Bank of America announced this past week they will begin charging a monthly fee of $5 for customers to carry debit cards. Of course it was national news, and ran on all the networks. Regions Bank said they were doing a $3 fee and Citigroup was still evaluating their costs. Well folks, it's coming. Soon banks will be charging fees for all kinds of things that used to be free. Banks charge fees to cover the costs of services demanded by consumers. Do you think that 100,000 ATMs across America don't cost anything to develop and operate? I've joked recently that big banks may have a cover charge at the door! The cost of banking is going up. Thank you Barney Frank, the Democrat controlled Congress, and Mr. Obama. Regulatory reform has injected government controls into the free market banking system, all in the interests of saving the consumer money. When did government ever save the people money? The government has said, we can make the big bad banks charge you less. But, when one fee is capped or eliminated, other fees must take their place to financially support the system. Free checking will be next due to the elimination of overdraft fees. The government once again is attempting to make the Haves pay for the cost of serving the Have-Nots. It just isn't going to happen.
A free market system is best left to seek its own level on costs and fees for service. The American consumer has always been good at determining what are respectable costs and what are not. If the costs are too high, the consumer quits the service. The service must readjust to an acceptable level or fail. Just look at the backlash from Netflix raising fees for their service recently. The consumer effectively said no. Netflix has lost hundreds of thousands of customers overnight. It's too bad the government hasn't yet figured that out.
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