Oh, that we had a law like this for ATM fees

Our GOOD friend John Avarosis at http://www.americablog.com/

Australian consumers will soon be able to challenge any bank fee that they consider "unreasonable," thanks to a new law that could save consumers up to $1 billion. Banks that want to keep levying excessive fees for late payments and overdrafts will need to prove that the charges are reasonable by revealing the true processing costs behind the fee.

Damn right...

Pay him a visit.

"Banks save money every time you and I use an ATM, because it means they don't have to have someone on staff handle our deposit or withdrawal in person. And to the degree that I use one bank's ATM, their customers also use my banks' ATM, so it all washes out in the end. If anything, banks should be paying us every time we use an ATM. It just irks me that they, like the airlines, are always finding ways to gouge the consumer, a fee there, a charge here, and there is nothing we can do about it because Congress is always beholden to corporations over people".

"If anything, banks should be paying us every time we use an ATM".

Paying US.
What a concept!

K&R

...to charge "convenience fees" for accepting online payments? Never mind that such automated payments save them a fortune in paper and processing costs, they still charge us for making payment more convenient...for themselves.

That is the craziest bullshit I've ever heard.

Now I'm sure the US will follow in adopting something like this...........in about another 1-2 centuries.

that seem to have the congress in their pocket... looking for more campaign funds. uggh. I wish they would do something. It's true that every time we use the ATM we save the banks money... and when we do stuff online we save them even more. I can see an overdraft fee, but not $35!!!

I made a payment of $100 & accidentally checked "Principle only" instead of "Regular payment." Because interest wasn't paid, only principle, it sent my overdraft account into arrears & it could no longer be drawn upon. That sent my checking account into arrears. The bank covered three of my checks, but charged me $39 each to do so, plus a $39 late fee on the overdraft account. My careless mistake cost me $156 on an account with a balance of $175! Arghh!!! Yes, I should have been penalized, but that much? THAT MUCH, because I clicked the wrong box on the payment screen? It's been several months & I still burn when I think of this!

i've had a situation where there was enough money in there for two of the three, but the way they took them out of the account made all three go overdraft. don't ask me how!! i went in and got them to only charge me for one overdraft fee. they then told me about the overdraft protection that I would have to qualify for... or I could open a savings account and only be charged $5 for each overdraft. my sister has that.... they charge her five dollars for the overdraft fee and i think five dollars to transfer it to checking. guess it's better than the $35 they charge otherwise.

Matter of fact, I don't even risk it if it has my bank's network's logo, because I know they may still charge on one end.

Here's what I do, when I forget to go to the bank and need cash: I go to a Walgreen's or Whole Foods or other place where I would normally shop, and I buy something I was gonna buy anyway and then get an extra $20 when they ask if you want cash back.

Even though the bank atm ALSO converted that money from US currency to Canadian Dollars.

That same interaction back in 1998 cost $6 in Washington State to take money out of my New England bank.

I should be getting a discount b/c they only have one person staffing 6 checkouts, instead of 6 people.

I always wondered why they didn't get into the service fee racket?

the reality of the "free market" is that the money that changes hands often has little to do with the actual costs involved. a merchant takes a loss on some of what he does in exchange for making on obscene profit on other things. hopefully, the end result is reasonable, but often it is not, one way or another.

restaurants make an obscene profit on soft drinks and even more on alcohol, and often break even or worse on actual food. for various reasons, it's often impossible to actually match prices with costs, some industries are more ridiculous than others.

in the banking sector it's merely more obvious, and the feeble excuses offered are ludicrous.

if we had real competition, some bank WOULD come along and pay for people to use atm's.

:kick:

Partly because when ATMs first came out, they originally didn't charge fees and a few news stories mentioned how they would actually save the banks money, but mostly because the fee is so regressive. The folks who pay the most are those who are less savvy, and/or can only afford to take out small amounts, so they withdraw small amounts -- and the fees end up so proportionally larger relative to folks incomes.

It's a federal law that there has to be a sign posted whether the machine will charge a fee. I always look for those signs and haven't had to pay a fee yet. I was once in Minneapolis for work and ran out of cash. I ran around the human habitrails downtown looking for a cash machine that didn't charge a fee. When I finally found one, I withdrew the most I could, 250. Turns out the machine was out of 20s, so it gave me 50 five-dollar bills. What a wad!

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