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Checking Account Fees

March 11, 2012 by · Comments Off on Checking Account Fees 

Checking Account Fees, Wells Fargo and Co. is expanding the number of states to 29 – though not North Carolina and South Carolina – in which it will charge a $7 monthly fee for an existing checking account.

Existing Essential Checking account customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania will be charged the fee beginning in May.

The bank introduced the fee last year to existing customers with that account in 23 states, primarily in the West. New customers were subject to a fee in 2010.

Josh Dunn, a Wells Fargo spokesman, said Thursday that legacy Wachovia Corp. customers in the Carolinas, as well as Florida, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., were “grandfathered” into an exempted status during the integration of Wachovia in 2011.

“We plan to introduce the fee in the other states, but the time has not been determined,” Dunn said.

Some consumer advocates say Wells Fargo could face a backlash with the checking-account fee similar to the response generated by its trial charging a $3 monthly debit card usage fee in five states, though not in North Carolina. The bank backed away from those plans in October.

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