New bank laws mean new bank fees

Now that the CARD Act as well as legislation requiring banks to give customers a choice about overdraft fees is in place, banks have begun responding predictably, this article says: They're adding new fees and jacking up the ones that already existed.

The article linked to above lists the new-and-increased fees at many of the nation's major banks, and that list includes some doozies. Some of them have been around for a while, but are creeping into other areas; for instance, while Bank of America rolled out annual fees on some credit cards earlier this year, now it's adding new monthly maintenance fees to certain kinds of checking accounts, as well. It appears that a growing number of banks will be adding monthly maintenance fees -- some as high as $30! -- to some customers' accounts unless certain requirements are met.