Question about dormant account fees

Factual Questions
1

I had been a member of a credit union for many years, then moved away from where all of its branches were. I had around $100 left in my account after all of the the checks cleared, and I left it in there because I could access it with an ATM card, and a quick C-note might come in handy sometime.

There were no fees associated with my account when I signed up or when I moved away. It’s been over four years, and when I got my last bi-annual statement I found that they had instituted a “dormant account fee” of better than five dollars per month in February, and I was out $30.

I called them and they told me that notification of the fee was in the newsletter which came with my December statement. I read the statement for my year end tax information, but ignored the newsletter. Is this sufficient notification?

I know they can do it, because they did. They’re allowed to charge whatever fees they want, it is their credit union, well actually the member’s, but still. My question is that when a credit card company adds fees or changes the terms of the agreement there’s always a clause that says something like “use of the card after such-and-such a dates constitutes agreement with the new terms”. By what process did I agree with a unilateral change of the terms of our agreement?

I’ve quit the credit union of course, to stop the losses, so this is for information only.

2

I worked for a CU long ago. At that time, it was the general belief that it cost about $5 a month to service a checking account. If there was activity, it was considered a cost of business. If it was dormant, they saw it as overhead. The idea is that if you “own” someone’s checking account, you have access to them for other more profitable financial instruments (loans, etc). If the person has their active checking elsewhere, they are not really a prospect. Hence, they started charging that $5 to encourage you to either use them or go elsewhere.

I managed to have the last few bucks of my account at that CU drained last year by these fees. It was simply not convenient to go there to get it closed. I figure the gas was probably equal to the amount they took in fees & my time was worth more to me. It ended a 20 year “relationship” with them. Oh well.