Many Americans expressed their dissatisfaction with escalating bank fees by eschewing megabanks in favor of smaller institutions or credit unions. Should cities do the same thing? Last week, the city council in Berkeley, Calif., …
bank fees
Celeb Schwag: Famous People Get $100K Worth of Free Stuff Annually
Designer clothes, iPads, car leases, vacation packages, baby clothes, diapers … If you’re a celebrity, you’ll receive all of this and more for free, without ever having to endorse or even request anything.
Bank of America’s $5 Debit Fee Led to More Account Closings, CEO Says
A lot of people got really bent out of shape when Bank of America announced last fall that it would start charging a $5 monthly debit card fee. Online petitions were launched as the blogosphere and social media sites like Twitter overflowed with messages denouncing banks in general and Bank of America in particular.
Another Swipe-Fee Battle Looms — This Time Over Credit Cards
Most Americans began 2011 having never heard the phrase “debit interchange fee.” But by year’s end, a few more of us were aware that it refers to the money paid by retail merchants to card-issuing banks when we use our debit cards to make purchases. These fees turned out to be an important battleground in the broader bank fee wars that …
More Fees, Fewer Branches As Banks Cope With Lower Profits
Several big banks have reported their earnings over the past week, and the results aren’t pretty: JP Morgan Chase & Co. had a 23% drop in profits, Citigroup’s fell 11% and regional bank PNC Financial Services Group suffered a 40% …
5 Banking New Year’s Resolutions
This year was a tumultuous one for banking: Occupy Wall Street protests around the country focused Americans’ anger against the financial industry, while widespread outrage over banks’ attempts to charge fees for debit card use …
Chase Makes Checking Account Fees Easy to Understand
Nothing seems to make consumers angrier than getting charged a fee by their bank when they weren’t expecting it. Some people even leave banks altogether just to get away from the onslaught of fees that are disclosed only in …
Teen Slapped With Hundreds in Bank Fees
Chicagoland teenager Daniel Ganziano thought he was doing the right thing when he opened an account last year with TCF Bank near his Illinois home to learn how to handle money responsibly. Instead, Ganziano learned that bank fees can very quickly spiral out of control — in his case, to more than $229 in less than two weeks.
Bank Fee Bust: Turns Out Credit Unions Didn’t Cash In After All
When consumers threw a collective fit over fees charged by big banks for debit card use, credit unions were thought to be poised for a windfall. Customers were expected to defect in droves — and the initial data seemed to bear out this hunch: The Credit Union National Association announced in early November that 650,000 consumers had …
Would You Watch an Ad to Avoid an ATM Fee?
From e-mail to broadcast TV programming, search engines to roadside billboards, consumers are accustomed to being inundated with advertisements at every turn. Typically, the tradeoff for being subjected to ads is that consumers …
Lawsuit Alleges Couple Was Arrested for Trying to Close A Bank Account
Dissatisfied customers or unruly protesters? That is the question. After being arrested in the wake of a protest at a New York City Citibank branch in October, Heather Carpenter and Julio Jose Jiminez-Artunduaga are now suing the city for false arrest.
Get Ready for Bank-Fee Whack-a-Mole
Bank of America and Chase have abandoned controversial fees that were under consideration. But now banks are quietly calculating which other fees can take their place
