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If your bank charges you to have a checking account with them, stopping the fees is probably one of the easiest things you can do to save money. Surprisingly, it may also be one of the easiest things to overlook or procrastinate on.

I know that I paid $5 per month to have a checking account for many years, because I thought that in order to stop the fees I’d have to go through the hassle of changing banks. Why was I giving my money away? Somehow it always seemed like too much trouble for “just” $5. The reality was that stopping the fees was as simple as two minutes spent filling out a form.

In my case the bank waived fees for accounts with direct deposit. I’d known that, but since I was self-employed I didn’t have direct deposit. But what I didn’t realize was that the direct deposit didn’t have to come from an employer. I arranged to have child-support checks direct deposited, and bam, no more fees.

I did later change banks anyway, and that turned out to be very little hassle as well. There are plenty of banks and credit unions out there that do NOT charge a fee for checking accounts & related services, that it’s a shame to send money out the window to those that do charge fees. Once you start caring about the little things, the larger amounts will follow suit.

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