Study finds most U.S. banks not disclosing fees

Fewer than half of U.S. banks surveyed in 21 states comply with federal requirements to fully disclose checking and savings account fees, according to a consumer advocate group's report released Tuesday.

The New York Public Interest Research Group found that 38 percent of nearly 400 bank branches in those states complied with initial requests for fee information on such things as overdrawn accounts, late payments and low balances.

Researchers at affiliated public-interest research groups posed as customers and visited 392 branches of 163 banks and credit unions.

For the New York phase of the study, NYPIRG researchers visited 107 locations, including eight Long Island bank branches, all in Garden City.

All but two of the branches here received an "A." A Wells Fargo branch received an "F," and a TD Bank location received a "C."

An "A" grade means the branch readily complied with a request for the information. A "C" rating indicates the branch supplied most of the information after repeated requests. And an "F" reflects the branch never supplied the information.

In the multistate survey, 17 percent of banks provided information after two or more requests; 23 percent provided no information and 22 percent provided wrong or incomplete information.

"Shopping for banks is much harder when they flout the federal Truth in Savings law and fail to provide upfront information about the fees they charge," said Russ Haven, legislative counsel for the Albany-based NYPIRG.

A Wells Fargo spokesman, Kevin Friedlander, took issue with the report's finding.

"This information is readily available online," he said. "It's given to people who open new accounts, and if people come into our store, they can easily get this information."

Rebecca S. Acevedo, a TD Bank spokeswoman said, "Our culture is built on listening and responding to our customers' needs. TD Bank is committed to being open and transparent, and it is our policy to share account fees and disclosures with consumers, and our personal account disclosures are some of the simplest in the industry."

One bright spot, the report noted, is that free or low-cost checking was available at more than half of the branches, and an additional 29 percent offer free checking with direct deposits.