Enough Already! No More Debit Card Fees!

So, let me get this straight. Banks want to charge me to have an account there. They want to charge me to process my deposits. They want to charge me to process my checks. And now, they want to charge me to use a debit card that they provide to me just to access my money.

To add insult to injury, two years ago they borrowed nearly a trillion dollars in taxpayer money to keep themselves solvent in one of the worst recessions in our nation's history. Now, to pay us taxpayers back, they took away our free checking and added new service charges.

I use my debit card a lot. If I were a Bank of America customer - which I am not - I would pay $60 a year just to continue doing what I do. Or, I can pay some discount check printer $6 a box for checks and last all year long. If I write a check, I get to keep my money longer and earn the pittance of interest that the bank pays me on my account balance. That sure beats paying $60 a year in new fees.

I'm glad I stayed with my local credit union. There are no monthly fees to have two checking accounts (one personal, one business), and the savings account pays a bit more interest then local banks. There is a one-time membership fee to join the credit union (a whopping $5 per account), but otherwise no monthly fees for regular services. My debit card is free and I pay no service fee to use it. And, my first box of checks was free too. Now that's banking as it is supposed to be.

Bank of America will impose the new fee starting next year. They are the nation's largest bank and I'd think lots of their customers will be objecting to that additional fee. It won't change anything unless they start complaining about it or moving their accounts to other institutions that do not charge the fees. Since banks have tightened their lending rules, this recession gives ordinary customers the perfect opportunity to make a bold statement. It's time for the people to take control of their own finances at the most basic level: switch where you bank and send a signal that out-of-control fees are not going to be tolerated.

With runaway gas prices, high unemployment, high food costs and insecure employment futures, every single dollar helps when it stays in your account. Padding the wallets of banking executives five dollars at a time is something we - as the consumers - can refuse to do. It can be as simple as cutting up your debit card and mailing it back to the bank. If they get enough of them, maybe the message will be understood loud and clear.

If not, there are plenty of other choices.