Posted on 09/29/2011 5:36:53 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
So my Eeevil bank is going to soak me for $60 per year ? ... in the same year that my beloved state of Illinois lovingly permitted me to contribute an extra 3% of my gross income for the good of Illinoisan humanity ?
I only regret that that’s $60 dollars less that I can contribute to the mother state. Smash the banks.
Suntrust, too.
I see this as one of those unintended consequences of government action.
Businesses got tired of paying fees for using cards to make sales - forgetting the fact that many of them might not have been made otherwise, and lobbied for reform.
Now the account holder has to pay, and pay more, too, it seems.
BoA is getting free money from their interest off Treasury bonds given to them as TARP money. That's getting free money twice - money my wife and I pay as taxes.
Screw'em
Not all of them. Citigroup says it won't impose debit card fees because it would be "a huge source of irritation for customers." We'll see how long they hold out.
You can blame congress for this. They forced banks to lower the fees they charge merchants, so now banks recoup the lost fees from consumers.
I aways try to pay local merchants and tradesmen by check or cash because I'd rather they get the money than the credit card company.
One word: USAA. Even non-military folks are eligible for many of their banking products.
Agreed, I put all my purchases on their credit card and I get 1.25% cash back at the end of the year. Last year, I made over $1000. It is better than the 0.0001% interest that I am drawing in my other accounts but of course, I have to spend money to make money.
We are in the final phase of closing out all of our business with BofA.Sounds familar. Our (former) bank, a subsidiary of RBS named "Citizens Bank," pulled the same thing. We had a promotional type account they issued years ago. Recently, they just "threw them out" so to speak; made them standard fee encumbered accounts (lots of fees!).
They developed a habit of charging us for our formerly free checking account and for savings accounts too! We would go in and they would apologize and reverse the charges and then several months later they would do it again.
The geniuses who came up with the restrictive banking laws that led to BoA enacting this charge are unwittingly creating a ‘black market’ where folks are going to go ‘all cash all the time’ soon, which has the added benefit of no tracking of expenditures. We can all act like drug lords and miscellaneous crooks!
I closed out my BOA account for that very reason - and I told the bank manager why: “I do not want my money in a bank that is giving unsecured loans, mortgages and credit cards to illegal aliens.”
"banks should accept a lower profit so their customers won't have to pay for debit cards."
"Banks can make money--they can succeed the old-fashioned way--by earning it by lending to small business and by lending to consumers, by making sure we are building the economy together," said Obama.'
How can it be that there is no one in the White House adult enough to sit the president down and explain the basics of an economy to him? How can he still, at his age, be unaware that one of the ways the banks earn their keep is by providing services to the public, and that one of these services is the ability to transact purchases without carrying around large wads of cash? Given the number of people in the America who seem to use their debit card for every purchase, no matter how small, $5 a month seems like a screaming deal to me. However, If the people living from their debit cards are unwilling to pay for the convenience, they can avoid the fees by not taking advantage of the opportunity to exercise the convenience.
And please note that Mr. Obama's response is not to simply complain, he wants banks to waive these fees and make their money via loans, which will result in higher interest rates as banks, with the president's encouragement, seek to recoup the fees he has decreed unconscionable.
On the other hand, why should we expect anything else from a man who led sit-ins at banks as a Chicago community organizer? He's simply using his bully pulpit to foment discord as he has always done. He knows no other way.
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