Indeed, at least in the US the massive increase in credit union membership has had a huge impact. Virtually all credit union personal accounts are completely fee-free (and many reimburse ATM fees and other perks), and now the commercial banks need to fight for customers. I keep getting offers from Chase and Discover for checking accounts that are fee-free and have silly perks on top ($300 opening bonus and such), and the suspicious part of me wonders if the frequency of these offers has to do with them knowing from my credit card payments that I mostly use a credit union for checking right now.