How to minimise banking fees & charges (2024)

FAQs

How to minimise banking fees & charges? ›

The most effective way of minimising fees is to avoid paper-based and over-the-counter transactions. If you are writing cheques to pay for regular payments, check to see if alternatives are available - these generally have lower fees: Direct Debit.

The most effective way of minimising fees is to avoid paper-based and over-the-counter transactions. If you are writing cheques to pay for regular payments, check to see if alternatives are available - these generally have lower fees: Direct Debit.

An important way to avoid bank fees is to keep track of your checking account balance to avoid overspending and overdrawing the account. In addition, it helps to maintain any minimum balance required to avoid monthly service fees.

But, you can often avoid paying this fee by opening up both a checking and savings account at the same institution, maintaining a minimum balance in your account, making a certain number of transactions each month or arranging for direct deposit.

Negotiate with your payment service providers

If you maintain a good relationship with your payment processors, you might be able to negotiate lower fees, especially if you are an enterprise merchant with a high transaction volume or a unique business model.

Axis Bank has relatively higher charges, with a few outlier charges for “non-maintenance of balance” in metro and urban accounts, “non-financial transactions from own bank ATMs” and “failed Standing Instruction”, the report said.

If you feel you've been wrongly charged overdraft fees, you can file a complaint with the bank or seek help from a consumer protection agency.

TymeBank emerged as the cheapest online bank with the lowest fees at R14 a month, followed by Bank Zero with a fee of R17 a month. Du Buisson says that, regardless of how this category is marketed, the only factor used to determine the “winner” is the number of transactions that carry no cost.

Can I block charges to my bank account? ›

What can I do? Write directly to the vendor/merchant to request no further debits to your checking account. You should provide the bank with a copy of the letter and inform the bank that these charges are no longer authorized. Keep a copy of the letter for your records.

In many cases, banks that offer no-fee checking are online-only banks, small regional banks or credit unions. We found that Axos Bank, Discover, PenFed Credit Union, nbkc and EverBank are the best banks with no fees. They all offer some of the top no-fee checking accounts.

Overdrafts, and other fees, can be a significant source of bank revenue — the Financial Health Network reports banks and credit unions collected an estimated $9.9 billion in total overdraft/NSF fee revenue in 2022.

Don't Open Multiple Accounts

One way to reduce the hassle of maintaining a minimum average balance month after month is by operating only one Savings Account. This way, you won't have to worry about tracking different accounts.

To minimize the amount of fees paid, consider minimizing the number of transactions you enter into and lump transactions together to potentially minimize the per-transaction charges. In addition, consider seeking brokers that offer free trades for select types of contracts.

Banks are financial intermediaries that reduce transaction costs by bringing borrowers and lenders together. They charge fees for their services of providing checking and savings accounts.