BANKING BASICS & WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR 4

No such thing as a free lunch, specially in bank services. You do a bank a favor by opening a checking account and letting them earn on your money through loans & mortgages, and it charges you a monthly fee (which, in some banks, can go over $10 per month).

On opening an account, you get a free checkbook. Subsequent checkbooks are charged a fee for which some banks collect as much as $15, and this is for the plain checkbooks. The personalized versions (with background scenery, etc) cost much more –an extravagance and a needless expense. The important thing is that the check is filled out completely and correctly.

You want to make a long distance payment and it won’t get there in time if you send it through the mail. So, you send it through a wire transfer –for which the bank again charges you ($10 for a local bank, $15 or more for an international transfer).

image from Microsoft Clipart