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Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

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Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#41

Post by seanalltogether »

patio11 wrote: post #36
seanalltogether wrote: post #14

"The formula sets the cap at 21 cents, plus .05 percent of the transaction amount, plus another penny in certain cases, for fraud-control measures." I understand that running to the government for solutions is rarely a good thing, but in this case, shouldn't "digital currency transactions" be something that the federal government maintains as a free utility to society? Isn't something like this just as important as p…

So you know cash has processing fees associated with it, right? Really. They're totally orthogonal to the cost of physically creating paper or metal currency, and they're mostly subsidized by merchants. Cash management is a hard problem. WalMart spends about 3 million every year moving pennies around -- that actual coin type. Every time a salon owner has to spend time driving to the bank or money leaves a cash regist…

I also understand that maintaining roads is not free, however I'm not paying fees to private companies for the privilege of using them because of how important they are to national infrastructure. I should be paying less overall in taxes to maintain these roads then I would be paying a collection of individual for-profit companies to get the same level of service...in theory.

Is digital currency still too immature to consider the same?

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#42

Post by chrischen »

patio11 wrote: post #36
seanalltogether wrote: post #14

"The formula sets the cap at 21 cents, plus .05 percent of the transaction amount, plus another penny in certain cases, for fraud-control measures." I understand that running to the government for solutions is rarely a good thing, but in this case, shouldn't "digital currency transactions" be something that the federal government maintains as a free utility to society? Isn't something like this just as important as p…

So you know cash has processing fees associated with it, right? Really. They're totally orthogonal to the cost of physically creating paper or metal currency, and they're mostly subsidized by merchants. Cash management is a hard problem. WalMart spends about 3 million every year moving pennies around -- that actual coin type. Every time a salon owner has to spend time driving to the bank or money leaves a cash regist…

I think he was saying that the gov't should make it free, not that it is a free service with artificial costs attached to it.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#43

Post by fungi »

untog wrote: post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

have relatives at another evil bank in another western country.

the way they tell it is that the bank really doesn't want the less fortunate out there as customers. if they could figure out a way to drop them without the public backlash they would.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#44

Post by mahyarm »

bilbo0s wrote: post #40
untog wrote: post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

There is actually something more fundamentally troubling about this new fee ... it drives Americans to use more credit. It was pointed out to me recently that this tendency towards credit that is really 'built-in' to the rules in our society, would probably end up doing us in one day. Sometimes you don't even think about it. I recall once, shortly after the onset of the financial unpleasantness that began in 2008, I…

Travel is very prone to this. Car rental, hotels, airfare tickets (sometimes). You also get car rental collision insurance with most credit cards too. Most car rental agencies will also allow you to put a deposit of several hundred dollars instead of a credit card.

It's any industry that is prone to customers doing massive damage easily, like crashing cars, trashing hotel rooms, etc.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#45

Post by pyre »

bilbo0s wrote: post #40
untog wrote: post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

There is actually something more fundamentally troubling about this new fee ... it drives Americans to use more credit. It was pointed out to me recently that this tendency towards credit that is really 'built-in' to the rules in our society, would probably end up doing us in one day. Sometimes you don't even think about it. I recall once, shortly after the onset of the financial unpleasantness that began in 2008, I…

One difference between debit and credit is when they do things like authorize payments, but then never actually capture them. When it comes to debit cards, some banks will pull that money out of your account, and not release it until may be 10 days after the authorize expires. On the other hand, these things can happen instantly (or within a day) on a credit card. Some people are rather annoyed when they do something like book a hotel room on a debit card, but then pay on their credit card when they checkout. The authorized amount disappears from their account for ~14 days and they think that they were charged twice (because their bank isn't necessarily transparent about this).

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#46

Post by misterbwong »

natesm wrote: post #17

Well, I'm switching (I don't have a credit card). What is a good alternative? I know everyone loves USAA, but none of my family has any relation to the military. BoA is "great" because it is everywhere , is there actually anything as wide spread in the (northeast) US?

If there's nothing holding you back from obtaining a credit card, why not switch entirely to a credit card?

Used wisely (e.g. paid off every month, never carrying a balance) you can make a rewards credit cards pay you. Credit cards also provide a bit more financial flexibility.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#47

Post by pyre »

fungi wrote: post #43
untog wrote: post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

have relatives at another evil bank in another western country. the way they tell it is that the bank really doesn't want the less fortunate out there as customers. if they could figure out a way to drop them without the public backlash they would.

Maybe the poor should start pooling their own money. For example, I heard about some system where a group of people all pay into a pot once per month, and they rotate through who gets the pot. It basically becomes a forced way of savings because there is peer pressure not to come up short. Though I guess this isn't fully a replacement for a bank, but I guess it could help people save up to a level that they don't have to be a 'bad customer' to a bank.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#48

Post by cpeterso »

untog wrote: post #8
navyrain wrote: post #5

I fail to see why anyone selects a big bank like BofA/WellsFargo/Chase for their personal accounts, when they are known to have a plethora of fees and dubious ethics, and there are almost always better options in regional credit unions. What am I missing?

ATM locations, mostly. Chase has an ATM on every street corner in NYC (OK, an exaggeration, but only just). I know plenty of credit unions refund a certain number of ATM fees, but you can't do thinks like check deposits at them any more.

Some banks and credit unions are adding "online checking depositing": you upload a photo of the check to their website. They OCR the photo and process the check. No signature endorsement necessary.

Also, a good way to avoid ATM fees is to get "cash back" when using a debit card at the grocery store.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#49

Post by cpeterso »

navyrain wrote: post #5

I fail to see why anyone selects a big bank like BofA/WellsFargo/Chase for their personal accounts, when they are known to have a plethora of fees and dubious ethics, and there are almost always better options in regional credit unions. What am I missing?

And, in theory, credit unions let you "think global, bank local" to keep your money circulating in the local economy from the credit unions' auto and home loans.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#50

Post by Suan »

bilbo0s wrote: post #40
untog wrote: post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

There is actually something more fundamentally troubling about this new fee ... it drives Americans to use more credit. It was pointed out to me recently that this tendency towards credit that is really 'built-in' to the rules in our society, would probably end up doing us in one day. Sometimes you don't even think about it. I recall once, shortly after the onset of the financial unpleasantness that began in 2008, I…

Reminds me of something I tweeted a while ago:

"Something's wrong when its easier to earn credit card cash back than interest on savings..."

http://twitter.com/#!/suanyeo/status/106413797811568640

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