Only this time, the consequences were easy to predict. But the Democrats ignored them.
Congratulations, Congressional Democrats: you’ve managed to soak the working poor again.
Bank of America will start charging debit-card users $5 a month to pay for purchases. The move comes as the cards increasingly replace cash and as banks look for ways to offset the loss of revenue from a new rule that will limit how much they can collect from merchants.
via Bank of America, CARD Act, Dodd-Frank, and soaking the poor. | RedState.
This will hurt the poor the most. Dodd, Frank et al thought they could magically take money from corporations and give it to people. Guess what? The corporations found a fast and easy way around the new regulations? Who could have predicted that?
Answer: Anyone but Congressional Democrats
Spot on Neil. The banks are going to act like capitalists and try to make a profit (surprise, surprise). When profit gets taken away, they will look in new places. It was only a few months ago that we worried about banks failing – so the solution was to take away their profits? What part of that makes sense?
Personally, I see the reaction by BofA and other big banks as knee-jerk and expect the fees to be short lived. I’ve been reading a lot in the last few days on Bankrate.com on ways to avoid the fees. But you’re 100% correct, this is going to hurt the poor the most. This is going to drive those people away from banks completely. Of course, the elderly on Social Security are forced to have direct deposit now, so they can’t avoid it.
And changing banks is a pain. Can you take the time out of a day to go through the process?
Also included in the debt reduction act is an allowance for debt collection companies to call your cell phone (see my blogpost yesterday).
Just had a thought – who makes out the best when banks start charging more fees?
Check cashing stores – another place for the poor to get ripped off
Who spends the most money on campaign contributions and lobbying, the banks or the poor? And who just got the message to step up the contributions?
So the Democrats made a rule that took money from IKEA, WalMart, Sears, and Apple, and replaced it with a rule that takes money from the poor and the young?
I would laugh except for the fact that real people are being hurt by these rules.
If my bank ever does that, that will end my accounts there.
I have been thinking the same thing. I heard on the radio that my bank is test marketing fees in some areas. I may have to go back to using cash, but that means extra trips to town to get more money.
I personally think these charges for Debit cards will go away, but only if enough people make a racket. Banks will still make money on debit card swipes. Remember it wasn’t long ago that banks were offering rewards for using debit cards.
I recently changed my account at one of my banks to avoid fees. I was surprised to learn I qualified for a senior account. At this bank, the age requirement was only 50.
Christianpf is a blog I read frequently. The writer explains 4 reasons why he switched banks: http://christianpf.com/4-reasons-why-we-switched-banks-should-you/