In 2025, while 85 U.S. banks reported zero domestic service charges, six large banks continued to generate more than 55% of all bank service‑fee income.

Industrywide, bank service‑fees are rising modestly, but remain below 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels.

A list of the ten largest banks with zero service fees and the 50 highest fee‑charging banks appears in this week’s Jumbo Rate News.

Jumbo Rate News JRN 43:13

To Fee or Not to Fee, That is the Real Question

A recent article in the American Banker (1/26/2026) reported that several large U.S. banks appeared to be reverting to old habits when it comes to overdraft fees. Good or bad, right or wrong, we don’t take anyone else’s word for anything. We do the research, and here is what we discovered:

In calendar 2025, 85 banks reported $0 in domestic service charges (including several that made big headlines a few years ago when they eliminated such fees). None of the largest 10 (below), were among those headline makers, nine had no fees in 2019 either.

	Cert. #	Bank Name	City	ST	Star Rating	Total Assets ($ mils)
1	33124	Goldman Sachs Bank USA	New York	NY	5-Stars	$644,997.000
2	32992	Morgan Stanley Bank N.A.	Salt Lake City	UT	4-Stars	$253,348.000
3	57565	UBS Bank USA	Salt Lake City	UT	4-Stars	$119,317.920
4	27314	Synchrony Bank	Draper	UT	4-Stars	$112,115.000
5	57203	Barclays Bank Delaware	Wilmington	DE	4-Stars	$47,613.000
6	33947	TD Bank USA N.A.	Wilmington	DE	4-Stars	$34,631.887
7	33497	Charles Schwab Premier Bk SSB	Westlake	TX	5-Stars	$27,022.000
8	25178	Bank of America California N.A.	San Francisco	CA	5-Stars	$15,505.000
9	35141	BMW Bank of North America	Salt Lake City	UT	4-Stars	$12,814.515
10	59108	Charles Schwab Trust Bank	Westlake	TX	5-Stars	$10,434.593

At the same time, however, the six banks that we reported on in September (JRN 42:36) continue to charge more than 55% of all bank service fees. The picture has not changed much in the six-month interim.

Here is another interesting finding that supports the American Banker article. The industry average service fees charged by U.S. banks in 2025 was 0.2032% of savings and transaction deposit account balances. That is above the 0.1975% reported in 2020, but well below the pre-pandemic average. Here is a look at the progression:

2019	0.2842%
2020	0.1975%
2021	0.1846%
2022	0.1890%
2023	0.1900%
2024	0.1962%
2025	0.2032%

As an industry, banks do seem to be going back to their old ways, charging more than in 2020, but still well below 2019’s pre-pandemic level.

We have already given you the ten biggest banks that charged no service fees in 2025.

We also have a list of 50 that charged the most in 2025. They can be found on page 5 of this week’s Jumbo Rate News. We have reported on several of them before.

This one, in particular, was featured back in 2022 (JRN 39:17). Two years earlier (2020), the now 1-Star Varo Bank, Draper, UT (59190)  became the first “Consumer” Fintech to be granted a national bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Varo touts itself as affordable and accessible, removing barriers “that are often too difficult, or expensive, for everyone to access”. In fact, Varo bank still advertises it has no “hidden fees”. Yet here it is, once again. Not only does it still appear on this dubious list, its fee ratio is head and shoulders above all others.

While Varo Bank did eliminate many fees, charges for cash advances and lines of credit, for example, can be very steep, particularly for those with less than $800 on deposit. The amount of fee income Varo Bank is raking in has multiplied from less than $15 million in 2021 to over $44 million in 2025. As a percent of deposits, it has always been on the high side, but that ratio is now over 21%, making this supposed “fee-friendly” bank the highest fee charging bank in the nation and,  sadly, the beleaguered bank is still losing money.

With a fee to transaction and savings deposit ratio of 21.08%, Varo Bank is in a league all by itself. The next highest ratio is 9.10%  charged by 5-Star FSNB N.A., Lawton, OK (16416).