You realize this is in response to legislation, correct? Congress cut the banks' fee revenue elsewhere so they decided to implement this debit card fee to make up for it.
It's very similar to Congress capping the interest rates on credit cards "for the benefit of the consumer." What happened? Instead of the banks making revenue off of those who don't pay timely and go over their credit limits (bad customers), the banks raised the rates on the good customers who do pay timely and stay under their limits.
Congress fail.
Didn't respond to this before I saw how this played out but it's evident now that the banks don't need this fee to survive and to the second part,
My rates were not raised on my credit cards for personal or business use. The only thing that changed was the minimum payment rate and that's the way it should be on credit cards. I pay every month and have a low rate. If I miss and don't have a good explaination, it should go up. If your rates were raised, you should have questioned it like I did on several smaller cards from department stores. On those, I refused the higher rate and in all but one case, they kept the same rate. For the one that they didn't, I cancelled when they refused to keep the rate. It's a complete scam.
No law says that everyone has to pay for the few deadbeats. There's nothing in the law that says that. What the companies are doing is passing on the risk to you. If you accept that, then it's your fault.
Here's my point though. I generally have a broad relationship with my bank. I have my normal accounts checking/savings and I also have a equity account with them. I keep these accounts way above any fee requirements. I also have business accounts and my wife has business accounts with them. I have lots of money that is in these accounts at any one time. We're not talking millions but we're not talking about chump change either. At any one time, they are holding money for me that they are using to leverage loans and other investments. In other words, they play with my money as part of their balance sheet.
If I remove my banking business from my bank, they lose a lot more than they gain by a 5 dollar fee per card or account each month. It's insulting to me for anyone to tell me that because someone's got a capped anything, that the bank is going to lose money based on what kind of aco****s I have and how they'e used.
You want to make up some money that they think they're losing? Charge people use these full service banks and get more out of the services than they put in. Don't insult me by saying you're (the bank) losing money by me having a bank card.
Just like they have different credit card rates and some with fees and limits, charge the kid who keeps 100 dollar balance and uses his card every week. I'm not that customer so don't treat me like that customer. There are plenty of credit unions and smaller banks that handle lower balances just as well.
If people are hurting the bank, then don't have 100 ATMs on every corner that are free for people with 100 dollar balances. Let the person go to the credit union and take his money out from the atm at the bank. Don't tell me that I need to pay 5 dollars to use an ATM because I'm losing the bank money and don't waste my time telling me that it's because of the government. The government did not say charge everyone fees. That's the bank's easy way of passing off the problem.
(BTW, by "you" I mean bank not you personally)
