If a bank has an " account management fee" why is there now a monthly $5 debit card fee? Are banks stupid? Dropping there asses now! $60 a year to use your money that they already make money off of!
yeah man, Bank of America is absurd with it's fees and policies. I highly recommend either TD Bank or Chase.
This doesn't affect me too much, since I ditched Bank of America a long time ago for much better service, and far superior interest rates, with Ally Bank. I also don't use my piece-of-trash-fake-Visa (to quote Clark Howard) and just buy everything with my credit card and pay it off right away, so debit fees in general don't affect me either. Because there's a change in the law going into effect tomorrow that limits how much banks can charge merchants when a customer uses a debit card (if anyone cares, read more here): Basically, there's always been a fee for processing debit (and credit) card transactions but, up until now, the banks would charge that fee to the merchant and the customer would never see it. Of course, based on the math in the article I posted, this new debit card fee isn't just going to cover the difference between what BoA used to charge merchants and what they can now charge merchants; it'll actually increase the amount they earn from processing debit card transactions by ~$1 billion dollars per year.
It's not just BoA, I got a letter from Citibank saying they are charging me $15/month for "maintenance fees". It's a result of the recent law passed by Congress which basically said that instead of when you USED to use your debit card, businesses you used it at had to pay the respective bank $ .40. Now the new decision says that banks can only charge maximum $ .24 for debit card purchases so they are of course passing the fees onto you. Best bet is to switch from a bank to a Credit Union. You get free checking and ATM withdrawls with NO bank fees. That's what I'm doing tomorrow morning.
I hate to see it happen, but as a business owner I'm glad to see some of my fees get capped. Many of those "extras" for cardholders are all put right on the backs of the merchants...which is easy to absorb if you're Target, but a much bigger blow if you're a small mom & pop shop like mine...
Chase is also beginning to charge fees for things. I just switched to TD Bank. All that I need is $100 daily balance and no fees.
I have Woodforest. Its inside Walmart. I pay $12 a year for a debit card, and if I have direct deposit, my money is available the day before payday.
This is one of the reasons why I use my credit card whenever possible (unless I'm paying with cash), as when it comes to purchases, I don't pay an extra cent if I pay my balance every month. Mind you, it's 20% interest if I don't, so that's another reason to do so.
Got a letter today from SunTrust, for certain accounts, they'll have some fees unless you have over 5K in the accounts. It's not like they're paying any of us outrageous amounts on our savings or Money Markets, but really.................
My bank charges fees, but only if you don't deposit so much a month into your account. It's like, jsut 1,000 bucks, so not anything most full time workers wouldn't make in two checks, even minimum wage.
I hear Credit Union is the way to go.... But that hoe corp america is....finf more ways to take money from you......
Yeah, BofA sucks, I used to bank with them and dropped their asses because of the fees. Now I bank with Wells Fargo which is... a LITTLE better. Once my house is paid off though, I'm switching to credit unions.
Think about fees as an elaborate scam. look at it this way. Banks want your money- badly. how bad? they pay YOU to have it in their bank. (stop laughing at that 2% they pay you if you have $20k or more in your account.) Okay, they Pay you for using your money to make loans, fund projects and things. But not happy with that, they charge you for the keys to your own money. They're obsessed with beating the system. it's like the casinos. if you are winning, they escort you out. If you are breaking even, they comp you until you lose. House always wins. funny, ain't it? (not really.)
