Project News
-
- Press Release
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Eight of Top 12 U.S. Banks Adopt Pew’s Model Checking Account Disclosure Box
Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T), the ninth largest bank by deposit volume in the United States, voluntarily adopted The Pew Charitable Trusts’ disclosure summary for checking accounts today, bringing the total number of large banks that now use this easy tool to eight.
more -
June 1, 2013
Reuters: Regulatory Failure Du Jour, Overdraft Fee Edition
A study last year from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that “more than half of those hit with overdraft fees did not believe they had opted in to the policies”.
more -
- Press Release
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Pew Releases Ratings of Nation’s Top Banks on Key Consumer Protections
A study from The Pew Charitable Trusts is the first to rate the largest U.S. banks on their policies regarding checking account disclosure terms and fees, overdraft, and dispute resolution practices. Checks and Balances: Measuring Checking Accounts’ Safety and Transparency, underscores the continued gaps in banking procedures that put consumers at financial risk and expose them to high, unexpected costs for little benefit.
more -
- Press Release
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
More Than Half of Top 12 U.S. Banks Now Use Pew’s Model Checking Disclosures
SunTrust voluntarily adopted The Pew Charitable Trusts’ disclosure summary for checking accounts today, becoming the seventh of the 12 largest banks in the country now using the simple disclosure box. Currently, this consumer-friendly information is available to over 40 percent of the US market, by deposit volume. more
-
December 3, 2012
Paying for the Holidays
As the holiday shopping season takes off, consumers are turning to a variety of financial management tools. View our slideshow and learn more about Pew’s research on hidden bank fees, the growing use of prepaid debit cards, and the actual duration of payday loans that are marketed as two-week products.
more
Media Coverage
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Bank Overdraft Fees Creeping Up Again, Consumer Monitors Say
Even as the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau weighs whether to address bank overdraft fees that cost U.S. consumers nearly $30 billion last year, some of those fees continue to inch up, according to new reports by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Consumer Federation of America.
more -
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Checking Accounts Still Too Confusing and Expensive, Study Finds
Despite some recent improvements by the nation's largest banks, checking accounts are still too confusing for consumers and overdraft fees are too high, according to new findings by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
more -
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Checking Accounts: High Fees, 69-page Disclosures
Consumers are still getting hit with unexpected fees and aren't receiving clear information about the costs involved with their accounts, according to a report by the Pew Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project. The study examined the information on 274 checking accounts offered by the nation's 12 biggest banks and credit unions.
more -
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Overdraft Fees Rising Despite Regulatory Efforts, Groups Find
Checking account overdraft fees have jumped during the past two years, despite an effort by regulators to rein in aggressive practices by banks, according to new reports by two nonprofit groups.
more -
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Overdraft Revenue Dropping, But Banks Aren't Giving Up
Until two years ago, the nation’s banks could automatically enroll customers in overdraft programs — the result was tens of billions of dollars in overdraft fees. more
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Overdraft Fees Hit Unsuspecting Consumers
Despite two-year-old regulatory reforms that demanded that consumers affirmatively opt-in to costly overdraft programs for debit transactions, more than half of the consumers who incurred an overdraft fee over the past year were surprised to find out that they had overdraft coverage, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. more
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Study: Consumers Unknowingly Agreeing to Overdraft Fees
Consumers remain confused about overdraft protection and the fees they generate, with better than half of them unknowingly opting into expensive coverage and a third of them not finding out until the charges started wracking up, according to a new study more
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Overdraft America
Have you ever had to pay an overdraft penalty? You're far from alone if you have incurred such a fee, according to a survey of consumers commissioned by by Pew's Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project. more
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Prepaid Card Use is Growing Rapidly. Is this a Good Thing?
Do you suffer from vertigo (or, more correctly, acrophobia: a fear of heights)? If so, you should probably avoid creating a mental picture of a graph derived from Mercator Advisory Group's projections for prepaid card usage in the U.S. more
-
- Media Coverage
- Safe Checking in the Electronic Age
Credit Union Honored for Transparency
The Eastman Credit Union was honored by the Pew Charitable Trusts for adopting Pew’s model disclosure for ECU’s Beyond Free Checking Account that makes terms and fees transparent and easier for members to understand. more
