Banks Drop Card Fees Raise Others

       It should come as no surprise that while we were all inspired by the achievement of Molly Katchpole's petition in forcing Bank of America to back off it's proposed $5 debit card monthly fee the banks have found many other ways to raise more fees on the American consumer.

      For Molly's victory see http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2011/10/victory-for-americans-bank-of-american.html

      For the banks and their new fees see http://www.cnbc.com/id/45286104

     The banks are determined to one way or another raise fees on depositors especially those with small deposits. It's no surprise because you need not call a fee a "debit card fee" you can call it a "maintenance fee" an "activity fee" or for that matter an "inactivity fee."

     As someone who currently uses a cash card every time I take money out of an ATM I am charged $2 or so by the bank that owns the ATM in addition to what my bank charges me. So forget about a $5.00 monthly fee, you pay close to that every time you use your card to take out money at an ATM other than your own banks.

     The reason they are so gung ho right now to impose new fees is because of a recent bill that passed in Congress among other things:

     "Banks can still earn a profit on most checking accounts. But they are under intense pressure to make up an estimated $12 billion a year of income that vanished with the passage of rules curbing lucrative overdraft charges and lowering debit card swipe fees. In addition, with lending at anemic levels and interest rates close to zero, banks are struggling to find attractive places to lend or invest all the deposits they hold. That poses another $8 billion drag."

    "Put another way, banks would need to recoup, on average, between $15 and $20 a month from each depositor just to earn what they did in the past, according to an analysis of the interest rate and regulatory changes on checking accounts by Oliver Wyman, a financial consulting firm."

    "For consumers, the result is a quiet creep of new charges and higher fees for everything from cash withdrawals at ATMs to wire payments, paper statements, and in some cases, even the overdraft charges that lawmakers hoped to ratchet down. What is more, banks are raising minimum account balances and adding other new requirements so that it is harder for customers to qualify for fee waivers."

   " Even the much-maligned debit usage charges have effectively been bundled into higher monthly fees on checking accounts. Bank of America abandoned its $5 a month debit card usage fee in late October amid a firestorm of criticism. Yet, it more quietly raised the cost of its basic MyAccess checking account by more than $3 a month earlier this year. Monthly maintenance fees now run $12 a month, up from $8.95."