BankNotes: Fifth Third, Think Finance

Fifth Third offers free ATMs transactions. Fifth Third says that it will not charge fees for its customers in North Carolina when they use a competitor’s ATM. Fifth Third has plenty of ATMs in the state, but they still have far fewer than Bank of America. The offer does have some limits. It only applies to new customers and it only works for ten free transactions per month. This is a turnaround for a bank that often seems to seek out ways to generate fees on its deposit accounts. Fifth Third has one of the most aggressive overdraft fee schedules in the country.

Think  Finance Plans to Return: There will be more to come from ThinkFinance in the near future. ThinkFinance pulled out of its relationship with Urban Trust Bank some time back. Pending the participation of a new bank partner, Think Finance says that it hopes to put its Elastic Line of Credit back into the marketplace in the fall. A possible plan would include a card with a line of credit and a savings account. Credit pricing would itself be “elastic,” and driven by how well the consumer can work to pay back debts and bring new business to Think Finance. Consumers would get rebates, deposited into the savings account, for payments. The program would also provide incentives for customers to take online financial literacy training.