence may seem harmless, they come in enough forms and happen frequently enough that they can seriously erode your hard-earned savings.

For more money-saving advice, see our Money section!

More from MoneyRates.com:

Avoiding checking account fees

Should I deposit more to avoid a statement fee?

Are pre-paid cards a good alternative to checking accounts to avoid rising fees?

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