Junk Fees
Summary
Should banks be allowed to charge you a fee just to check your account balance? In this episode of Small Print Made Simple, Daynor unpacks the legal jargon behind one of the most frustrating practices in personal finance: junk fees.
According to Section 1034(c) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, banks and credit unions are legally required to provide you with access to your own account information—without charging you for it. But some institutions still try to hide behind complicated language and misleading fee labels.
Daynor breaks it all down with the help of Jargon Man, translating the fine print and explaining why these types of fees are more than just shady—they’re likely illegal. At Possible, we never charge junk fees, whether it's for accessing your info, making a payment, or missing one. Because financial transparency should be the standard, not the exception.
Transcript
[DAYNOR]
Should banks be allowed to charge you a fee just for contacting their customer service? Hmm.
Hi, I'm Daynor. I explain legal jargon, translate the small print and answer all of your complicated financial questions.
[JARGON MAN]
When a banker credit union with over $10 billion in assets receives a request for information from a consumer relating to the consumer's account for a consumer financial product or service section 10 34 C of the Consumer Financial Protection Act requires the bank or credit union to respond with information in its possession or control.
[DAYNOR]
That just means that when you ask for your information from your bank , they are required to give you the information that they have on file,
[JARGON MAN]
Requiring a consumer to pay a fee or charge to request account information through whichever channel the bank uses to information to consumer. Is likely to unreasonably impede consumer's ability to exercise the rights granted by 10 34 C and thus to violate the provision.
[DAYNOR]
Well, that's a lot of jargon, but basically they're saying that a bank should not charge you a fee simply for giving you access to your own information. It's illegal, and here's why.
[JARGON MAN]
The practice of charging fees to respond to an information request would generally unreasonably impede consumer's exercise of their rights.
Under section 10 34 C and thus violate the provision regardless of how a large bank or credit union labels or categorizes a fee on its fee schedule or other documents, section 10 34 does not permit unreasonable impediments to a request for information about a consumer's account.
[DAYNOR]
Whoa, so you shouldn't have to pay a fee to get your account balance or other account status information from your bank.
That type of fee is what's commonly referred to as a junk fee: junk fees, hidden charges attached to goods and services such as loans, bank accounts, or purchases. At Possible, we pride ourselves on never charging you any junk fees. We won't charge you to access your account information. We don't charge late fees or penalty fees such as NSF fees.
We are junk fee free. It's that simple. Stay safe out there. Be careful what you click on and remember Possible has your back.
