Banks Considering New Fees On Cards And Checking Accounts

In response to new regulations, banks are carefully guarding one of their most reliable profit streams: the fees they charge customers for basic banking services. And this may mean a wave of new penalties and fees for consumers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

As rules under last summer's Dodd-Frank financial reform begin to take shape, banks fear for their card businesses, the Wall Street Journal notes. Banks are considering a new set of debit card fees, in addition to fees on checking accounts. From the WSJ, a partial list:

• Annual fees of up to $30 for people with debit cards.
• Increased ATM fees for non-customers who withdraw money from a bank.
• Penalty fees on checking accounts, imposed if customers fail to maintain a certain balance, or fail to meet a monthly direct deposit minimum. Chase already imposes such fees. Customers of the former Washington Mutual, now owned by JPMorgan Chase, will see these fees next month.

"If you bring us more business, you will get rewarded with better pricing," BofA spokesperson Robert Stickler told the WSJ. The bank has estimated that Dodd-Frank could cost it 80 percent of its debit card revenue, Bloomberg reported.

Consumers already have sufficient cause to resent the nation's big banks. As foreclosed properties cripple the housing market, lenders continue to be mired in a controversy of allegedly botched or faked mortgage documents. Among the biggest mortgage companies, Bank of America has the worst record, with just 21 percent of its eligible borrowers granted permanent mortgage modifications.

Have you been hit with new bank fees in the last year or so?

Quick Poll
Have You Been Hit With New Bank Fees Recently?
Yes.
Not that I've noticed.
Yes, and I'm considering moving my bank account elsewhere.

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Comments

[ancientuno]

10:28 PM on 01/10/2011

With all the choices out there I fail to understand why people insist on dealing with any banking institution that charges fees for checking accounts or debit cards. If you are paying baking fees, stop complaining. It's you that is choosing to do so.

[structurequity]

11:53 PM on 01/06/2011

Even the transfer of accounts from the big five does not mean the stoppage of exorbitant fees, the little ones know how to do it too.

[LibertyRoy]

07:51 PM on 01/06/2011

As a Libertarian, I have ZERO sympathy for those of you upset by this. YOU bailed them out! I did not want a bailout. And now that you have, look at what is happening. Boo-hoo, they are not being nice to us.

And please spare me the notion that the world would have imploded if we let them fail. The world will implode due to our currency losing value due to all the money printing to prop these people up. If you want to make banks competitive, let them go under. There is no reason for a bank to play nice when they think you will never let them fail.

[CarlJr7]

01:56 PM on 01/06/2011

Has anyone ever had their debit card stolen and then had unathorized charges pop up on your account activity statement? Once you informed your bank, did they not almost immediately replenish the money into your account (even before they began investigating the incident)? If you prefer to not have that type of protection, then you should support the debit card transaction fee cap proposal. It's riddled with so many unintended consequences it's unbelievable, yet it's claimed benefit of "lowering consumer prices" is laughable.

[LibertyRoy]

07:52 PM on 01/06/2011

"Unintended consequences"

A term very few people are aware of. Glad to be your first fan.

[MyResponsibility]

11:03 PM on 01/05/2011

Seriously, who didn't know that banks would find a way to replace the income just taken from them?  The solution? Move your banking to a small neighborhood bank or a credit union.

[stape45]

09:47 PM on 01/05/2011

Looks like reagan’s ‘trickle-down’ theory only works under the Big-Biz conference table.

[sophiemaki]

09:02 PM on 01/05/2011

the banks can do whatever they like.
insurance companies can do whatever they like., oil companies also.
your government is kissing their a/ss.
the pols like to please the banks and insurance companies.
big phama.....big oil........all the sucks
it helps them ..in the next election, so the ..,slobs can fool you again.

[bigkay]

07:32 PM on 01/21/2011

Banks are still charging $35. NSF for a $7.00 debit card purchase.
People collecting unemployment in Pa. are charged by PNC bank $1.50 to access their debit cards,. Before Lou Dobbs was fired from CNN he talked about this abuse and the amount of money PNC is making on the unemployed.

[Veganie]

08:48 PM on 01/05/2011

What do banks and insurance companies do to add value to the economy, their product can't be touched or eaten.

[Rugby1]

09:00 PM on 01/05/2011

What? Banks provide loans for all sorts of things. Ever had a business? Ever needed a line of credit? Have you ever purchased a home, or a car and had a loan through your bank? Banks provide liquidity to all sort of people for millions of reasons.

And insurance? Do you drive a car, own a home? Insurance protects you again disaster.

Just because certain things are not tangible (as in you can see it or touch it) does not mean they do not add value.

[Smartguy47]

09:07 PM on 01/05/2011

And what bank is it that you work for?

[RogerMurtaugh]

10:01 AM on 01/06/2011

Um, where do you think businesses get capital from?

[glossy go]

08:30 PM on 01/05/2011

why do people put money in a bank? why not upload or direct deposit to netspend and pay your bills off that. get cash back at purchase point.

[cattuslavandula]

08:00 PM on 01/05/2011

credit unions and paypal. the way of the future.

[Iamobserver]

07:47 PM on 01/05/2011

I went to my chase branch to move my account and the teller asked me why. I gave her the notice of change I received in the mail and she relied that most everything would not apply to my account. I told her she was absolutely right because I was no longer banking there.

[RogerMurtaugh]

08:10 PM on 01/05/2011

Did you go open up an account at FreeBank? It is this new bank where everything is free. Investment accounts, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, savings accounts, wire transfers, money orders, all of it is free. It is the pinnacle of Progressive thinking, you should check it out some time.

[ByAndForThePeople]

08:25 PM on 01/05/2011

Oh, grow up. Back in the first 2/3 of the 20th century, bankers were richer than most everybody else, especially their ordinary customers. And yet they charged very little in the way of fees, they lent money at a relatively small increment (1% or 2%) over what they paid their depositors, and they actually provided customer service. What's changed? The banksters feel entitled to be super-wealthy now, so lending money at merely 5 times or 10 times what they pay their depositors makes them feel like they're getting shafted. Customer "service" is a joke because banks do everything in their power to make it impossible for a customer to talk to a human being (without paying extra for the privilege), as well as to access their money.

[verylargehat]

09:54 PM on 01/05/2011

I moved to a credit union a year ago. The banks can go to hell.

[Duppy]

07:25 PM on 01/05/2011

Any bank that charges me a fee, I will pull my money immediately

[Saboruto]

07:42 PM on 01/05/2011

So banks should be a free charity service?

[Vegan Girl]

08:03 PM on 01/05/2011

Charity, no. Free, yes. They get to borrow and invest your deposit money at practically zero interest rate.

[elemental775]

07:17 PM on 01/05/2011

Move your money to a community bank or better yet a not for profit credit union.

[ByAndForThePeople]

08:28 PM on 01/05/2011

In the state where I currently live (Utah), the legislature tries every session to force credit unions to pay the same taxes as for-profit banks. So far, we've been able to beat them back, but every year it gets a little closer. The whole point, of course, is to punish those of us (the members) who actually own the credit unions and force us to pay the exaggerated fees that banks charge, so that the credit unions can't be competitive.

[NotNarrow]

08:34 PM on 01/05/2011

My problem with credit unions not paying taxes is that it is not fair that depositor-owned "mutual" banks do pay taxes. Either both should pay taxes or neither should. Many small community banks remain owned by depositors.

[elemental775]

12:12 AM on 01/06/2011

Let me guess, Utah is a red state and the state legislature is republican controlled?

[DenverBigDaddy]

07:07 PM on 01/05/2011

And people were expecting? It's a business folks.......they are there to make a profit. Did anyone really believe this problem(like many others) would be cured by legislation? Get real folks. It's a marketplace. If enough people move their accounts, then a bank will change it's programs to attract new clients(i.e. lower fees, etc.). That is how to effect change on a market.......not legislation.

[elemental775]

07:16 PM on 01/05/2011

Serious regulation could do the trick, not this watered down bullsh%&.

[lisakaz2]

07:07 PM on 01/05/2011

So glad I moved my money to more local banks. A fee of up to $30 a year just for the privilege to not have to write a check? That's criminal. Banksters....the name says it all.

[RogerMurtaugh]

08:20 PM on 01/05/2011

Oh my God, $30 a year!

You lose $30 a year in the couch cushions. Are you honestly complaining about paying $30 A YEAR for something? That is .08 cents a day. Is there any service you can think of that you use anywhere near as frequently as your debit card that you pay .08 cents a day for? You waste more than .08 cents a day by leaving the front porch light on when you leave the house. You waste more money than that by making a wrong turn. You waste more money than that by throwing your leftovers away. And you are going to say it is "criminal" to charge someone .08 cents a day for a service that costs them a whole bunch of money to provide you? A service that provides you with an amazing amount of convenience and time saved?

You may not see it, but at least a whole lot of other people will see just how big of a deal you are making about something so terribly insignificant.

[lisakaz2]

08:39 PM on 01/05/2011

I don't anything in couch cushions or anywhere else. Yes, I'm complaining about another fee pulled out of nowhere to charge for what was offered as an alternative to writing checks. Is there an annual fee for check writing from one's own account? Some places actually protect citizens. In Britain for a long time it was against the law for any bank to charge for ATM use if you were part of a network. After all, those automated tellers were supposed to be savers for the bank. I guess since banks stopped processing paper checks the same way, they don't mind charging for what was once a benefit to them, too.

Just because you can rationalize it with this per day dinking don't make it stealing and giving banksters millions and millions more in profit -- as if they were hard up for money. The American ppl are, but apparently you haven't noticed.

[jokelley]

08:40 PM on 01/05/2011

You really need to do some homework before you spout here. the banks make billions by charging each customer these fees. the way banks work is this: we deposit our money, they lend it out at a rate many times what they pay us. Simple. the make tons of money doing this. they do not need to "nickle and dime" us to death in this way so yes, I'll take my 70k a year out of their bank so they won't make a dime on it and put it somewhere else. Bank of American started this and now they all do it. If you have a check from a bank and you want to go to that bank and cash it they charge you between 6 and 10 dollars no matter how much it's for. You know who pays this fee, the poor person who can't afford a checking account and needs to buy food to feed their kids. 6 dollars will buy a couple of gallons of milk, or three boxes of cereal. I don't think you know how much that is to many, many people today.