The potential charges, says Marianne Lake, CEO of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan, are a result of new regulatory rules that cap overdraft and late fees. Lake says Chase will be passing along those increased expenses to customers, which would put an end to now-free services such as checking accounts and wealth management tools. And she says she expects other banks will follow suit.
Pro tip: open a checking account with a brokerage, like Charles Schwab or Fidelity. Everything is free with ridiculously generous terms: no fees, free check books, ATM fee refunds, excellent foreign exchange rates on your debit card. They’ll blow any credit union out of the water.
The reason is that these companies make their money on stock accounts (via trading commissions and the like), and view these checking accounts as just a value-add / loss-leader to get you to park your investments with them. And they’re rolling in dough from options trading and shit like that, so the terms on the loss-leaders are really good.
I’ve had a checking account with Schwab for like 20 years, and they’ve never so much as whispered changing this dynamic.