Here are 7 top secrets to make you stop enriching the banks at your expense

June 4, 2020 1:13 PM

Just because you deposited a cheque today doesn't mean you can start living it up tomorrow. There are rules that bank tellers won't tell you, and you might be losing money in your account as a result of ignorance.

Here are 7 top secrets to make you stop enriching the banks at your expense

Here are just seven of the rules you must pay attention to henceforth:

1.KEEP RECEIPTS FOR EVERY ATM TRANSACTION.

If you’re using your ATM card for debit transactions, ask your bank what kind of protection it offers if the card is stolen or lost. And please don’t feed cash directly into the machine without first putting it into an envelope — unless you know you're at one of the ATMs that accepts loose bills. (Yes, people actually do this.)

2. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT LOSS AND THEFT PROTECTION.

If you’re using your ATM card for debit transactions, ask your bank what kind of protection it offers if the card is stolen or lost. Thousands of dollars could be pulled from your checking account and, in many cases, you wouldn’t be nearly as protected as you would be with a stolen credit card.

3. BANKS DON'T ALWAYS PROMOTE THEIR HIGHEST INTEREST RATE ACCOUNTS.

Why tell you about those when you’re already willing to sign up for an account that pays less?

4. BEWARE OF THE UNIVERSAL DEFAULT CLAUSE.

Before you sign up for a bank-issued credit card, ask if it has a 'universal default clause'—also known as 'the ultimate poison clause in credit cards.' If it does, run for the nearest exit. It allows the bank to look through all your credit accounts, and if it sees that you’re late paying a bill on another card, it gets to jack up the interest rate on its card.

5.ONLINE BANKING

This is pretty safe, but it could be better, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. They studied 214 financial-institution websites and found design flaws in 76 percent of them, including banks redirecting users to less-secure sites.

6. YOU PROBABLY DON'T NEED TO PAY FEES.

You can get practically any fee waived if you ask, especially if you’re a longtime customer.

7. SMALL BUSINESS LOANS ARE HARD TO GET.

Loan officers would have pretty much decided before you walk in that you’re not getting a loan for your dream business. But they’ll let you apply for one anyway. We’re not crazy about lending to nonprofits and houses of worship either. We don’t want the bad publicity when we go after them.

This article was originally written on readers digest