Everyday accounts · Basics · 2 of 6 · About 3 minutes
Monthly fees, and how they’re waived
The fee some accounts charge each month, and what makes a bank drop it.
- 1Some everyday accounts charge a fee every month.
- 2Banks waive the fee for other reasons too.
- One question
Some everyday accounts charge a fee every month.
It’s often called an account-keeping fee. Over a year it’s charged 12 times.
- 20 of the 45 accounts BankMate lists that publish a fee charge one. The middle one is $5 a month.
- The other 25 charge no monthly fee.
- 6 of the 20 drop it in any month enough money goes in, most often your pay. The middle amount is $1,750.
Drag the money going in.
Banks waive the fee for other reasons too.
Common ones are your age, being a full-time student, or a government pension paid in. Any one of them is enough.
- Commonwealth Bank Smart Access lists 7 ways to have its fee waived.
- A deposit waiver is checked each month. A month with less going in pays the fee.
Drag your age and the money going in.
- The fee
- $4 a month
- Waived when
- $2,000 or more goes in a month
- Goes in each month
- $1,500
- Its other waivers
- None of them apply to you
What does the fee come to in a year?
- $0
- $48
- $4
The answer is $48.
$1,500 is less than the waiver asks, so the fee is charged every month: $4 × 12 is $48.