Free-bee

A lesson learned about there-ain't-no-such-thing-as-a-freebie Frisbee.

Source: The $1500 Frisbee

On the first day of college, I opened my first bank account.
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Since I was getting a small payment from the school to cover living expenses, I needed to open a checking account.

The two banks had very different methods of attracting students. One displayed a sign that said “free checking”. The other was handing out Frisbees. My choice was easy. I wanted the Frisbee. (Free checking? How boring!)

I signed up for my checking account, got my free Frisbee, and spent the afternoon on the quad, tossing the disc back-and-forth with my roommates. When it was time for dinner, I took the Frisbee up to my room, put it in the closet, and never used it again (!).

Classes started. I forgot about the Frisbee(aaahhhh!), and I forgot about the checking account. The next month, I received my first bank statement. There was a $5 service charge, but I didn’t care. It was just $5, right? I accepted the fee as part of the package, and as part of being an adult.

I paid $5 a month to maintain my checking account throughout college. When I graduated, I continued to pay $5 a month. In the early 1990s, the fee increased to $8 a month.
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In fact, I paid a monthly fee for checking from September 1987 until June 2004. For 202 months — nearly 17 years — I paid $5 or $8 a month to have a checking account. In 2004, as part of my financial awakening, I closed my accounts at the bank and moved them to a local credit union. The credit union never charges me fees at all.

...it occurred to me that the “free” Frisbee wasn’t really free. Not even close. Roughing out the numbers, it’s clear that this one poor choice alone cost me about $1500 — enough to buy hundreds of Frisbees.