A survey overseen by a financial management website found thatthe fewest number of banks since 2009 offer fee-free checking accounts.

MoneyRates.com, a website launched by accountant and consumerfinancial adviser RichardBarrington, surveyed 100 banks, 50 larger asset ones and 50smaller asset ones about their checking account fees. MoneyRatesconducts the survey twice a year.

MoneyRates.com found that only 30% of banks offered checkingaccounts that are free of monthly maintenance fees and that theaverage monthly service fee was $12.43, while the average overdraftfee is now $31.60.

“Based on those average figures, a checking account customer whooverdrafts his account three times in the course of a year wouldpay a total of $243.96 in monthly and overdraft fees for the year,”the site reported.

The survey also reported that online banks were more likely tooffer fee-free checking accounts than banks with brick and mortarbranches and attributed this difference to lower overhead on theparts of online banks.

“When people bank online, banks save money on everything fromthe cost of sending out statements to the expense of staffing theirbranches,” Barrington says. “The amount of free online checkingaccounts reflects that savings, and also represents an incentivefor people to bank in more cost-effective ways.”

The survey did not report any data from credit unions.