Are you wasting your hard earned money on stupid fees? ATM fees. Overdraft fees. Annual fees. Late fees. There are fees everywhere! And they’re such a stupid waste of money because you get literally nothing out of them. In this post I’m going to show you how to avoid stupid fees you are wasting your money on.
HOW TO AVOID THE STUPID FEES YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY ON
If you want to save money to reach a financial goal, you need to make sure you’re not wasting any of your money. And there are so many ways to waste money. Sometimes we waste money by buying a new pair of shoes we didn’t need. But then, at least we get the shoes!
When we waste money on fees, we’re literally getting nothing in return.
In this post I’m going to talk to you about the 4 main stupid fees you are wasting your money on and how to avoid them.
ATM FEES
This is the fee that you get charged for using a different bank’s ATM.
It’s usually about $3. And sometimes you’re charged by your own bank too.
Avoid this by using the ATM associated with your bank.
If you’re having trouble doing that, you may need to switch to a bank that has ATMs in more locations.
Or you could switch to a bank that refunds ATM fees when you use another bank’s ATM.
Look around, do some research, then break up with your current bank and find one that won’t hurt you like this.
OVERDRAFT FEES
As you probably know, an overdraft fee is a fee charged to your account when you spend more than you have in that account.
Now, let me give you some tough love.
If you’re overdrafting your account on a regular basis, this is not a problem with your bank. It’s a problem with you. You’ve got to start making better money choices.
But the good news is that you’re in the absolute right place to do that.
If you don’t know, I used to be awful with money. I was overdrafting my account all the time. I turned it all around, and you can too. (You can read my money story here)
Now, if you’re overdrafting your account once in a great while, don’t beat yourself up.
Instead, put some protections in place so that you’re not charged out the wazoo when this happens.
Your bank will likely want you to open an overdraft line of credit. Unless you’re really good at paying off credit right away, (and most of us aren’t), this isn’t the option you want to go with.
Ask your bank if you can link your saving account to your checking so that the overdraft amount would come directly from your savings. They should be able to do this.
If not, shop around for a bank that will accommodate you. Most will.
ANNUAL FEES
These are fees charged to your account every year simply for keeping the account open.
Annual fees are just plain stupid. They’re unnecessary. They don’t help you in any way.
Basically, annual fees are a big waste of money.
Here’s how to fix the annual fee problem.
Cancel any account that charges you an annual fee and replace it with one that doesn’t.
It’s really that simple.
Make sure you actually read the terms of service for any account you have. If there is an annual fee on that account, close it.
You may have heard that as you’re paying off debt you should leave your lines of credit open because closing them has a small affect on your credit.
Generally, that’s true. But in this case, it doesn’t matter.
Annual fees are actually costing you money. For nothing. Pay it off, close it down.
And in the future when you go to open a new account, make sure there is no annual fee in sight.
LATE FEES
Late fees are another super common and totally avoidable fee.
Of course, one way to avoid late fees is to simply pay all your bills on time.
But I know that everyone has to make a late payment at some point.
Even if you try to be perfect with your bills, life will happen to you at some point.
It happened to us right after my son was born. We had a rough first week and I completely forgot to make my car payment.
I mean, if not and you pay every bill you have perfectly from now to eternity, that’s wonderful. Good on you.
But this post will walk you through how to remove late fees and it almost always works!
STOP WASTING MONEY ON THESE STUPID FEES
Please, I beg of you, stop wasting your money on these stupid fees.
I don’t want you to waste your money at all but if you’re going to, waste on something fun like shoes.
You’re armed with the information you need to smartly avoid ATM fees, overdraft fees, annual fees, and late fees. Now it’s time to take the steps to break up with these fees once and for good.
Psst… Want to save even more? Hop on my email list here. It’s my favorite place to give you money saving tips and insights that I just don’t share anywhere else. Plus you’ll get lots of free financial tools just for signing up.
Keep reading! Here are some of my best posts:
How to Create a Saving Schedule you can stick to
7 Frugal Habits that will Save you Thousands
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