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A couple of years back I opened a Bank of America business checking and savings account to go along with the Bank of America personal checking account I already had. The reason I did this was to keep my business expenses separate from my personal expenses like the IRS recommends.

I am an iOS app developer so I receive a direct deposit from Apple each month. When I opened the business account, I redirected the direct deposit from my personal checking account to my business checking account. Problem with this is now I get charged a $12 fee on my personal checking account which would normally be waived if I had at least a $250 direct deposit go into the account each month.

So my question to you is, should I just bite the bullet and redirect the direct deposit from Apple back into my personal checking account so I don't charged the fee? Or is there a cheap way that I can send an ACH to myself from my business checking account to trick B of A into eliminating the fee? Has anyone gotten around this before?

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    Have you considered moving your personal checking account to a different bank/credit union?
    – littleadv
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 5:25
  • @littleadv I'd prefer not to because it's very easy to transfer between my accounts with B of A.
    – Ser Pounce
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 7:11
  • What about downgrading to a lower tier checking account?
    – Eric
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:10
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    @SerPounce Then the answer is clear: maintain the daily minimum balance of $1500 to have the fee waived.
    – Eric
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:16
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    Or look elsewhere.
    – keshlam
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:34

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Shop around for a bank that offers lower/no fees for this operation and move your account there... or, yes, change where the direct deposit is routed... or move these accounts into a single bank so it's an internal transfer rather than ACH. Or ask the bank whether there is another way to arrange this which doesn't cost you money.

(It costs me nothing to move money within my credit union, whether manually or on a scheduled basis. It costs me nothing to have them send funds to another entity from my checking account. Specific example: Pay comes into my savings account. On the 27th, an automatic transfer moves the cost of a mortgage payment from savings to checking. On the 30th, an automatic payment sends that to my mortgage in another bank. No fees on any of this, 100% reliable.)

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  • Thank you. What bank do you use?
    – Ser Pounce
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:33
  • I'm primarily banking out of a credit union; I'd rather not mention which one. CUs are often more customer-focused than major banks, since they are customer-focused, and between free ATMs, checking, credit cards, direct deposit, and the Branch Exchange program there is not much a major bank can offer that a good credit union can't match. (With the possible exception of international transactions, which are something of a specialty for the large commercial banks.)
    – keshlam
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 13:39

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