Free Republic

Nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings accounts, an amount that leaves them vulnerable to unexpected expenses, according to a GOBankingRates survey of 1,063 U.S. adults conducted in November 2023. About 29% of respondents have between $501 and $5,000 in their savings accounts, while the remaining 21% of Americans have $5,001 or more. Few hold much cash in their checking accounts as well. Of those surveyed, 60% report having $500 or less in their checking accounts, while only about 12% have $2,001 or more. The lack of cash in either savings or checking accounts suggests that...

Ok, so the Left has been claiming Trump was a FRAUD and never made ANY money. So, then why would he OWE Income tax, if, according to them, he never made any, just lost it? Checkmake, MOFO!

looking to find a different bank, switched to a credit union that I am not sure they know what they are doing, and charge me fees just to transfer $ from one account to another for more than 4 transfers a month. I don't know who to trust on the website searches, I just want to know who is the best and cheapest

In a country where even the smallest purchases are routinely carried out with the national debit card, Dankort, and people increasingly use smartphone payment systems like the incredibly popular MobilePay, writing a check seems hopelessly outdated. The nation’s banks agree and as of January 1st, it will no longer be possible to cash checks from other banks in Denmark. The only option that will remain is to cash a check written by the same bank that issued them, a move that essentially means the total end of they payment form. …

I received a letter from Fifth Third bank stating that "to improve customer service", they are cutting back from almost two dozen types of checking accounts to only six. My checking was free, provided I maintained a $1000 balance in the account. That no longer applies. Now they want $1500 minimum balance. However, that was not where they moved my checking account to. Instead, they moved it to a checking account type that had even greater requirements to qualify for a no-fee checking account. To me, giving them an interest free loan of $1000/year was enough and I told them...

One year ago today, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act went into effect. Designed to protect consumers from high fees on debit card transactions, the new rules inadvertently put an end to free checking as we knew it. After the new rules kicked in, the banks started looking for ways to make up for the lost revenue, experimenting with $5 monthly changes on low balance checking accounts and other maintenance fees.In honor of this inauspicious anniversary, John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes: According to the just-released annual survey of Bankrate.com, only 39...

NEW YORK - A Transportation Security Administration employee responsible for a passenger’s ‘freak’ out earlier this week is no longer checking luggage, according to the agency. Jill Filipovic, of Brooklyn, who flew from Newark Liberty Airport to Dublin over the weekend opened her luggage Monday morning to discover a personalized note on an official TSA form, reading “GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL.” Filipovic, a lawyer and blogger, believes the note stemmed from the small vibrator that was packed in her suitcase. On Wednesday, the TSA said that it had “quickly launched an investigation and identified the employee responsible.”

As I detailed here in February in "Dick Durbin Is Stealing Your Free Checking," thanks to price controls on debit card transactions from the Durbin Amendment of the 2010 Dodd-Frank "financial reform" law, free checking is going the way of the dodo bird. The Durbin price controls on interchange fees -- the so-called "swipe fees" that retailers pay to bank and credit unions that process debit card transactions, go into effect this Saturday, October 1, and are already showing more dire effects than originally predicted. Not only is free checking disappearing at a rapid pace -- a new Bankrate.com survey...

The cost of maintaining a checking account rose to an all-time high this year, with much of the increase coming from the fees assessed to maintain both interest and non-interest-bearing accounts rising 40 percent. Other cost increases included a 5 percent increase from last year in ATM fees, to an all-time high of $2.33, while the average fee for using an out-of-network ATM was $1.41, rising almost 7 percent, according to a survey released Monday by Bankrate.com. Other fees that rose this year included a 3 percent increase in overdraft fees, to a record high of $30.47

Back in April, as ABC's Jake Tapper took over as interim host of This Week (pending the arrival of ex-CNNer Christiane Amanpour in August), the show asked the fact-checkers at PolitiFact to evaluate the truthfulness of statements made on the show. After nearly three months, the results show far more Democrats and liberals earning a "False" rating, with most of the "True" ratings going to Republicans and conservatives.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC - News) and other banks are preparing new fees on basic banking services as they try to replace revenue lost to regulatory rules, in a push that is expected to spell an end to free checking accounts for many Americans. Customers will likely be required to pay new monthly maintenance fees on the most basic accounts that don't generate a lot of activity. To avoid a fee, customers will have to maintain certain account balances or frequently use other banking services, such as credit and debit cards, automated teller machines and online accounts.

A leader of a Houston Islamic educational institution said Tuesday that the organization is investigating a report that the Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day attended classes here last year. Shaykh Waleed Basyouni, vice president for the AlMaghrib Institute in Houston and imam of the Clear Lake Islamic Center, said he has asked staffers to look into a report that 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had attended classes in Houston during a trip to the U.S.

I'm considering taking my checking account away from a U.S. bank that has given me poor service, and moving the checking account to a different bank. At this time (end of Dec. 2009), what U.S. bank would you recommend as being the safest? (I already have a credit union, too. I'll keep that account.) Thank you for the information