"HeyBub" writes:

Red Green wrote:
BoA heads up a cast of characters.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bank-o...25092.html?x=0


Picture Summary: http://oi54.tinypic.com/vx1amv.jpg

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Financial Reform Act set a limit on the fee a
bank may charge a retail establishment for processing a card payment.
Actually, it was an amendment sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin that did the
deed. Prior to this law, the average interchange fee was 44 cents per
debit/credit card transaction. The new law limits the fee to 21-24 cents.

Obviously, this cuts the bank's take by 50%.

This results in at least $7 billion in extra revenue for retailers (unless
they lower their prices) and a corresponding $7 billion drop-off in revenue
for the banks. The former have no increases in costs and the latter have no
decrease in expenses.

So, if you are a bank and are faced with a 50% drop in revenue from one of
your revenue streams, you are almost forced to find a replacement revenue
source. Hence, BoA's $5/month debit card fee.

Personally, I don't begrudge BoA trying to find an offset for the money lost
due to government meddling, but I'm not going to pay the fee either.

Hey I've got an idea. They can stop sending credit card offers to me
and my wife. Every week.

Boo hoo.

I'm glad BofA is taking such a dumb action.
They'll lose some customers.

Then maybe they won't be too big to fail any more.
It's a win-win.

--
Dan Espen