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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Free Checking? Small Banks a Better Bet, but Fees Still Being Hidden

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Friday, November 16, 2012   

PHOENIX – To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the death of free checking have been greatly exaggerated.

A new report from the Arizona PIRG Education Fund finds free checking is still available at more than six-in-10 small banks and credit unions across the country, but only at a quarter of big banks.

Diane Brown is the education fund director at Arizona PIRG, or Public Interest Research Group.

"There are free checking options available. Like anything else, you need to shop around."

Brown says it's still easy to get free checking if you set up a regular direct deposit.

"Ninety-four percent of the banks in Arizona that we surveyed will provide free checking options if you have direct deposit in place."

The report, titled "Big Banks, Bigger Fees," found just over half of banks across the country did not provide researchers with fee schedules on their first visit as required by law. Surveyors checked 250 bank branches in 17 states and the District of Columbia, including 32 in Arizona. Brown says they did better than banks elsewhere on fee disclosure.

"Consumers were able to get more information on their first request here than they were in banks surveyed across the nation. The bad news is that still was only 63 percent of the banks that we surveyed."

The report includes a shopping guide that directly compares fees and banking options. It also recommends that the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforce the disclosure requirements of the 1991 Truth in Savings Act.





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