The collective voice of the internet has erupted in sarcastic hilarity at the announcement courtesy of Bank of America that said institution will begin charging $5 a month for customers to use a debit card.
As the beleaguered bank struggles to figure out creative new ways to charge their customers more money for the same services, all sorts of competitors have been enjoying the field day by announcing they plan to do no such thing.
As the swipe fee debacle ended somewhat unfavorably for the banking industry, banks have been trying to make up the loss some other way, and this is merely the first in what will inevitably become an endless string of fee increases; Citibank already increased its checking account fee from $8 to $10 in an effort to raise revenue, and as the banks still have difficulties, there will likely be many more in the future.
This has spurred a great deal if disgust, frustration, or scorn on the part of the American public, which paid an enormous amount of money to help banks through troubled times, and have seen it squandered with bonuses, extra fees, and business as usual. If the Republican party has its way, the Dodd-Frank reform bill will be gutted or scrapped entirely, thus returning the banking industry to its casino heyday as quickly as possible, and the American people to a boom-and-bust lunacy they so clearly dislike.
If anyone is surprised, they haven’t been paying attention. Banks reported record profits after the bailouts...because of the bailouts. Banker bonuses continued largely unabated, with some banks ending the bailout program early so they could avoid bonus restrictions and continue handing out multi-million dollar bonus packages like candy. And of course now they feel pressure to please their investors by charging customers higher fees for existing services, after having asked so much of those people in the form of enormous bailouts.
Whether or not anything happens as a result remains to be seen; bank customers have a somewhat more difficult time jumping ship than, for example, customers of a particular movie theater; the inertia is higher. Nevertheless, the outrage has been exploding all over the Twittersphere, with clever one-liners and general comments of disapproval, that a call to join credit unions and smaller, regional banks has never been louder.
If such a shift occurs, it will likely be to the benefit of the American people overall, as less of their money will be tied up in huge corporations, competition will be healthier, and member-owned credit unions will flourish. Generally these institutions have better ethical practices than their behemothic bank competitors, and transferring money from banks to credit unions will likely have a net positive impactâ€"â€"though this shift would need to be monitored to avoid a transfer of business attitudes as those businesses grow and control more and more wealth.
In the meantime, maybe a mass exodus will be the first and only significant punishment the banks have experienced. The Department of Justice is rather slow at its obligations, and the settlements look more and more lenient every day.
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