Ten Ways Banks Take Your Money

wsj.com:

Consumers need to keep their guard up as financial institutions increasingly impose new fees and charges.

Banks and credit-card companies have gone on the offensive in advance of new consumer protections the Obama administration is asking Congress to enact. For many consumers, that could mean an unexpected financial sting.

"The fee income is becoming increasingly more important as interest income is falling as a percentage of total revenues," says Bob Hammer, chief executive of bank-card advisory firm R.K. Hammer.

Read the whole story: wsj.com

Comments

[sparkey]

Visa debit raised my monthly fee to six dollars from five dollars unless I make thirty transactions a month. Even at that, it's still cheaper than a credit card and I know how much I can spend. My credit score is in the 500's and I don't care. At least I'm not in debt for 25 to 50 thousand dollars with no hope of ever paying it off.

[mcmutter]

Use cash and tell them to stuff the fees.

[katielady]

In order to get a 2.5% interest on my checking account, I agreed to do online banking and use a debit card 12 times a month.. this is advertised and promised by the 'advisor' that there were NO FEES! am pretty scared now..

[livingfree]

It's time for cash and carry again. When banks start seeing their deposits going down, they will rethink their line of business. Credit cards companies days are numbered. The wild wild west of banking is coming to an end but they will not stop fighting for the changes. They will come back with other ways to charge you. Just start putting measurements in play to get their *ss out of your pockets for good. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Banks don't have any loyalty to you and now is the time to show them that you don't have any for them either. What you dish out is what you will receive, so give the banks their h*ll back.

[oneangrymamma]

Part two of previous comment
6 Interbank blackballing. If you close an account overdrawn by an amount that is mostly overdraft fees, you can't open another account ANYWHERE until all fees are all paid ,even disputed fees.
7. Raising fees based on unrelated bills.. People behind in utility bills found prompt payment of their credit card bill didn't matter - the banks raised their interest rate based on late utility bills!!
8. Pushing credit cards on kids under 18. Banks know parents will be stuck with credit card bills run up by their under-18 offspring - along with all the fees racked up. If you go to any college campus during the first week of the schoolyear, you will find booths set up by banks offering T-shirts, CD players, etc as incentives to pick up a credit card.
9. The everchanging "banking day." It used to be standard that if you got your deposit in by 3:00 pm, it was posted that day. Not any more. This timing is now all but arbitrary.. Banks or even individual branches may change this time from 3:00 to 2:00 to 1:00 in just ONE YEAR!! Why would anyone suspect that the check they deposited at 2:00 on 7/6 would be stamped 7/7?
10. ATM machine clearance timing. While some branches retrieve deposits by 9:00 am, some do it hours later. So a deposit made on Friday at 2:00 pm may not be posted until Mon or Tues.

[RegLib]

The fee for using an "outside" ATM is particularly egregious. I travel worldwide and in no country (that I've visited, at least) outside of the US and Canada are you charged to use another bank's ATM.

[ebanks84]

Remember, our capitalistic society approves all charges relative to "making money" no matter how ridiculous they are, how redundant they are, how erroneous they may be, or how egregious. It's the American standard we have been dealing with for centuries. Why should we complain now? Because we are finally waking up to the way our country has been run for eons that only now is all this disturbing. Keep waking up America!

[SamKnause]

I understand that a lot of people would like smaller government interference. If banks are allowed to use tactics that would make the mafia proud, who is suppose to regulate their actions if not the government? Self regulation does not work. Does anyone have an answer to this dilemma?

[Downix]

One way would be to limit size to the point that full competition was again an option. Mega-banks limit competition much the same way a giant oak tree makes a huge dead zone of plants under it.

[hark]

And who, pray tell, will be limiting the size of the banks? The banks?

The government is supposed to be ours in a democracy. It is the only institution that represents us, the people. Why do we demonize is so, hate and fear it?

Instead, why don't we make it work for us, instead of trying to cast it out of our lives?

[opine2u]

The first way they learned how to take your money, was by opening their doors and letting you all come in.

[kid5rivers2]

And, as the chorus line goes: "Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread!"