Charging you for your own money

Listen to Dave’s Commentary: Charging you for your own money

It feels like the ultimate insult: Bank of America deciding to charge $5 a month for using your DEBIT card! Now they really have you over a barrel, which is tough because these days that’s probably the barrel you’ve been wearing.

And they blame the government because of new rules which stop them from charging merchants 44 cents for every debit card transaction. Now they can only charge the merchants 24 cents for a transfer which costs the bank about TWO CENTS, according to a consumer group.

But here’s an idea; here’s a way to fight back:

“Go to the ATM machine, take money out, and use money at the store.”

USE MONEY!

It’s crazy I know, very low tech, but the government goes to all that trouble to print it, AND money also does something no bank card seems capable of. It RUNS OUT in real time.

Money protects you from temptation.

Cash will never overdraw itself and then charge you an overdraft fee. Cash will never make you feel rich when you’re not. In fact, with money, you have to look in your wallet BEFORE you go shopping, and if there’s nothing there, it’s a clear message that for now, you need to be satisfied with what you have!

And so I say thank you, Bank of America for teaching us fiscal responsibility. If only YOU had learned the lesson you’re now trying to teach us.

“Bank of America also has to offset the cost of bilions of dollars in bad mortgage loans.”

Good luck with that.