Later today the Center for Responsible Lending will release a new research report which looks at how “unauthorized bank and credit union overdraft fees hurt older Americans, especially those who rely mostly on a monthly Social Security check.”

We usually think of financial issues for seniors in terms of interest rates, product fees and upfront costs. In this maze of assorted charges there should never be “unauthorized” fees.

One way to protect yourself is to bank online — with caution. Thus you may want to have online access to checking and savings accounts, but without the option to electronically withdraw money or pay bills from home.

With accounts set up this way you can always check balances, deposits, withdrawals and fees without leaving home. At the same time, if someone gains access to your online account they cannot withdraw a dime because extractions are not permitted.

My wife (a former banker) and I like this approach because it allows us to carefully monitor account activity. And sure enough, every so often something turns up which strikes us as odd or unusual, something worth asking about.

As to paying bills, the checks are in the mail.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 3:21 am and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.