How can I fight nuisance bank fees?

This week, Bonnie in Georgia is steamed because her bank charged a fee without telling her about it and wants to know what she can do to get her money back. Deana in Boise is wonder if a 401k retirment plan is still a good bet.

Why am I charged extra for my safe deposit box because I choose not to allow the bank to automatically deduct the box rental from my checking account? … Last year, the bank deducted $35 without my authorization, even after I paid the $45 rental for the year because I choose not to do the automatic deduction from my account. ... What’s the solution?  Where do I go for help with the problem? 
— Bonnie C., Rex, Ga.

The reason you're charged these nuisance fees is that, with interest rates low, banks have looked elsewhere for profits — like the blizzard of fees on every transaction they can think of. These fees now create tens of billions of dollars in revenues each year for banks and credit card companies. So much for "free" checking accounts.

It sounds like it’s time to look for another bank — or at least tell them you’re leaving unless they remove the fee. You may find they’ll do this “as a courtesy” if you’re a good customer. These fees are based on the notion that customers like you may steam about them and call customer service, but that you'll ultimately give up when your only recourse to listen to a faceless voice at the other end of a toll-free number recite "bank policy" from a manual.

Fortunately, you don't have to stop there. If you feel you’ve exhausted the option of working with the bank, your next step is to find the consumers affairs agencies in your state that handle banking complaints. In most states, general consumer complaints are handled by a department of the Attorney General’s office, while banking complaints are handled by state bank regulators.

Before actually filing the complaint, try one last call to the bank, telling them you're not giving up and citing the names of the agencies you plan to contact. Be as specific as possible so they know you're serious.

In Georgia, the address of your consumer affairs agency is:

Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs
2 Martin Luther King Jr., Drive SE, Suite 356
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4600
For more information, check theirr Web site. 

Your state banking regulator is:

Department of Banking and Finance
2990 Brandywine Road, Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30341-5565
Web info is here

And here’s the address for federal bank regulators:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Customer Assistance Group
1301 McKinney Street/ Suite 3450
Houston, TX 77010
Web info is here.

If talking to the bank hasn’t worked, give them one more chance to do the right thing: write a letter to the branch manager, saying you’d like 1) to have the matter corrected to your satisfaction or 2) a written reply explaining why they won’t do so — within 10 business days, otherwise you will forward your written complaint to the appropriate consumer affairs agencies. Include the exact name and address of these agencies for your state (you can do this on the Web.)

When you write up your complaint, be as specific as possible — names of people you spoke to, dates, etc. — but don’t overdo it. Brief is better. And skip the attitude: make this all business, not personal.

In your letter, refer to the names and addresses of the agencies you plan to contact, but don’t send copies just yet. You’re giving the bank one more shot at correcting the problem in your favor before you start a trail of paperwork with regulators that the bank will have to deal with. Your hope is that they’ll decide it’s easier (and cheaper) to fix the problem than to deal with the paperwork of responding to a formal, well-targeted consumer complaint. (Once you actually file the complaint, they no longer have a reason to play nice.)

Sometimes the letter itself, worded this way, will shake them loose. If not, you’ve got a written record of the problem, along with their response refusing your request — or no response. All this makes it more likely you’ll get interest from the folks at the consumers affairs agencies. Without written records, it’s “he said, she said” — which makes the job of following up a complaint much more difficult. If the bank refuses to reply in writing, you have additional proof they've been unresponsive to your problem.

You may find out that the bank is within the letter of the law, and knows it, and that filing complaints with the right regulators won’t accomplish anything.

But it’s worth a shot. If everyone did this, banks might think twice about assessing more of these nuisance fees in the first place.

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