The government should have just taken over the banking sector, so we could avoid things like this, The End Of Free Checking?
On Sat., Oct. 1, new regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul go into effect on debit cards. Specifically, they impose price controls on “interchange fees,” the fees that banks and credit unions charge to retailers on debit card transactions.
The average interchange fee is about 44 cents. The new rules limit the fees to 21 to 24 cents.
“The costs of processing debit card transactions doesn’t go away because you limit the price,” said John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. “That shifts the costs to consumers.”
These fees are used by banks to offer free checking and rewards programs. But now those programs may be be coming to an end. Just 45% of noninterest checking accounts are now free, down from 65% last year, according to a recent survey by Bankrate.com. The average monthly fee for those accounts has risen 75% in the last year to $4.37.
So prepare for the howls and screams now that Bank of America is charging $5 a month for using debit cards to offset the loss of revenue:
“It seems that old habits die hard for Bank of America,” [Dick] Durbin said in response to the new policy. “After years of raking in excess profits off an unfair and anti-competitive interchange system, Bank of America is trying to find new ways to pad their profits by sticking it to its customers.
“It’s overt, unfair and I hope their customers have the final say.”
Just make everything free. Or have the government provide it, because that’s the same thing as free.
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It would be interesting to ask Durbin why Congress thought it was a good idea to set a price on the transactions in the first place. He, of course, would not be able to provide a valid answer.
The credit union–try it, you’ll like it!
It’s easy for a credit union to out-compete the banks when they don’t pay taxes on their earnings.
I work for a credit union. We’re introducing a handful of new fees in the next few months, too.
Just because they’re “communal” doesn’t mean credit unions are immune to the same problems facing regular banks. We introduced an interest-bearing checking two years ago. It began at a four percent rate of return. The interest now isn’t worth the five bucks a month it is to keep the share open.
We also had a quiet “bailout” (again, a couple years ago) for the credit union equivalent of the FDIC. Our share was a million bucks.
And Awing1, no taxes on earnings only happens because CUs are non-profit, which adds its own wrinkles/hoops to jump through.
None of this defeats my point, it’s easy to out-compete the banks when you don’t have to pay taxes. Ultimately they’re structured very similar to regular banks, the only real difference, besides vague requirements for membership, are that the shareholders deposit their money in the institution directly rather than buy shares on the open market.
By that logic though, you’d have tons of companies lining up to be NPOs. BofA will inevitably find a way to get new capital, they can do that. NPOs have a harder time.
A modest suggestion: Since Dick Durbin is so eager to regulate other people’s lives, let’s run his: Anyone who wants a meal should be free to walk into his house at any time and help themselves to whatever is in the refrigerator. Same goes for his TV and stereo. After all, turnabout is fair play. 🙂
Remember the Lost Liberty Hotel? It’s a pity the gambit didn’t succeed, because the only way our ruling elites will stop treating us like serfs is if they start to suffer the consequences of the oppressive laws they pass.
These people have simply lost touch with what little reality they ever encountered.
They still haven’t grasped the fact that they can’t regulate everything and the idea of unintended consequences…
Interesting….
It’s because of Durbin.
Yet, like Frank and Dodd, he acts like the savior, when he’s really the villain.
Make yourself aware of the Durbin Amendment
http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/durbin-amendment-explained/
It’s so infuriating that asshats like Durbin continue to get re-elected. He was warned repeatedly the loss of revenue (effectively a tax on the banks) would be passed on to customers, but he is so arrogant he ignored all the warnings.
Even the bill’s nickname (Dodd-Frank) should be enough to predict disaster.
What are the 2 signature Legislative Laws, that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, past during the 111th Congress, of Obama’s first 2 years in office.. Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank Bills.. and why are they so important and protected by them.. Because both of them, from 2 different sides, set up amassive Federal Govt, Bureacracy of Laws and Regulatiuons, to control the whole U.S. Private Sector Economy, as well as the Individual American citizen..
These are not just some axtra rules, that they tacked on to a Bill.. these are absolute legal tools of control, to assure their Agenda stays in place, lon after they are gone.. make no mistake aboutrn it.. That is exactly what they are, and represent..
Liberalism, is a all about control, and govt authority, power, and money, is at heart of it.. and unless we can rtepeal them all, via, next election.. then we will all be at their mercy forever..
The Dodd-Frank Bill does not help people and busioness.. it suffocates businesses and destroys the Free market enterprise system, in Capitlaism.. not to mention it has biased racial and gendewr wuota;s, built into it, to force businesses to adhere to an affirmative action style hiring system..
And when Liberlas decry that this was a result of the Bush ecomonic unregulated housing and banking collapse, from Oct 2208, they are lying.. because it was the Liberals, namely Barney Franks, Chriss Dodd, and Bill Clinton, who set up the American Housing and banking crisis, to happen in the first place.. This is their great fraud and deception.. but when they control the govt. this is what happens..
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The Truth-
The Housing and Banking disaster in Oct 2008, was mostly created by the Democrats, specifically- Mr. Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, and Chuck Schummer, – as these 3 corrupt liberal Congressmen, forced the Banks, and other Financial Lending and Investment Institutions, to lend money to unqualified borrowers, (from leftwing pressure from ACORN, and other leftist community organizations), regardless of their inability to pay back their loans and or mortgages, especially from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which created the Sub-Prime Mortgage and ARM Economic Housing bubble crisis.. With the assistance from the Banks, who were pressures by Franks and Dodd, to make these loans.. They went along with it all, because Barney Franks and Chris Dodd, guaranteed them, that the loans would be govt backed, and they would not lose any money on them.. thus, the Banks made the loans, then resold them in bundled financial Money Market Fund packages, etc., whom the buyers, then turned around and resold them again, and so on, and so on.. until everyone who owned a share of any of it, was holding worthless financial toxic assets, which spread around the world banks, like a virus, thus created the world wide financial crisis, we now know today.. and on top of that, Barney Franks lover, Mr. Frank Reins of 10 years, and was the CEO of Fannie Mae.. Mr Frank Reins, when he finally bailed on Fannie Mae, got over a 100 Million Dollar golden parachute, of Tax Payer money.
Barney Franks was complicit in his motivations of personal conflict of interest, and guilty of wrong doing, in his avid non-tightening and non-regulating of the Housing and Banking lending laws, as requested and warned of and by the current Banking and Housing Economists of the Congressional hearings.. and especially as the Chairman of the Banking Committee in Congress, but instead he chose to chastise the expert economists instead of heeding their warning..
In addition to all of this, President Bill Clinton signed into law, “The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act” (GLB), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, opening up the market among banking companies, security companies, insurance companies. The Glass–Steagall Act prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, commercial bank, and an insurance company.
The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to consolidate. For example, Citicorp (a commercial bank holding company) merged with Travelers Group (an insurance company) in 1998 to form the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking, securities and insurance services under a house of brands that included Citibank, Smith Barney, Primerica, and Travelers.
This single piece of Legislation, signed by President Clinton, allowed and enabled these Liberal Democrats, – specifically Barney Franks and Chris Dodd, and Chuck Schummer, to perpetuated and exasperate the housing and banking bubble crisis, to the point of National Financial Fiscal Economic crisis.. but they could care less.. as anything they do to create, and cause chaos and economic and political destruction, is good for the Liberal Socialist-Marxist cause and agenda.. to put in context, in the words of Obama’s chief architect- Rham Emmanuel, quote-“Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
Sorry for all te typo’s.. I type very fast..
Understood. I type 227 words per minute, but it is in my own language. Actually, this was a Mitch Hedberg joke.
The lunch will be free but there won’t be any food.
This is government price fixing and again it hurts the consumer.
It seems that old government habits die hard for Durbin (IL-someone please save our state from the Dems!).
Sally Paradise: “Give me liberty or give me (a quick and not nickel-and-dime-d) death!”
After everything that Prof Sowell has done to educate the people about Economics and the history of price controls here comes another idiot representative to “Specifically impose price controls”.
Shouldn’t there be a SAT for those wanting to run for Congress and the Senate?