Bank's Double-Standard at Service
Remember when banks wanted your business, they would even give out toasters for new accounts.
But now some big banks want to charge you to talk to one of their employee in person or on the
phone to check your balance.
Many banks are now in the business of selling insurance, stocks and
bonds, CD's and your financial information to associated companies. It
appears that the bank management has forgotten what their core business
is supposed to be, or perhaps banking is no longer their primary
business.
The banks want to charge you for everything about getting your own
money out of their banks, and of course they don't want to pay you any
interest for using your money. They want you to over draw your account
so they can charge you another fee. They want you to set up an
"overdraw plan" tied to your credit card so they can charge you a fee
for over drawing your account and then a high interest rate on the
amount from your credit card transferred to pay the over draw. Now one
of the largest Banks in America, Bank of America says, it is are now
charging a $5 fee to cash a business check even if it is drawn on an
account at their own bank. One of my listeners took a $15 petty cash
check drawn on her companies' account at Bank of American to a Bank of
America and they charged her $5 to cash the check that was drawn on
their own bank. So to get the money out of her companies' account it
cost her a 30% fee of the amount that she with drew. This is
outrageous!! They know the money is there to cover the check because
it's in their own bank. Why should you have to pay 30% of the amount of
the check just to get the companies' own money out of the bank?
A Bank of America employee said to me that it seems like every week
they have a new product for them to try and sell to the bank customer.
It's a double standard, when you want to talk to the bank about your
account they want to charge you a fee, but when the bank wants to talk
to you about a new product then they wave the fee. Perhaps the customer
should charge a fee to listen to the bank's sales pitch.
Banks appear to be greedy, The banking industry has been able to use
its great profits to lobby the US Congress to get laws in their favor
so they can take advantage of their own customers. But the consumer can
fight back, tell your congressman or senator, he or she will not get
your vote until they pass some laws to control the out of control
greedy banking industry. Also you can move your accounts to smaller
banks from the Big Ones that want to rip you off. Many smaller banks
will not have all the fees.
Very soon those fat cats will get the idea that the consumer still
controls the flow of money into their banks. No customers, No flow of
cash into the bank.
Remember the old saying: "You Can Bank On It." Well perhaps with the
new banking laws we need to change that saying to: "You Can Bank On It,
If You Can Afford It."
Filed February 2003 |
