Bank fees: every fee your bank charges, and how to get each one back
Bank fees explained: every common fee, what it costs, how to avoid it, and how to get each one refunded or paid back.
Bank fees are the charges your bank adds for keeping, using, or briefly running short on an account: monthly maintenance fees, overdraft and NSF fees, out-of-network ATM fees, and smaller ones like wire, stop-payment, paper-statement, inactivity and foreign transaction fees. Most of them can be avoided with a settings change or a different account, many can be reversed if you ask within a few days, and some come back years later through class-action settlements.
That last part is what most "bank fees explained" guides skip. Bankrate's 2025 checking study found the average overdraft fee is $26.77 and 94% of accounts still charge one, while a single out-of-network ATM withdrawal now costs a record $4.86. The totals are climbing again, too: the National Consumer Law Center estimates people paid about $12.4 billion in overdraft and NSF fees in 2025, with the 20 largest consumer banks alone collecting $4 billion in overdraft fees. If you've ever scrolled your statement, spotted "SERVICE FEE $15.00" and thought "when did I agree to that," you're in very large company. That little sigh, and the decision not to call, is exactly what a fee priced at $15 is built to produce. Below is every common fee, what it costs, how to stop it, and how to get it back.
Updated October 21, 2026
Key takeaways
| Point | Details |
|---|---|
| Most bank fees are optional | Monthly, ATM, paper-statement and overdraft fees can usually be avoided with a setting, a direct deposit, or a different account. |
| Overdraft is the expensive one | About $27 per item on average, and it can hit several times in one day. |
| You can ask for money back | Banks have discretion to reverse fees, especially recent ones on an account in good standing. |
| Debit overdrafts need your opt-in | Without it, a bank can't charge an overdraft fee on a one-time debit card purchase or ATM withdrawal. |
| Some fees come back years later | Class-action settlements over bank fees pay people who were charged, but usually only if they file a claim before the deadline. |
What bank fees are (and how they differ from interest)
A bank fee is a flat charge tied to either your account's status or something that happened in it. That splits them into two families.
Account fees are what you pay for having the account: a monthly maintenance fee, a paper-statement fee, an inactivity fee. They hit on a schedule, whether or not you did anything.
Event fees are what you pay when something specific happens: you overdraw, a payment bounces, you use another bank's ATM, you send a wire. These are the spiky ones, and they're the ones most likely to stack.
Interest works differently, and it helps to keep the two straight, because the fix for each is different.
| Bank fee | Interest charge | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's priced | A flat dollar amount per month or per event | A percentage of a balance you owe, over time |
| Where you see it | Checking and savings statements | Credit cards, loans, lines of credit |
| What triggers it | Account status (balance, deposits) or an event (overdraft, ATM, wire) | Carrying a balance past the grace period |
| Can you get it reversed? | Often, by asking, especially if it's recent or the bank made an error | Sometimes, usually as a one-time courtesy on a card |
| Best fix | Change a setting or the account | Pay down the balance or move it |
If an overdraft fee is the one staring at you right now, jump straight to our word-for-word script for getting overdraft fees refunded. Everything below covers the rest of the fee schedule.
Every bank fee, what it costs, and how to get it back
Here's the full list. Typical costs come from Bankrate's 2025 checking and ATM fee study and its guide to checking account fees. Your bank's own fee schedule is the final word, so check it before you call.
| Fee | Typical cost | How to avoid it | How to get it back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly maintenance (service) fee | $5.47 average on basic checking that charges one; $15.65 on interest checking | Meet the waiver (usually direct deposit or a minimum balance) or move to a no-fee account | Ask for a reversal if you met the waiver, the account is new, or you're switching to a qualifying setup |
| Overdraft fee | $26.77 average per item | Opt out of debit and ATM overdraft coverage, set low-balance alerts, link savings | Call or chat within a few days and ask for a courtesy reversal; check whether you ever opted in |
| NSF (returned item) fee | $16.82 average; 61% of accounts still charge it | Alerts, and autopay dates set a few days after payday | Ask the bank, and ask the merchant to waive its own returned-payment fee too |
| Out-of-network ATM fee | $4.86 total ($3.22 ATM owner surcharge plus $1.64 from your bank) | In-network ATMs, cash back at a register, or an account that reimburses ATM fees | Your bank's portion is sometimes reversed on request; reimbursing accounts credit it automatically |
| Outgoing wire transfer | $25 to $30 domestic; $40 to $50 or more international | Use ACH or Zelle for smaller, domestic amounts | Rarely refunded unless the wire failed or the bank made an error |
| Stop-payment fee | $20 to $35 | Cancel the authorization with the merchant first | Ask for a refund if the payment had already cleared before the stop took effect |
| Paper statement fee | $1 to $5 a month | Switch to e-statements | Ask for recent months back when you switch |
| Dormancy or inactivity fee | $5 to $25 | Set a small automatic transfer, or close accounts you don't use | Ask; it's an easy courtesy for a bank to grant on a reactivated account |
| Early account closure fee | $5 to $50, usually within 90 to 180 days of opening | Read the terms before opening, or wait out the window | Ask, especially if you're closing because of a bank error |
| Foreign transaction fee | About 3% of the purchase or withdrawal | Use a debit or credit card that waives it when you travel | Rarely refunded, so prevention matters most here |
💡 Pro Tip: Before you call about any fee, open your bank's fee schedule (search "[your bank] deposit account fee schedule") and find the exact line. Saying "your schedule says this waives with $500 in direct deposits, and mine was $1,200" turns a favor into a correction.
Why bank fees happen
None of this is random, and none of it means you're careless. A few mechanics do most of the work.
Waivers are built around money you might not have. Bankrate found the average interest checking account now needs a balance of about $10,700 to skip its monthly fee, a requirement that has more than tripled since 2009. Fall short for a single month and the fee lands. Basic checking is far friendlier: 47% of those accounts are free outright, and another 48% go free with direct deposit. Plenty of people are simply sitting in the wrong account type.
Timing does the rest. Your paycheck lands on one schedule, autopays and subscriptions leave on another, and pending card holds sit somewhere in between. Your brain tracks the balance it remembers. The bank charges against the balance its overnight processing sees.
Defaults matter, too. Paper statements, overdraft coverage, and accounts you meant to close all keep running unless someone changes them. Under federal rules, your bank can't charge an overdraft fee on one-time debit card purchases or ATM withdrawals unless you opted in, but checks and recurring payments can still trigger fees without that opt-in. Many people opted in on a form at account opening and never thought about it again.
Then there's the pattern worth naming. Call it the five-dollar blind spot: a fee small enough that calling about it feels like more effort than it's worth. Your brain files a $4.86 ATM charge or a $3 paper-statement fee as noise, and noise doesn't get a phone call. Repeat that every month across a few accounts and the noise adds up to a real bill, paid quietly by people who'd absolutely refuse it if it showed up as one number.
💡 Pro Tip: Search your last three statements for the words "fee," "charge," "service," and "returned." Fees often hide under bank shorthand like "SVC CHG" or "OD ITEM," so scan the line items, not just the totals.
The real numbers
| Metric | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average overdraft fee | $26.77 | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Accounts that charge overdraft fees | 94% | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Average NSF fee | $16.82 (record low) | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Average total out-of-network ATM cost | $4.86 (record high) | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Average monthly fee, interest checking | $15.65 | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Basic checking accounts that are free or free with direct deposit | 95% | Bankrate, 2025 |
| Overdraft fee revenue, 20 largest consumer banks | $4 billion in 2025 | NCLC, from FFIEC call reports |
One more piece of context. The CFPB finalized a rule in 2024 that would have pushed many large banks toward overdraft fees as low as $5, but, as Bankrate notes, Congress overturned it under the Congressional Review Act before it took effect. Getting these fees back is still mostly up to you.
What bank fees really cost in a year
Single fees look small. Here's one realistic year for someone who isn't doing anything unusual:
| Fee | How often | Yearly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly maintenance fee | $15, every month the waiver is missed | $180 |
| Out-of-network ATM | Once a week at $4.86 | $253 |
| Overdraft | Twice a year at $26.77 | $54 |
| Paper statements | $3 a month | $36 |
| Total | $523 |
That's an example, not an average, but every line in it is common. And it leaves out the quieter cost: money parked in checking to hit a balance requirement instead of earning interest somewhere else.
How to get bank fees back, ranked by effort
Start at the top. Most people never need to go past step three.
| Move | Effort | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Change the settings | Five minutes | Stops future overdraft, paper and alert-able fees |
| 2. Ask for a reversal | Ten minutes | Recent fees back, often in one conversation |
| 3. Check whether the fee was allowed | Fifteen minutes | Fees that broke the account's own rules |
| 4. Escalate | An hour, spread out | A second review, on the record |
| 5. Switch accounts | An afternoon | The fee is gone for good |
| 6. Claim settlements | Minutes per claim, when one applies | Old fees paid back, sometimes years later |
1. Change the settings
In your bank's app, turn off overdraft coverage for debit card and ATM transactions if you'd rather be declined than charged, switch to e-statements, and set a low-balance alert at a number that gives you a day of warning ($100 works for most people). These three changes cost nothing and prevent most of the event fees above.
2. Ask for a reversal
Use the in-app fee dispute button or chat first, then the phone. Keep it short: the date, the fee, what caused it, and a direct ask. Something like, "I was charged a $15 service fee on October 3. My direct deposit was just under the waiver that month because of a payroll change. Could you reverse it as a courtesy?" Then stop talking. For overdrafts specifically, the full overdraft refund script covers what to say when there are several fees in a row.
3. Check whether the fee was allowed at all
This is where a courtesy request becomes a correction. Compare the fee to the account's own terms. Did you meet the waiver? Were you ever opted in to debit overdraft coverage? Does the bank have a grace amount? Chase, for example, says on its Total Checking page that there's no overdraft fee if you're overdrawn by $50 or less at the end of the business day, or if you bring the balance back within $50 by the end of the next business day. If you were charged anyway, you're not asking for a favor.
4. Escalate calmly
Ask whether someone else can review it, try a branch manager in person, and if you believe a fee broke the rules and the bank won't engage, file a complaint with the CFPB. Banks respond to those on the record.
5. Switch accounts
If the same monthly fee keeps landing, the account doesn't fit your cash flow. Almost every basic checking account is free or can be made free with direct deposit, so moving is usually the permanent fix, and opening the new account before closing the old one keeps your autopays from bouncing in between.
6. Claim the settlements
Sometimes the fee comes back long after you've forgotten it. Banks have paid class-action settlements over overdraft and other fees, and the money goes to account holders who file. A Georgia settlement over SunTrust (now Truist) overdraft fees on debit and ATM transactions, for instance, closed its claim window on September 14, 2026, and people who didn't file by then received nothing. Our guide on how to find unclaimed class-action settlements shows where to look, and why so much of this money goes unclaimed.
Why systems beat willpower with bank fees
Fixing bank fees rarely takes trying harder. What it takes is keeping a live picture of six autopays, a few subscriptions, a paycheck that lands at slightly different times, and three different fee rules, then noticing the one line that's off. That's a job for software, not for a tired brain at 11pm.
It also tends to start somewhere else. A forgotten subscription renews the day before payday, the balance dips, and an overdraft or NSF fee follows. Cutting the subscription creep that sets these off is often the cheapest fee prevention there is.
This is what impause is built for. impause is an AI money agent for millennials and Gen Z. It finds the money you're wasting, gets it back for you, and helps you stop wasting it. It reads your connected accounts (read-only, through Plaid), so it can open the conversation with the fee already found and the charge that caused it. Subscription cancellation is live today: it flags the subscription, you approve in chat, and it's cancelled. Bank fee refunds and class-action settlement claims are coming soon, built the same way: the agent preps the request, you confirm with one tap, it runs on your own device, and your passwords are never stored.
FAQ
What are the most common bank fees?
Monthly maintenance fees, overdraft fees, NSF (returned item) fees, and out-of-network ATM fees are the ones most people pay. Less common but still widespread are wire transfer, stop-payment, paper-statement, inactivity, early closure, and foreign transaction fees.
Can you get bank fees refunded?
Often, yes. Banks have discretion to reverse fees, and a short, specific request within a few days of the charge works best, especially on an account in good standing. If a fee broke your account's own terms, such as an overdraft fee on a debit purchase you never opted into, you can push for a correction and escalate to a CFPB complaint if needed.
Which banks don't charge overdraft fees?
Bankrate lists Capital One, Ally Bank, and Alliant Credit Union among institutions that don't charge overdraft fees. Policies change, so confirm on the bank's current fee schedule before you switch, and remember that a no-overdraft account may simply decline a transaction instead.
How do I avoid bank fees?
Pick an account whose waiver fits your normal deposits, or a no-fee account outright. Then turn off debit overdraft coverage, go paperless, set a low-balance alert, use in-network ATMs, and move autopay dates to a few days after payday.
Let the agent find the fees first
Bank fees work because each one is too small to fight. Find them all at once, and they stop being noise and become a number you can get back.
impause reads your accounts, points out the fees and the charges behind them, and already cancels the subscriptions that set off so many of them once you approve. Fee refunds and settlement claims are coming soon. Download impause on the App Store or see how the AI money agent works.
