Check out this article. Bank of America is raising their checking account fee to $12 a month unless you have direct deposit set up with a minimum deposit of $250. If that won’t work for you, you can keep a minimum of at least $1500 in your account for every day of the month (which you’ll get very little interest on).
My favorite part of the article is how it points out that a majority of credit unions offer free checking with no strings attached. My credit union has been giving me free checking for years, and in fact pays me interest on the balance in there. Just another reason to take a look at credit unions.
It is never enough. Although it is possible to sent up a direct deposit from account to the account, maintaining 250 a month, but than you would loose on the transactions.
But BofA is not alone. Everybody does it, if not one way, than the other. Many different ways to skin a cat.
How valuable is your time? Can you more on the side instead of chasing 12 USD a month?