AIB customers who arrange with their employer and branch to have their salary paid direct to their account electronically by Paypath will not be charged transaction fees for the first 18 months of the arrangement.

Wouldn't  it be nice to live in a world of free banking transactions? According to Irish Banking Federation (IBF), almost half of banks' current account customers do not pay charges. So how do you get to be one of this group? It helps if you are a full-time student or over 60-years-old. The main retail banks do not charge these customers for transactions on their current accounts.

Apart from returning to college, there are other ways to qualify for free banking. National Irish Bank and Ulster Bank do not apply transaction charges to accounts that remain in credit for the entire charging quarter. There is no minimum balance requirement. AIB exempts customers who maintain a minimum credit balance of €507.90 during the charging period.

Ulster Bank also has the card-based dual account, which is free of charges but has no overdraft facility. Bank of Ireland gives free banking to students for two years after graduation.

Those who do not qualify for free banking just have to keep on eye on what charges are being applied.

Customers with current accounts - through which they can withdraw money through cash machines and write cheques - usually receive a statement once a month. It details the list of transactions moving through your account, recording any lodgements, withdrawals and payments and the rate of interest being charged if overdrawn.

At the end of each quarter, this should be followed by another statement, listing the fees incurred through those transactions, which will be charged usually two weeks after that statement.

The easiest way to get to grips with your bank statements is to regularly watch the closing balance shown in your account at the end of each month, the rate of interest that applies, and then to note the amount of fees charged each quarter.

This exercise allows you to build up a profile of your account and should help you to spot irregularities quickly. You should generally find there will be the same number of transactions going through your current account every month or quarter, so your quarterly charges should be broadly the same. If, however, your charges for any quarter look to be unusually high then it is usually worth investigating further.

Changes to existing bank charges, or the introduction of new charges, can only be made following prior notification to and approval from the Director of Consumer Affairs.

In accordance with a code of practice agreed with the Director, leaflets detailing the principal bank charges should be available from the branches of each of the main retail banks.

Don't forget that the State is also taking a slice of the action from your banking transactions. An annual Government duty ATM charge of €6.25 is applied in April and stamp duty of €0.8 is charged on every cheque. Making more use of telephone and internet banking will bring some savings, as automated transaction fees are cheaper in most banks.