ShieldAverage hidden fees charged to low-balance accounts per year
Your Shield balance right now:
$0 in fees. Ever.
Not "$0 this month." Not "$0 if you maintain a minimum." Every month. Every year. Every account. No exception.
Four deadbolts.
Every door, locked.
These aren't marketing promises. They're account terms — written in plain English, enforced on every account, with no exceptions buried in footnotes.
"GUARANTEE: No overdraft fee, no non-sufficient funds fee, no returned item fee — no matter how many months you've held this account, no exception."
Your $12 grocery run will never cost you $47.
Banks collected $12.1 billion in overdraft fees in 2024. The average overdraft fee is $26.77 — charged the moment your balance dips below zero, even by a cent. Shield simply declines the transaction if funds aren't there. Your account stays intact. Your dignity stays intact.
"GUARANTEE: No monthly maintenance fee, no minimum balance requirement, no penalty for holding less than $1,000 — ever."
Having less money will never cost you more money here.
Major banks charge $5–$25 per month just to keep your account open — up to $300 a year for the privilege of storing your own money. The cruelest irony in banking: the less you have, the more you pay. Shield doesn't charge for the account. The account is yours.
"GUARANTEE: Every dollar in your Shield account is FDIC-insured up to $250,000 — the same protection covering accounts at Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America."
Your money is as protected as anyone's money in America.
FDIC insurance means the federal government guarantees your deposits if the bank fails. It doesn't matter if you have $47 or $47,000 — the protection is identical. You don't get second-class protection because you have a low balance. That's federal law, and Shield is built on it.
"GUARANTEE: No credit check to open. No ChexSystems screening. No prior banking history required. No judgment — ever."
Being denied before doesn't disqualify you here.
Banks screen applicants through ChexSystems — a reporting agency that tracks past account problems. One overdraft, one bounced check, one closure years ago can lock you out of banking entirely. Shield doesn't use ChexSystems. We open accounts based on who you are today, not what happened in 2019.
Opening Shield takes
2 minutes.
Keeping it costs nothing.
We removed every piece of friction that banks use to keep low-income customers out. No minimum opening deposit. No credit check. No waiting period. The account is yours in the time it takes to read this paragraph.
Answer 5 questions.
No Social Security number. No credit pull. No ChexSystems check. Just your name, address, and a government-issued ID photo.
Your account opens instantly.
No waiting 3–5 business days. No branch visit. No minimum deposit to activate. Your account number is yours the moment you finish.
Transfer or deposit your first dollar.
ACH transfer from any bank. Cash deposit at 90,000+ retail locations. Paycheck direct deposit. Mobile check deposit. Your money arrives in your account, not in a holding period.
Watch the fees stop.
Your first statement will show $0.00 in fees. Your second will too. Your 48th will too. We don't introduce fees later. There are none to introduce.
The math doesn't lie.
Neither do they.
These are composite profiles based on the actual fee experiences Shield was built to end.
"I was overdrafting twice a month at my old bank — $35 each time. That's $840 a year just in overdraft fees. I drive for Lyft. Some weeks I make $600, some weeks $300. Shield just declines the card if I don't have enough. No fee. No shame. No letter in the mail."
"I'm raising two kids on my own. I tried to open an account at three banks and got turned down every time because of something that happened with an old account in 2018. Shield didn't ask about any of that. I had an account number in 4 minutes. I cried in my car."
"My Social Security comes in on the 3rd. The bank used to charge me $12 a month for 'maintenance' — they took it the day after my deposit. I'm 71. I need every dollar. My daughter set this up for me. Haven't paid a fee in 14 months."
See exactly what
you're being charged.
5 questions. 2 minutes. A number that might make you angry — and a solution that costs nothing.
Your Current Bank
Who is your current bank?
We'll use their actual published fee schedule.
No personal data is stored. This calculator uses publicly available bank fee schedules.