ATM fees and the other charges that financial institutions levy are the highest they’ve ever been, according to the 2012 Checking Survey by Bankrate.
Withdrawing from an out-of-network ATM will set you back an average of $4.07, and various other fees also keep rising by 25 percent or more, according to the financial services company. Now, only 39 percent of banks offer free checking - down from 76 percent in 2009.
The reason behind the rise, according to one analyst cited in the report, is federal legislation that limited the price of overdraft fees that banks can charge.
Bankrate also looked into the cities with the highest ATM fees in the nation. The New York metro area was tied in second with Seattle. Denver was the most expensive.
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