Do you understand the fees you pay in your checking account? If so, you must've done some homework.
The Pew Charitable Trust's Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project is hoping to make checking accounts work better -- in part by helping consumers understand how fees work. Pew found that checking account disclosures are wordy and difficult to understand:
"the median length of bank disclosures for key checking account policies and fee information was 111 pages."
As a result, they've developed a model disclosure that's easier for consumers to understand. Chase has already used the model for its Total Checking account. It will be interesting to see if the new format actually helps, and if other banks follow Chase's lead. [via PaymentsNews]
What do you think about the new disclosure format? Will it make a difference?
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