I bank with Suntrust. I love(d) Suntrust. They have always been good to me when I have had nsf(none in over two years...). I have never had any problems with them. But today I got a phone call from Suntrust wanting to let me know about the changes that are being made to the free checking accounts. Now my accounts have never been free because I pay for the PC banking. I like the auto reconcile feature with my Quicken. I pay $6.95 for 2 checking accounts and one savings account. Not anymore. They are doing away with free checking and the accounts will be $7 per month. That can be waived with direct deposit or $500 daily balance. I have direct deposit on one checking account and the savings account. The other checking account does not maintain a $500 balance and is only used for a direct debit that comes out on the first of each month. As if that wasn't bad enough, they are also charging a $5 fee per month if you use your debit card for purchases. I use my debit card for almost everything. So when all is said and done, I would be paying 7 for my one account that doesn't have direct deposit, 6.95 for my pc banking, and 5 for use of my debit card. Almost $20 a month for my checking accounts! I could change and have direct deposit on the other checking account but that would still leave me paying the $5 fee each month for the debit card. I absolutly refuse to pay that. That is the most absurd thing I have heard of. So as much as it pains me I am going to have to change banks. I have three direct debits that come out of my accounts and 1 child support deposit that goes into my account. Do you know how much of a pain it will be to change banks? UGGG!!! I am not looking forward to this!

UPDATE: My sister informed me that Wachovia is doing the same thing. If the larger banks are going to this than it is probably only a matter of time before the local banks(which I would change to) start doing it, right? Should I forego a banking relationship(Been banking with Suntrust for over 10 years) when in the long run I will be paying the same fees anyway? What do you think? I could get the monthly payment down to 11 per month. And I like the fact that I can make deposits until 9:00 pm and still have them show up for that day. Just alot to consider.


In other news...I had my coaching session with my boss today. We do coaching instead of performance reviews. Overall it went well. There were only a few area's for improvement and no job threatening areas. Two of the areas for improvement were keeping the office tidier and trying to keep up with my personal health better. How many bosses care enough to make my personal health an issue. And he wasn't saying it in a bad way or in a way that he was just thinking about the insurance rates(obese people tend to have a lot of other health problems). I really felt like he was just concerned for me and my health. Overall I felt good coming out of my session.