Bank Accounts & Fees
Checking and savings accounts, bank fee changes, high-yield accounts, CD rates, neobanks, and policy changes that affect your money.
Latest in Bank Accounts & Fees
Banks raised CD rates about 100 times in August, up from about 35 in June, NerdWallet counts
NerdWallet’s monthly tracking of certificate-of-deposit rates at 50 banks and credit unions counted about 100 separate rate increases in August, nearly triple the roughly 35...
Direct Express, the card that pays Social Security to people without bank accounts, is moving to Fifth Third Bank
A prepaid debit card that delivers Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and other federal benefits to people without a bank account is switching banks. The...
The Federal Trade Commission is now sending Zelle payments to former AT&T customers who never cashed its check
The Federal Trade Commission says a new payment method is being used for a narrow group of former AT&T customers: Zelle. The people in that...
Banks can charge full overdraft fees again after a federal cap fell
Banks that spent 2024 bracing for a $5 federal cap on overdraft fees have instead spent the past year and a half free of any...
Five banks and three credit unions failed this year, and every insured deposit moved to a new bank
Five U.S. banks and three federally insured credit unions failed in 2026, and in every one of those eight cases the failed institution’s depositors kept...
Bank customers earn almost nothing on savings while credit-card rates sit above 21%
The average U.S. savings account paid just 0.38% annual interest in August 2026, while the average credit card rate charged to accounts actually carrying a...
A fifth U.S. bank failed in 2026, and every insured deposit moved to a new bank overnight
Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank, a small Philadelphia lender, was closed by Pennsylvania regulators on August 21, the fifth FDIC-insured bank to fail in 2026. There was...
Single bank accounts keep up to $250,000 in FDIC coverage
A single-owner bank account can have up to $250,000 in standard FDIC coverage at an insured bank. The key qualifiers are as important as the...
FDIC coverage stays unchanged for six months after an account owner dies
Federal deposit-insurance coverage is generally calculated as though a deceased account owner were still alive for six months after death. The grace period gives survivors...
Five named beneficiaries can lift one owner’s FDIC trust coverage to $1.25 million
An owner with trust deposits at one FDIC-insured bank can receive up to $250,000 of coverage for each eligible beneficiary, reaching $1.25 million when five...
A credit-union IRA gets its own $250,000 federal insurance bucket
An IRA held in deposit products at a federally insured credit union receives up to $250,000 of separate federal share-insurance coverage. That retirement-account category is...
Withdrawing more than $10,000 in cash triggers a federal bank report, even across several transactions
A bank customer can make a lawful cash withdrawal and still cause a federal report to be filed. The dividing line is not $10,000 exactly...
An Arkansas credit union was seized this year, and members kept insurance up to $250,000
The National Credit Union Administration liquidated People Trust Community Federal Credit Union in North Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 30, 2026, after finding the small...
Anyone who used a nonbank ATM since 2007 can claim part of a $167.5 million settlement
A $167.5 million settlement is now accepting claims from anyone who paid a surcharge to pull cash from an independent, nonbank ATM at any point...
A payable-on-death beneficiary sends a bank account to heirs, skipping probate
A bank account does not have to sit tangled up in probate court for months before heirs can touch the money. Naming a payable-on-death beneficiary...
Top certificates of deposit still pay close to 4%, a chance to lock in before the Fed meets September 16
The best certificates of deposit available nationally are still paying close to 4%, and for a saver deciding whether to lock in a rate now...
Overdraft fees are back near $33 after Congress killed a rule capping them at $5
The average overdraft fee has climbed back to about $32.75 per transaction, according to a 2026 survey cited by financial-education site Empower, nearly matching what...
Splitting money across banks keeps every dollar under the $250,000 federal insurance limit
A single number governs how safe a bank deposit really is: $250,000. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage protects checking accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit...
A bank must give provisional credit for a disputed debit charge within about 10 business days
Federal banking rules do not give a bank unlimited time to sit on a customer’s money while it investigates a disputed debit-card charge. Once a...
Opting out of debit-card overdraft coverage stops a bank from charging about $35 when a purchase overdraws
A federal rule requires a bank to get a customer’s explicit opt-in before it can charge an overdraft fee on a debit-card purchase or ATM...