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How Citi's bailout affects you
Gerri Willis on how the government's rescue of the ailing bank holding company will impact consumers.
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| For more information on managing your largest investment, check out Gerri Willis' "Home Rich," now in bookstores. |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup is getting more help from the government. But will Citibank's troubles affect your wallet?
The government is guaranteeing some of Citigroup's (C, Fortune 500) bad investments and injecting another $20 billion on top of the $25 billion it's already put into the company from the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress last month.
For depositors - this means no changes to your checking account or any other account you might have there. However if you have an account with Citibank, you want to make sure you're within the FDIC-coverage limits.
Here's a breakdown if you have a single account, you can have up to $250,000. With a joint account you can have $250,000 (per co-owner). Retirement accounts are insured up to $250,000 per owner.
FDIC insurance does not, however, cover stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, life insurance policies or annuities.
Bank fees are high and rising - not only are these institutions getting taxpayer-financed bailouts, they are also charging you sky high fees.
Consider Citigroup - it's raising interest rates on a fifth of its 54 million credit card holders, or about 10 million people, by 2 to 3 percent.
In fact, fees are setting new records across the board.
Consider these results from a new Bankrate.com survey: Bounced check fees are up 2.5%. The minimum balance for interest checking is up 4%. And ATM surcharges are up 11%. 
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