SunTrust Bank Charges Customers Extra for Being Poor

Bank raises minimum balance and overdraft fees on everyday checking accounts.

Another bank has decided to raise their minimum checking balance and overdraft fees.

SunTrust Bank confirmed Wednesday that customers will now have to pay higher fees on everything from ATM withdrawals to checking accounts, according to the Huffington Post.

Everyday Checking, Student Checking and Solid Choice account holders are those who have mainly been targeted.

The changes, which are scheduled to begin August 24, will raise the minimum daily balance a customer is required to keep in an Everyday Checking account, from $500 to $1,500, to avoid a $7 monthly service fee. Holders of those accounts will also pay more in overdraft fees: they'll fork out $36 per overdraft across the board, instead of $25 for the first one and $36 for subsequent items. Everyday Checking account holders will also lose the perk of being allowed one overdraft a year without a fine.

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Customers with other accounts, including Student Checking and Solid Choice Checking ones, will lose another benefit: ATM fee reimbursements for transactions at non-SunTrust Banks.

SunTrust is hardly the only bank this year to make major changes to its fee structure. Wells Fargo has said it is completely phasing out free checking this summer. U.S. Bank said in May that it will hike overdrafts fees to $35 from $33. In April, the cost for a checking account at Citizens Bank doubled.

The pricing changes reflect the costs of doing business and staying competitive with other banks, as well as balancing the needs of its customers, SunTrust spokesman Hugh Suhr stated in an email.

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