They are almost worse than a bank.
This is the front-page, above-the-fold, right-corner lead of the day:
"After outcry, debit fee dropped; Bank gives in to rivals, consumer pressure" November 02, 2011|By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
Bank of America yesterday scrapped plans to charge customers $5 a month to make debit-card purchases, a move that all but buries efforts by banks to impose such fees.
Related: The Devil is in the Debit Card Details
The bank, the largest in Massachusetts, joins several other banks that recently discovered the one fee that customers just won’t accept. On Monday, two large regional financial institutions, SunTrust Banks Inc. and Regions Bank, said they planned to drop debit-card fees and issue refunds to customers.
Two other major banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., were testing debit-card fees in some markets, but last week said they decided to drop them as well.
“The $5 monthly debit-card usage fees are dead for now,’’ said Norma Garcia, senior attorney for Consumers Union, an advocacy group and the publisher of Consumer Reports. “This is an example of banks paying attention to customers and acting accordingly.’’
Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, N.C., was also under pressure from smaller banks that promoted no-fee debit cards to lure customers away from their larger rival.
If you read the link I provided above you would find the small banks also qualified the statement with a "for now."
When those and other banks decided not to introduce their own debit-card fees, Bank of America had little choice but to drop the charges, said Bart Narter, a banking analyst for Celent, a financial consulting firm in Boston.
‘‘I think they saw it as a bad business move that other banks weren’t following,’’ Narter said. ‘‘It was also a bad political move in terms of both customer relations and government relations.’’
Gimme a break. They own the government.
Bank of America has faced an angry backlash since it announced the debit-card fees in September....
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This is the next day's below-the-fold, fine print piece:
"Banks likely to try range of new fees" November 03, 2011|By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
Bank of America Corp. and other major banks have scrapped plans to charge customers for using debit cards, but the companies are almost certain to raise or introduce a host of other fees to protect their profits.
Consumers should prepare for even higher checking and overdraft charges, analysts said. If they use another bank’s automatic teller machine, they may well get hit with higher ATM fees. And if they want to receive paper statements in the mail, they may end up paying for that, too.
“The debit card fee was only one of several different levers that banks can pull,’’ said Greg McBride, an analyst for Bankrate.com, a website that tracks rates on checking accounts and other financial products. “Consumers should continue to be vigilant about the prospect for new and higher fees.’’
They sure are pulling a fast one on you, readers.
Banks have been steadily raising fees to make up for losses from the weak economy, troubled housing market, and tougher regulations since the financial crisis in 2008....
Excuse me?
"Most of the big banks reported third quarter gains. You may have heard that Bank of America reported a $6.2 billion profit, despite handing over its spot as the number one bank in America to Chase, which had an overall quarterly gain of $4.26 billion. Citigroup had a quarterly gain of $4.8 billion, and Wells Fargo gained $4.1 billion. Even though these aren't big enough numbers to have investors jumping for joy, there are certainly worse problems to have.... Banks with assets exceeding $10 billion drove the bulk of the earnings growth. They made up 1.4 percent of all banks but accounted for about $29.8 billion of the industry’s earnings in the third quarter. Those are the largest banks, such as Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. Most of these banks have recovered with help from federal bailout money and record-low borrowing rates."
What "losses" are they talking about?
That the slime would have sucked even more blood out of us all?
Analysts expect banks will probably continue to raise monthly checking account fees or make it harder for customers to avoid those fees by raising the minimum balance requirements....
Then the ANSWER is CLEAR: Get your MONEY OUT of the BANK!!
It’s unclear how much higher fees will go, but analysts said banks will raise fees when and where they can....
Banks may also come up with new fees....
As fees go up, consumers should expect rewards programs to shrink, analysts said....
Paying more for less for an already undesirable service.
Another way banks could increase their revenues is to roll out new optional products that they can sell to customers....
One fee they likely won’t try to levy again is the monthly charge for making debit card purchases....
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