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1. The money you deposit isn’t always available for your use right away.  Seriously, just because the receipt has you deposit on it, you might not be able to spend your own money.  Checks have to clear.  The business day has to “changeover” before cash is even counted in your ACTUAL USABLE balance. 

2. Get web banking.  You have to.  It is the only way to have complete oversight of what is going on with your account every single day.   

3.  If you don’t actually say “I want to close this account” it is not closed.  Drawing it down to zero just leaves you with a blank account.  If it stays dormant, you might get charged, which would put you in the negatives which would mean you get an overdraft fee.  If you stay overdrafted for ten days, your account could get closed and sent to collections.  YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN KNOW THIS HAS HAPPENED.

4. You know that shitty bodega that charges you 1.99$ to get to your own money?  Well, your bank is probably also charging you at least 2$ to get to it too- in conjuction to that 1.99$.  SOMETIMES YOU PAY LIKE 5$ TO USE AN ATM.  BTW Bank of America charges non-customers 3$ to use their ATMs. 

5.  “Free” doesn’t mean it all the time.  Debit cards get charged at least 50cents when used as “point of service.”  AKA if the person says “debit or credit” say “credit”, or your bank will charge you.  If you say “credit” they charge the store.  You might be getting charged for checking your balance.  You wouldn’t know though, unless y ou have web banking or you scan your statements.  If you see some random 4$ charge on there, and it says “balance inquiry” that means they charged you for checking how much money you have.

SO.  Get wise about what you are doing with your bank account.  Because multiply how many times you go to a “foreign” ATM by 4.  Then subtract that from your bank account.   Learn the lingo of your bank.  What word do they use for “we are stealing your money”?  Mine uses “service charge.”  Moral of the sotry:  don’t let them fool you.