Struggling With Lost Fee Income? Flourish Checking Can Help You Get It Back

If you're leading a financial institution right now, chances are you've felt the impact of regulatory changes around non-sufficient funds (NSF) and overdraft fees. That revenue stream is shrinking fast … and you’re not alone.

We're hearing it from clients across the board. NSF and OD fee income used to carry a meaningful part of the balance sheet. But with the way regulation is shifting, and customer expectations with it, that well is drying up. And fast.

At the same time, traditional checking accounts are basically being commoditized. Most are free. Most don't have monthly charges. Even if you want to rebuild that revenue in a different way, it's hard to do it without adding friction (or risk) back into the customer experience.

So, where do you turn when regulation cuts off your traditional fee income, checking accounts are a race to the bottom, and customers won't tolerate added costs unless they see real value.

That's where Flourish Checking comes in. It’s not another generic rewards program. It's a fully differentiated account experience that gives your customers real, tangible value on things they already pay for every single month (and gives you a healthy margin in return).

In this article, we'll walk through:

• Why traditional fee income is disappearing (and what's driving it)

• How to rethink your checking strategy around customer value instead of penalties

• What kinds of real-world savings Flourish Checking delivers to account holders

• How this approach turns non-interest income from a problem into a playbook

If your institution is trying to replace fee income in a way that’s sustainable and customer-first, you don't need to start from scratch. The model already exists, and it's working.

Why Traditional Fee Income Is Disappearing (and What's Driving It)

First, let's talk about how we got here, because context matters. For years, banks and credit unions leaned on NSF and overdraft fees to help offset the cost of account maintenance. That revenue helped keep the lights on. It was predictable. It added up. Of course, today is a different story.

Regulators are tightening the rules. Customers are pushing back. And even the big banks have started phasing out those fees or capping them so aggressively that they barely register anymore. If your institution is still relying on those legacy models, you're fighting a losing battle.

At the same time, your ability to charge for checking accounts has been squeezed. Most institutions offer free checking. Some try to build in requirements to earn the "free" part. For instance, minimum balances, direct deposit, whatever it may be. But even then, it's hard to differentiate. Everyone's offering the same thing. Everyone's racing to the bottom.

So, you're stuck. You need fee income to stay profitable. But the old methods are either off-limits, out of sync with customer expectations, or not competitive in the current market.

This is the pressure we're hearing from leadership teams across the industry. It's not just about replacing revenue. It's about doing it in a way that aligns with what customers actually want and what regulators will support.

And that's the gap Flourish Checking was built to fill.

Rethinking Your Checking Strategy Around Value (Not Penalties)

If you're like most financial institutions we talk to, you likely didn't set out to build a punitive checking experience. You want your customers to be successful and secure. It just evolved that way over time.

For years, the model was simple. You give people a free checking account. If they mess up (overdraft, low balance, missed minimums), you hit them with a fee. That's how you earned margin. But it also built a system where you only made money when your customers made mistakes.

That model doesn't work anymore. Not just because it's under regulatory pressure, but because customers are smarter. They expect transparency. They expect choice. And they expect value.

So the way forward isn't to find sneakier ways to apply fees. It's to flip the model entirely.

Instead of charging for failure, you charge for value.

With Flourish Checking, your institution offers real benefits that customers already use in their everyday lives. We're talking about things like identity theft protection, cell phone insurance, digital discounts, travel perks, and more. These are services people are already paying for, sometimes spending $50, $80, even $100 a month across multiple subscriptions.

Flourish wraps those into a single, streamlined checking experience for a fraction of that cost. Customers save real money. And your institution earns recurring, non-interest income. It's a model that rewards both sides. 

Your customers get value. 

You get margin.

And more importantly, you rebuild trust in the checking product itself. This isn't a free account with a catch. It’s a premium account people are happy to pay for, because it actually gives them something in return.

What Real-World Value Looks Like to the Customer

When we talk about value in banking, it can get fuzzy fast. People throw around terms like "rewards" or "perks" without actually explaining what the customer gets. That's not how we operate. With Flourish Checking, the value is concrete. It shows up in your customer's wallet every month, and they feel it.

Take identity theft protection. Right now, millions of people pay out of pocket for services like LifeLock. And they're not cheap. It’s not uncommon to see $40 to $60 a month per person. For a two-person household, that's $80 to $120 every month just to monitor their credit and protect their personal information.

With Flourish, that same protection is bundled into the account. It’s more robust than many standalone services, and it's covered for both spouses. Instead of $120 going out the door, your customer pays you $8 to $10 a month, and actually saves money.

It doesn't stop there.

Flourish also includes cell phone protection. That’s another $120 per phone, per year, that many people are paying through their wireless carrier or a third-party insurance plan. Cancel those. The protection is baked into the account.

Digital coupons? Yep. Integrated into the experience. Most customers can save $20 to $50 a month just by using the app on things they already buy. Groceries. Restaurants. Entertainment. It's not aspirational. It's everyday savings.

So when someone asks, "Why would anyone pay for a checking account in 2025?" this is the answer. Because the account pays them back. Not just with points. With actual dollars they get to keep.

Turning Real Customer Value into Real Institutional Margin

Let's talk about the part that matters to your bottom line. Specifically, how the Flourish Checking model actually makes money for your institution. Because it's not just about offering a good product and creating value for your customers. It's about doing it in a way that's financially smart, scalable, and low-risk.

Here's how it works.

With Flourish Checking, you're not building out a bunch of custom benefits in-house. You're tapping into a pre-negotiated bundle of high-value services. That includes everything from identity protection to mobile phone coverage to travel and shopping discounts, all at a fraction of the retail cost.

That bundle might cost your institution a few bucks per account per month. But you're turning around and offering that package to your customers for $8 to $10 per month. Do the math. You're delivering serious savings to the customer (up to $100 or more a month in avoided costs), while keeping a healthy margin on the service. And because it's a value-based subscription, not a penalty or hidden fee, people are more likely to stay enrolled and feel good about paying for it.

That means recurring, predictable, non-interest income.

You're not betting on someone overdrafting their account. You're not crossing your fingers that someone misses a minimum balance and triggers a fee. You're building revenue off of something people actually want.

And that kind of model doesn't just protect your P&L. It strengthens your brand. It gives your team something to promote that actually improves lives. And it opens the door for deeper engagement with every account holder who opts in.

What to Take Away (and What to Do Next)

If you're looking at the future of checking accounts and wondering how you're supposed to make the numbers work, you're like many of the forward-looking financial institutions we work with. Traditional fee income is drying up. Customers expect more. And the old playbook just doesn't deliver anymore.

The new play is value. Deliver something people are already paying for. Offer it at a better price. Build it into an account that actually feels worth paying for.

Flourish Checking gives you a way to do exactly that.

Here's what to think about as you evaluate the opportunity:

• Are your customers already paying out of pocket for services like identity protection, phone insurance, or eating out.

• Would they switch to you (or deepen their relationship) if those services were included in a single account?

• What would it mean to your institution if you could drive $8 to $10 of monthly revenue per checking account, without adding risk or complexity?

If you're asking those questions, you're in the right place. Flourish Checking isn't just a product. It’s a strategy. And we're here to help you put it to work. Reach out. Let's replace that lost fee income with something that's built to last.