Get ready for the $5 ATM fee.

Chase Bank recently rolled out a program where a select number of its ATMs will knock you with a $5 charge if you’re not a customer.
And, no, that doesn’t take into account whatever your bank will charge you on top of that. So you could end up paying [...]

Online banks often claim they can offer savers better interest rates because they don’t have the expense of brick-and-mortar branches.
So we were curious to see what one of the largest online banks was up to after it built seven “cafés” in seven cities nationwide.
The ING Direct Café sounded like it might be a cool place [...]

For the past couple of years, our writers have used clever pen names.
We thought it was a funny way to give readers a sense of where those contributors were coming from and their areas of expertise.

RateRunner is always looking for the top interest on CDs rates, while Jen Stryker rails against costly bank fees and [...]

Ideally, customer service operations should be designed to make depositors feel good about their bank.
All too often, however, they seem devised to maximize frustration.
Fortunately for me, this wasn’t the case at quaintly named Salem Five Cents Savings Bank, where quality customer service turned a potentially negative experience into a positive one.
When Salem Five announced a [...]

Discover tends to fling the word “cash” around where it shouldn’t really apply.
In April, I wrote about its marketing campaign that pushed cash advances at ATMs as real cash.
What I didn’t realize is that the company is also going after you at the grocery store.
When I used the self checkout recently, I saw the [...]

Last year, I wrote a post about how some supposedly reputable banks have begun offering their checking account customers payday loans.
Of course, the banks aren’t calling them payday loans. That would be too tawdry.
But my bank is now pushing one of these loans on me, and it’s made my blood boil.
I have my checking [...]

When you’re as old as I am, you focus on your own mortality. You also worry about protecting your nest egg.
That’s why I like “payable-on-death” accounts (sometimes called “in trust for” or “Totten trust” accounts).
These accounts are a way to pass on assets outside probate (but not tax laws).
They also have separate FDIC insurance, up [...]

I’d planned to buy a 5-year Treasury note recently using TreasuryDirect.
Just before the auction, however, I changed my mind and put my money into a 2-year bank CD instead.

Treasury yields are just too paltry.
When the financial crisis hit in 2008, I had virtually every penny I owned (outside of my IRA) invested in [...]

We have a possible new champion of pre-paid debit cards — if it eventually becomes available to everyone.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has partnered with Green Dot Corp. to offer the MyAccountCard Visa Prepaid Debit Card.

For now, this card is available only to the 600,000 families — who may not have a [...]