Why you’re paying record ATM fees

These monthly service charges (or maintenance fees) run $5.86 a month on average, and 63% of non-interest checking accounts have them, Bankrate says.

Even if you stick with your own bank, you’re likely to encounter record high fees for overdrawing your account, with overdraft charges averaging $33.07, up 9% since 2010, according to the survey of 10 banks and thrifts in each of 25 large USA markets between July 9 and August 5.

According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 41 percent of American consumers had used their mobile phones to pay for something at a merchant location in 2014, up from 18 percent the previous year.

Use a debit card to get cash back at a point of sale, or use a smartphone to search for nearby bank branches, rather than using an out-of-network ATM. That trend has been little changed in recent years.

In all likelihood these fees are going to continue to go up, Greg McBride, Bankrates chief financial analyst, told The Huffington Post.

Federal legislation has placed a few limits on overdraft fees, but consumers are still being hit with this hefty charge.

Another 58 percent of noninterest checking accounts can become free if consumers meet certain requirements such as having direct deposits. “Shop around for a bank or credit union that fits your lifestyle so that you can keep more of your hard-earned cash”.

The total revenue US banks earned from customer fees, including ATM fees, has fallen more than 18 percent since then, according to the FDIC.

Now that fees are easier to spot, and consumers are more aware of them, they’re doing a better job of avoiding them.

“The overdraft fee does in particular”, contribute to people begin unbanked, McBride said in an interview. And he advises linking your savings and checking accounts so that one can replenish the other in the event of a shortfall.

But mostly this is the result of regulations passed after the financial crisis that make it slightly more hard for banks to levy more hidden and sneaky fees elsewhere.

The rules limited banks’ ability to hide fees in fine print, and required them to, for instance, have customers opt into overdraft “protection”.