9 Bank Fees Nutmeggers Pay Without Ever Seeing Them Listed

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says banks collect $9 billion in overdraft fees from customers every year.

Overdraft is the fee most of us know about.

The fees that can sting the hardest rarely sit anywhere near the summary a bank hands over at signup.

These are the bank fees Nutmeggers pay without ever seeing them listed.

Note: This is general information, not financial advice. Fees, terms and policies vary by bank and are subject to change.

The Deposit That Bounces on You

Banks call this a returned deposited item fee, and it lands on whoever deposited the check, not whoever wrote it.

A customer never touched the bad check.

It happens without warning.

Federal rules require the fee to show up once, in the account disclosure a bank hands over when someone opens an account.

Nothing requires the bank to flag it again unless it lands on a statement.

According to a 2023 MyBankTracker comparison of major banks’ fees, ten major banks charge $10 to $19 for it.

The range holds whether the bad check was a scam or a friend’s honest mistake.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) flagged the blanket version of this charge as unfair in 2022.

The customer had no way to catch a bad check before it landed in their account.

Too Many Withdrawals From Savings

Banks call this an excess transaction fee, charged after too many withdrawals leave a savings account in one month.

The six-per-month limit behind it stopped being a federal rule in 2020.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase kept it anyway, charging $5 to $15 per withdrawal over the limit as a bank policy, not a federal one.

The rule outlived its reason.

None of that shows up on the marketing page promising no monthly fee and no minimum balance.

It is a smaller charge than the overdraft fees the CFPB tracks nationwide, which fell to $9 billion a year from $12.6 billion in 2019.

A Charge for Receiving Money

A bank can charge a wire fee before a customer sends a single dollar.

Some banks charge for an incoming wire transfer too, money arriving from a home sale, an inheritance, or a relative helping out.

Chase and Bank of America each charge $15 to accept a domestic wire.

Nobody asked for that wire.

A customer picks a bank to send money from, not to receive it, so the fee rarely comes up before the money and the charge land on the same day.

What It Costs to Wire Money Out

A domestic wire transfer out of a bank account costs $25 to $30 at many banks, a fee that rarely shows up on the main account summary.

It lives instead in a separate fee schedule many customers never open.

Nobody checks it early.

The fee shows up only once someone needs to move money fast, usually during a closing, an inheritance, or a family emergency.

Paying for a Paper Statement

According to a 2025 MyBankTracker comparison of major banks’ fees, Bank of America, Truist and several other banks charge $1 to $5 a month just to keep mailing paper statements.

Bank of America charges the most at $5, and Toronto-Dominion (TD) Bank charges the least at $1.

Digital delivery is free.

The charge often shows up as a vague line item buried deep in a fee disclosure, not anywhere near the paperwork a customer signs when opening the account.

An Account Sitting Untouched Too Long

An account that sits untouched long enough starts costing money at many banks, anywhere from $2 to $25 a month, long before the state ever intervenes.

Federal rules require a bank to spell out the trigger period and the dollar amount just once, in the disclosure it hands over when the account opens.

Nothing requires the bank to mention either one again until the fee lands.

The state doesn’t step in and claim a dormant checking account as unclaimed property until three years have passed with no activity.

Three years is generous.

A bank’s dormancy fee can start hitting the account long before that three-year clock ever runs out.

Canceling a Check After It’s Written

According to a 2023 MyBankTracker comparison of major banks’ fees, stop payment fees at major U.S. banks range from $15 to $36, depending on the bank.

Regions charges $36 for the order.

Ally and Discover charge as little as $15 for the same request.

A bank only has to list the price once, in the disclosure it hands over at account opening.

That’s steep for a call.

Nobody mentions the price until the moment a customer needs a payment stopped.

Rushing a Replacement Card

Banks often replace a lost debit card for free, but rushing delivery changes the price fast.

According to a 2023 MyBankTracker comparison of major banks’ fees, Chase charges $5 to rush a card.

Bank of America charges $15, and some banks charge as much as $25 for the same overnight delivery.

Standard shipping costs nothing.

Many customers only learn the rush price the moment their only working card is already gone.

Closing an Account Too Soon

Some banks penalize a customer for closing a checking account within 90 to 180 days of opening it, charging $5 to $50 for the early exit.

None of that shows up in the marketing terms or the basic paperwork handed over when an account opens.

It lives instead in the fuller account agreement and fee schedule, the document a bank expects a customer to track down and read before signing, not after.

BMO Bank, the U.S. arm of Bank of Montreal (BMO), and M&T Bank charge the most at $50.

Alliant Credit Union charges as little as $10.