You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's MaryL.

Today we're going to talk about bank accounts

with a personal finance expert, Janelli Espinal.

And actually, her mom had an awful experience with a bank

that puts a fine point on what we're going to discuss.

She had an account with a major bank

and they were charging her $5 every month is monthly fee.

If you go below $50 and she went below $50

but she wasn't aware of the monthly account fee.

So by the time she went to check her account

she had maybe $15, $20 and she was so frustrated.

Like the whole point of this account

was to have a safe place to keep my money.

And now my money is gone.

And she was so infuriated, she closed the account.

She didn't want to have it.

Janelli, by the way, is a director at NGPF,

a nonprofit that trains educators

to teach financial literacy in schools.

And she wrote a book called Mind Your Money.

So I mean, Kudos to her mom in a way, right?

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