Bank of America to charge $5 debit fee

[catleg]

Anyone could have seen this coming. Fedgov placed limits on what banks could charge for per transaction fees, so they upped their fees in other places. This is what happens when the government tries to mandate what the price should be for a service instead of letting the market decide.

Actually the Durbin amendment to Dodd Frank called for the Federal Reserve to do a study on debit card interchange costs; it is the (bank owned) Federal Reserve that determined the new allowable "vig" that banks could charge for debit transactions.

Then the banks as a political move decided to try and recast this as an argument about overregulation.

[banca rotta]

Actually the Durbin amendment to Dodd Frank called for the Federal Reserve to do a study on debit card interchange costs; it is the (bank owned) Federal Reserve that determined the new allowable "vig" that banks could charge for debit transactions.

Then the banks as a political move decided to try and recast this as an argument about overregulation.

I'm glad you can see that the banks own the fed, so when the fed regulates the banks they are acting in the bank's best interest.

Just today Bloomberg announced that BOA took $75,000,000,000,000 (That's 75 trillion!) of BOA/Merrill Lynch mobs derivatives and transferred them from M Lynch to the bank holding company division.

These derivatives in case anyone is wondering are insurance contracts that BOA sold to investors and will have to pay out in the event of a default.

Example: If an investor bought a derivative called a credit default swap for say a billion dollars, betting that Greece defaults on it's debt (and it looks like they will soon) then BOA has to pay the counter party that bought the CDS.

This is Wall Street's version of insuring risk while collecting premiums. The fact that they moved this huge liability to the bank hold company from the investment company means that tax payers will most likely be on the hook for these bets if Greece or another nation or bank defaults.

This is basically AIG a few years back only several trillion larger.

[catleg]

I had to laugh when 1.9 billion of JPM Chase's earnings this quarter came from the reduction in value of their own issued bonds.
As if they could just buy them back at a discount and book the profit. (but of course they are in trouble, that's why the bonds are down/CDS are up).
I would love to see the "corporations are people" folks issue them a 1099-C and try to collect taxes on that accounting trick! :-)

[iv65536]

Even though neither Wells Fargo nor US Bank (the two big banks in the Minneapolis area) haven't imposed such a fee here (yet) I am in the process of transitioning from accounts at both banks to a credit union. No monthly fee for the checking account, and the bill pay fee is waived by simply using it to pay three bills a month. Look around; I am sure you will find what you need.

[IBroke]

Regions Bank just "introduced" this fee as well - although it's "only" $48/year. My CU pointed out that they WON'T charge any fees for the debit card use.

[AngelinaCat]

http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/...ca+Corporation

Damn it! Don't they know I went through a BK, am working on my credit, and need to save every penny I have? I haven't used my debit card in months, I have moved over to just relying on my credit card, but I can see a point where I may need to use my debit card for something. What BofA is doing is like they are putting on a $60 annual fee for my debit card. And I get no rewards? Absurd!!

Now I really have to find a new bank.

There was a thread already on that subject so your thread was merged with that one into the 'BK & Credit News' forum.

Thank you

[mountanddo]

I used to get free checking at TCF but I closed my saving account and stopped the automatic transfer from my checking into my savings and now it is going to cost me $9.99 a month which is a lot of money to be granted access to my money. How do you open an account at a credit union and can I do that once I file for C-13?

On a side note, I went in to get quarters for laundry and she asked if I had an account. Apparently if you don't they charge .10 per roll. They are raking in the bucks there!

[AngelinaCat]

*Heh* I once went into a bank with a 100 dollar bill to get broken into smaller bills. No can do, unless you have an account there. They would be *glad* to open an account for me, but then I would wait several days before I could get my change.

I went to the CVS next door and bought a few dollars of nothing, and they had no problem issuing me change for my large bill. That was in January 2008.

[iv65536]

It seems the big banks are addicted to fee revenue. I read somewhere that the large banks are getting more revenue from fees than from interest earnings.

[catleg]

It seems the big banks are addicted to fee revenue. I read somewhere that the large banks are getting more revenue from fees than from interest earnings.

Yeah that is the twin edged sword of Zero Interest Rate Policy. For a while it helped the banks but now Bernanke is trying to flatten out the yield curve which is bad news for banks. Fee income is down and so is investment banking and trading (aka fleecing customers).

What's a poor bankster to do?