Read The Fee Schedule

One of the most useful, yet boring, bochures from a bank is the fee schedule. What you find in there is most all the quirky fees that you can be charged for. Reading this list of fees is truly enlightening. It begins to make you think about things you would want to avoid. I can relate from personal experience that statement copies are very expensive. You may have a good relationship with your bank and they will give you a copy of your statement in time of need. What bankers know is that people tend to be careless with their statements. Point in case is a customer I once dealt with that needed a copy of her statement. She claimed not to have received it. I told her the cost of the copy and the time it would take to get it. She finally confessed that it may be on a pile of mail that she had at home. My policy is to keep my statements as long as I keep my tax returns. In my case that would be seven years. I store the statements with the tax returns from the same year as the statements. Some fees may not be in the fee schedule, beware the missing fees. You must be aware of what you can be charged for. Get the Schedule. The bank is required to give you one. Sit down with your favorite beverage and READ IT!!! It could save you hundreds of dollars.