A few days ago I was watching the morning news and they were doing a story on new bank fees. Today there seem to be more fees then ever before, in some cases there is a fee for taking money from your own account.
You shouldn’t be surprised at these fees, banks lost billions of dollars in revenue much of it the direct result of changes Congress made by cutting in half the transaction fee retailers pay for debit card transactions. Remember the flap over one bank trying to impose a $5.00 per month fee for using a debt card? Short-sighted consumers were in an uproar and forced banks to abandon the idea … soooooo, what did banks do to help make up the lost revenue, they imposed an array of new fees and minimum balance requirements.
Here’s the bottom line; big box stores lobby Congress to cut their debit card fees, banks react by trying to charge for debit card use, consumers balk so banks raise other fees. Retailers have increased their profits by shifting more costs to consumers and instead of only consumers who use a debit card paying a modest fee, all consumers are paying more fees.
We are not as smart as we think we are. We made a monkey out of us. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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