Citibank, the banking arm of Citigroup (NYSE:C), is raising the monthly fee on their basic checking account. The fee will be $10 up from $8 previously.Although this seems like a burden on customers, the bank announced incentives to go along with the increase. Fees will be waived and bigger rewards will be available for customers who sign up for more services. For example, those who already have checking accounts and will agree to open a savings account and set up a feature that automatically transfers money into that account will be able to earn more points for credit card purchases. In addition, as long as the customer keeps $1,500 in their checking, fees will be waived. All of these announcements reflect a broader industry push to create a better relationship with their customers and to help capture more of their business. The changes take effect in December and current customers will start getting notifications later this month. Citigroup (NYSE:C) has a potential upside of 70.3% based on a current price of $29 and an average consensus analyst price target of $49.40.
