Add Up What Your Old Bank Charges You in a Year. Then Sit Down.
Researched and drafted with AI from published sources; edited and published by NorwegianSpark SA. Editorial policy.
Part 1 of The Switch. Nothing here is financial advice; rates and fees change and vary by country — check current terms before acting.
Bank charges are designed to be forgettable. A few units a month for the current account. A conversion spread you never see quoted. An interest rate so low it rounds to nothing on the statement.
Individually: trivial. Annually: a number that makes people quiet.
The exercise below takes about fifteen minutes and it is, reliably, the highest-paid quarter of an hour in personal finance — because the money is already yours and you are simply choosing to stop giving it away.
The five charges to add up
1. The monthly account fee. Easy: fee × 12. Some accounts waive it conditionally — on a minimum balance or a salary deposit — so check whether you actually met the condition every month, or just most of them.
2. Foreign transaction and conversion costs. This is the big invisible one. Foreign transaction fees typically run 1–3% of the purchase amount, with 3% common, and that is before any conversion done at the till. Multiply your annual foreign spending by your card's rate.
3. ATM and cash fees, at home and abroad. Per withdrawal, times how often you actually withdraw.
4. Overdraft and near-miss charges. Unarranged overdraft fees, returned-payment fees and the like. Look at twelve months, not last month. See overdraft alternatives.
5. The interest you are NOT earning. The one nobody counts, and usually the largest. If your savings sit at 0.01% and the top of the market advertises around 4.15%–4.50% APY (NerdWallet, Kiplinger, August 2026), the gap is roughly 400+ per 10,000 held, per year.
A worked total
Illustrative, using round numbers so the method is visible. Substitute your own.
| Charge | Assumption | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly account fee | 5 per month | 60 |
| Foreign spending | 3,000 at 2.75% | 82.50 |
| ATM fees | 2 per withdrawal, twice monthly | 48 |
| One unarranged overdraft | Once in the year | 25 |
| Interest forgone | 12,000 at 0.01% vs 4.2% | ~503 |
| Total | ~718 |
The last row is four times the size of everything above it combined. That is the shape of this problem for almost everyone: the fees annoy you and the forgone interest costs you.
You will not feel a 0.01% savings rate. You will feel 500 a year, every year, for the rest of your life. They are the same thing.
Where the money goes instead
Three moves, in descending order of how much they are worth:
1. Move the cash to a rate that exists. This is the 500. Our comparisons: best savings accounts 2026 and high-yield savings in 2026, plus who's actually paying 4%+ right now. Money you may need within a year belongs in an insured, instant-access account, not in anything whose value can fall.
2. Kill the conversion spread. If you spend or earn in more than one currency, hold the currency instead of converting at the till. Wise is the reference point for mid-market conversion: compare the rate you are given with the mid-market rate, and count any fee on top.
3. Stop paying for an account. Fee-free current accounts are ordinary now. Best current accounts 2026 and best neobanks ranked; Revolut is one of the ones we cover.
Do it now — the fifteen-minute audit
If the total is under 50, you are with a good bank and you can stop here. If it is over 300, the next two articles are worth twenty minutes.
What usually stops people
Not the maths. The admin — the fear of breaking a salary payment or a direct debit, which is a completely reasonable fear and a solvable one. That is Part 2.
Related: banking fees guide, how to choose a bank account, digital banks vs traditional banks.
This is not financial advice.
Sources
- NerdWallet — Best High-Yield Savings Accounts, August 2026: nerdwallet.com
- Kiplinger — Best High-Yield Savings Accounts, August 2026: kiplinger.com
- CNBC Select — Foreign transaction fees, August 2026: cnbc.com
- Federal Reserve — Monetary Policy: federalreserve.gov
Services mentioned in this article
Affiliate disclosure: the links above are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
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Thomas Lovas Lokoy · Founder & Editor, NorwegianSpark SA
Thomas Lovas Lokoy is the founder of NorwegianSpark SA, the Norwegian company (org. 834 984 172) that runs BankTopp. He oversees the business. Articles are researched and drafted with AI assistance; Thomas is responsible for what goes live. Corrections: thomaslien@norwegianspark.com.
