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The Banking Secrets Commercial Banks Won't Tell YouDid you even know that there were banking secrets? I didn't! I always thought that they were friendly and courteous, but there is a hidden agenda. They are out to make a profit. This doesn't mean that they are evil companies that are out to get you. They are friendly and happy on the outside, but deep inside their corporate bloodline are secrets that they don't want you to know. Commercial Banks are where mostly everyone keeps their money. There are about 8,000 financial institutions operating in the United States. They can be huge mega banks that have recently started emerging more (Chase, Bank of America, Citibank), or they can be the small mom-and-pop banks that are mainly focussed on the community.Banks make a profit from loan interest rates and fees from your accounts. But there are banking secrets that you can use to reduce the amount of money you spend on fees and interest rates. For example, you should ask your bank for its Fee Disclosure Statement. If it matches your personal banking style, then you are fine, but you may find something in there that could be better if you went to another bank or credit union (such as lower fees). If you switch to a smaller community bank or credit union, you may get charged less. The bigger the bank, the bigger the fee. These big banks are the ones hiding the banking secrets. And don't fall into the trap of believing all their "promises". Another secret that commercial banks try to get by you are the ATM fees. They tell you that it costs $1.50 or $2.00 to take money from your ATM, but if you go to one of your bank's rival ATMs, you get double charged for using it many times. You may end up spending $3.00 for one transaction. My advice is to only use the ATM a certain amount of times a month. Maybe twice. For example, that way, you don't spend $1.50 on every $20 transaction you make, instead you spend $1.50 on a single $100 transaction. As a final note, if you are going to stick with a commercial bank as opposed to a credit union or an e-bank or thrift, make sure you shop around for a better bank. Many people will read this and still stay with the bank that they have due to laziness or naiveness, however, you can save a lot of money and find some really good deals out there. Look at the big picture, there are many options. You can save hundreds a month.
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