JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America now charge $3 for non-customers to use their ATMs. Wachovia increased fees at a potion of its ATMs, and the average fee that your bank charges you to use another bank’s ATM has risen as well.
Why? Analysts say that its a direct result of the subprime meltdown. Faced with deteriorating investments, banks need to squeeze someone in order to make up for their mistakes.
That’s where you come in.
“If you need to hit your target, one of the easiest ways to do it is to raise your fees,” Keith Horowitz, a banking analyst at Citigroup Inc., told the WSJ “It falls straight to the bottom line.”
Banks deny that the ever-increasing fees have anything to do with their recent mortgage woes, naturally.
“We’re always looking for new sources of revenue,” says Mike McWhortor, a spokesman for the First Horizon National Bank, a regional bank that charges a $35 “not sufficient funds” fee.
Bruised Banks Salve Their Pain With More Fees for Consumers [WSJ]
(Photo:meghannmarco)
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@savvy999: a regional bank near me actually charges for PINned transactions – 45 cents or so. i don’t predict banks tacking on a cashback fee…if you think about it, they’ve succeeded in forcing you into the transaction type that costs them the least. an atm owned by your bank costs money to service. an atm owned by a foreign bank charges your bank when you take money. merchants charge for PINned transactions, but they are by far the least expensive. & the merchant is paying for the cash shipments.
the only thing that could be better is if you could take cash back thru the visa network…then they’d get an interchange fee, too.
I was dragged up to a casino the other weekend with some friends and needed some cash for a bite to eat. I couldn’t believe that the casino’s ATM actually had the gall to charge me $2 to pull out money (at least 90% of which probably ends up going straight into the casino’s coffers anyways).
The other shocker (although in hindsight it shouldn’t have been) is that the amounts they prompted me to withdraw started at $200 and went up to $1000.
Next to them, the banks look positively saintly. I really cannot understand the lure of gambling.
@mac-phisto: A lot of the credit unions(!) here charge for PIN transactions. (Yes, I said credit unions… just when you thought they could do no evil!)
At least one of them lumps PIN transactions in with your 10 free non-credit-union ATM transactions every month… after that, you’ve got to pay $1 for each PIN transaction. And since a lot of people here use credit unions (and also because Wells Fargo, who charges a flat $1/month PIN fee, is one of the big “evil banks” here), a lot of independent merchants refuse to install PIN pads to lower their transaction costs because they won’t be able to after all.
Not all of the big banks here are guilty of PIN fees, though: Chase, 5/3, and National City don’t charge PIN fees.
@MFfan310: well that’s just silly!
credit unions are just as guilty as banks when it comes to interchange fees. maybe moreso b/c they don’t have the capital to deploy massive, region or nation-wide atm locations. & card programs are very expensive.
my credit union doesn’t charge for PINned transactions, but it does have a $1 foreign atm fee (no freebies & on top of what the foreign bank charges, so a boa w/d would cost me $4) & guess what…we don’t have any atm machines. =OP
i stick with them for my main banking – loans, checking, etc., but i turned in my debit card & use electric checking w/ ing. i tell them about it every time i go in & ask the question “when are we getting an atm machine?” at every annual meeting.
there’s rumors of them joining a no-surcharge atm network, so that’s promising.
All these comments about cashback on retail transactions going away confuse me. As I understand it, retailers offer this only because they SAVE money – Cash-handling is expensive and tedious, and every dollar they can have on-balance from an electronic transaction is cheaper than counting out cash. Is this not true?
Two things: 1) As long as it’s not early in the day when cash drawers have limited funds, retail stores like giving cash back on debit transactions because it reduces the amount of cash they deposit. Most banks charge commercial customers for each bill they deposit. 2) USAA rocks!
Damn! A third thing: Most credit unions are part of the CO-OP ATM network which has a surprisingly large number of ATMs that don’t charge CU members fees on either end. In Portland, OR there are many more CO-OP ATMs than BofA, WAMU or Wells Fargo. They have an ATM locator at [www.co-opfs.org] .
Hello credit cards!!!! I haven’t used my debit cards for so long, that I forgot the pin. I only used electronic banking/credit cards.
Debit fees became a ripoff.
@wolftrouble: Yep, also they collect information on what type of shopping habits their REGULAR customers have. Repeat customers bring more money
As a Chase customer, this doesn’t bother me in the least. They’ve done a pretty good job blanketing our area with ATM’s and making it so that I really never have to go to a different bank’s ATM and get charged. So it’s only fair that they charge a fee to non-bank customers to help cover that cost.
The lesson is this: keep your checking account at the nearby bank with the most ATMs in your area. Since you’re probably not making much interest in checking (or none at all), which bank you go with should really be determined by how quickly (and cheaply) you can withdraw your money when you need it.
a “potion of ATMs” ?
i’m not sure i’d want to be drinking that for any ailment
@elislider:
What level of caster do you have to be to make this item?
@furseekr: My credit union is a member of that and the STAR Surcharge-Free network. Both of those rock!
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: If the biggest thing that you worry about is the fee ,you have a problem. You forget about the price of gas and arent taking into account the fact that you could always drive the 10 miles that it may take you to get to your own atm. when taking that into consideration a 3 dollar fee is nothing. Because im sure that your not driving an economic gas saving car, and im sure you leave lights on in rooms that your not sitting in so if you think about it I am 100% sure that 3 dollars isnt that big a deal to you when you look at all the other cash you give away.