PLUG THE LEAKS IN YOUR FINANCES!

Got a call from one of my banks about my statement being returned, turns out they'd sent it to my old address.  This was from an account I opened when I worked in Columbia, MO and I hadn't used it in a while.  Decided I'd better update my checking and savings, so I went to their website and signed in.  I was shocked at what I found.  They'd been charging me an inactivity fee on my "free" checking and had used up all the money, then closed the account.  My savings was below the minimum amount and I knew they were charging me a fee for that, but I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd checked it and was shocked to see the balance was below $10.

I had to go by this bank on my way to work today, so I stopped in and closed the savings account.  While there was only a small amount left, I figure there was no good reason for me to let the bank have it.  Not to mention they'd already taken enough of my money.  This got me to thinking about all the other small fees I've been paying.  While I'm pretty good about checking for automatic charges to my credit cards and cancelling the ones I don't use anymore, I've been lax about my bank accounts.  Decided it was a good time to close out all the accounts that charge fees and go with the banks that pay me instead.  Sorry to say my main bank for the past 22 years didn't make the cut.  Their interest rate on savings is one of the lowest in the nation and they still charge me a $4.00 monthly fee on checking.  So they're out.  I'm going with Discover checking (free checks, no monthly fees, free debit card, cash back on checks, electronic payments and debit card swipes).  For savings I'm going to stick with Capital One (competitive interest rate, monthly compounding).

It's always good to take a look at your day to day finances periodically to look for leaks.  When you have small amounts of cash taken away for non-essentials or for goods or services you no longer use, cut them off, plug up the leaks!  It will make for a lot smoother sailing financially.