Posted on 10/02/2012 6:11:01 PM PDT by Altariel
One year ago today, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act went into effect. Designed to protect consumers from high fees on debit card transactions, the new rules inadvertently put an end to free checking as we knew it.
After the new rules kicked in, the banks started looking for ways to make up for the lost revenue, experimenting with $5 monthly changes on low balance checking accounts and other maintenance fees.
In honor of this inauspicious anniversary, John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes:
According to the just-released annual survey of Bankrate.com, only 39 percent of banks offer free non-interest checking accounts with no minimum balance, down from 45 percent last year. As the Huffington Post puts it, “If free checking accounts were animals, they’d be on the World Wildlife Fund’s list of endangered species.”
The results of this legislation (and the Federal Reserve rules it authorized) have made some responsible checking account holders pretty darned unhappy. But that hasn't stopped lawmakers and regulators from looking into putting the same kinds of caps and fee restrictions on credit cards as well. And then that happens, customers on the bottom end of the scale can look forward to bigger annual fees and fewer rewards points or frequent flyer miles. All of which compels us to say one more time: You Can't Call It an Unintended Consequence if You Knew It Was Going to Happen.
We aren’t paying checking fees (I have four checking accounts) and neither of my girls are paying either.
Doesn’t mean it’s not happening, just don’t know anyone its happened to.
Anyone know someone?
I don’t know anyone who is either. I think this is just to bash the banks...God forbid they make a profit. Democrats hate all things successful.
Me and Durbin’s my Senator.
Durbin (D) - IL (America’s North Korea)
Then I know of one.
My bank has all kinds of levels of accounts, based on how much you have in your accounts, whether you have loans, etc., etc. Those with very limited accounts (not much in savings, not much deposited monthly - your basic young person) are charged for checking.
Paying 15 bucks a month for a non interest checking account
Just discovered after the bank turnover from one group to another: my children’s SAVINGS accounts now must have a minimal balance of $400 per month to avoid the $4.00 per month maintenance fee. With the prior group, the minimum was $350. Considering the small balance we have invested with their bank, they refunded the $24. Of course, only AFTER I called them on this... (I realize this amount of $$ may be considered nothing by some; however, it is where we are as a family, and I am merely sharing the ridiculousness of the banking “business” from my perspective.)
I have a total of five accounts with US Bank. A couple of months ago, I noticed that they tried to impose a small service charge on just one of three checking accounts. I called them and told them that I would have to move all of the accounts to another bank if they charged a fee in any amount for any of them. They refunded the fee and explained that it had been a mistake because I shouldn’t ever have to pay any fees. Why, I don’t know, but people should call their bank if these charges appear. It seems they’re just testing customers to see if they’ll pay.
Amazing.
I always find it a really poor argument that it casts the bank money to have money sit in the computer.
How are you supposed to teach kids, when the bank is being absurd.
Good point.
Small amounts yes.
Go ask any banker what slice of customer is coming in several times per week needing something done.
It's not the people with much in assets in most cases.
Our local credit union charges $5.00 a month for all accounts, regardless of the balance. It’s relatively small and has only one other branch. The amount of personal service that they provide is at least a thousand times more than that of any regular banks though. Nice to go where everyone knows your name, at least they act like they are glad to see you and they have no TV playing CNN non-stop.
Another positive is that a lot of their tellers are local high school seniors and college students who work there as part of their educational program. They also pay interest on both checking and savings accounts and it is slightly more than the other local banks.
Keep a descent ballance in your account and there won’t be any charges
I don’t think i’ve had less than $5,000 in my checking account in the last 50 years.
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