Chase Bank adds automatic surcharges and not all of them are obvious – but you just need to know secret to avoiding them

CUSTOMERS of a popular bank must expect additional fees unless they know the secret tricks to avoid them.

Chase Bank is one of the largest banks in the country, providing financial and banking services to more than 60 million households nationwide.

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However, there are secret fees associated with maintaining a checking and savings account with the bank unless you know how to avoid these surcharges.

Be careful when verifying accounts

If you have a checking account with Chase, be aware that the bank charges a monthly account maintenance fee ranging from $4.95 to $25.

And if you have a premium checking account, the price could be even higher, around $25-$35.

While Chase’s child and student checking accounts only charge up to $6 a month, that’s still a significant amount to debit from your checking account.

However, if you opt for a business checking account, you have the option of waiving the account maintenance fee altogether.

These include Chase Business Complete Checking, Performance Business Checking, and Platinum Business Checking options.

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Chase customers should also be warned that they could lose money if they use an off-network ATM.

There is typically a $3 surcharge for each non-Chase ATM in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

And if you’re outside of the United States, expect the cost to be as high as $5 for each withdrawal.

Meanwhile, a cashier’s check will cost an additional $10 to issue and money orders will cost an additional $5.

However, that’s nothing compared to what you get for the $34 overdraft fee.

These fees apply when you try to pay more than the balance in your checking account.

AVOID ACCOUNT FEES

Similar to Chase’s checking accounts, the bank typically charges an automatic maintenance fee for savings accounts.

However, there are ways to bypass both surcharges.

This includes maintaining a minimum daily balance for your relevant accounts.

For Chase Total checking accounts, you only need to maintain a balance of $1,500 or a daily average balance of $5,000 on all of your accounts.

Savings accounts, on the other hand, only require an initial balance of $300 to avoid the fee.

However, there are other ways to avoid the fees.

Namely, you can sign up for a direct deposit into your Chase bank accounts.

As long as you deposit $500 per statement cycle into your Chase Total checking account, you avoid the maintenance fee.

And if you have a Chase College checking account, every direct deposit guarantees you that the bank won’t charge you an additional monthly fee.

The last way to avoid being awarded Chase is to link your account to another Chase balance sheet.

Chase Premier Plus checking account holders can waive the fee by linking a Chase first mortgage that is eligible for automatic payments.

On the other hand, those who have Chase Business Complete Checking can save themselves the fee by linking a consumer checking account.

And if you have a retail checking account, you can also avoid the surcharge by linking your Platinum Business checking account.

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