An estimated 12 million households currently have no bank accounts at all. Many households cannot meet the minimum balances required by banks to avoid fees. That amounts to billions of dollars a year in bank fees for families who can't afford the balances required to avoid them.
Bigger banks charge higher fees, and require higher minimum balances to avoid fees.
The merging banks that are claiming efficiencies are the same banks that are charging higher fees. Banks have raised the minimum balance required to avoid fees . A 1996 study by Consumer Reports found that minimum balances required for the average checking account were 40 percent higher than in 1994 . Some banks are charging account holders just for telephone inquiries about their balances. Bank fees have skyrocketed, moving higher than the rate of inflation .