In Connecticut, 73,000 Households — or 5.3 percent — are unbanked, meaning they lack a checking or savings account, and the numbers are significant nationwide.
According to a 2009 survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 31 percent of U.S. households that closed a bank account cited either service charges, minimum balance requirements or overdraft fees as causes for leaving the mainstream banking system.
Frustration with the banking system is one of many economic and social factors fueling the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy New Haven and other ancillary Occupy protests.
Even more recently, The Pew Charitable Trusts examined state-by-state data on costs associated with maintaining a checking account. In October 2010, Pew collected data from the nation’s 10 largest banks by deposit volume but no individual state had data for all of them.
As of June 30,2010, seven of these 10 banks held 43 percent of all deposits in Connecticut, according to the FDIC.
Pew’s study of these data sources, collected from various points in time, shows the median monthly fee in Connecticut and the U.S. for checking accounts is $8.95; the median minimum combined balance to waive the monthly fee is $1,500 in Connecticut, compared to $2,500 nationally; the median overdraft penalty fee is $35 in the state and the U.S.; and the median overdraft transfer fee (after the penalty is imposed) is $10 statewide and nationwide.
Pew Wednesday released a state-by-state breakdown of banking fees. See it at www.nhregister.com.
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