Silver State Schools Charging $5 Monthly Maintenance Fee

I was tipped off by a reader that financially-troubled Silver State Schools CU on May 10th started to charge a $5 per month maintainance fee on regular checking accounts.

The credit union advertises on its website that the fee can be avoided if:

You are 60 years of age or older;
You are younger than 18 years of age;
You maintain a minimum balance of $5,000 in your checking account at all times; or
You have aggregate deposit and loan balances totaling $20,000 or more.

You can also avoid the fee if you convert your checking account into an e-checking account. However, you would incur a monthly maintenance fee if you were write a paper check; perform certain checking functions in-branch or via the credit union's Call Center including inquiries, deposits, withdrawals, and cashing services; or revert to getting paper statements.

I was told that many members of Silver State Schools did not receive proper notice about the change and incurred the fee, as they either did not receive the mailing (or recall getting the mailing) or did not see the notice on the credit union's website about the fee.

After incurring the fee, this person stated that a branch manager refused to refund the fee and told this person: "You are under the assumption that credit unions are different than banks."(emphasis added)