[neilc]

> Because fuck you, that's why.

No:

The round of new charges stems from a rule, which takes effect on Saturday, that limits the fees that banks can levy on merchants every time a consumer uses a debit card to make a purchase.

Given the low rate of fraud on debit card purchases, banks were previously making a killing on from debit card fees; with those fees reduced, they need to find an alternative revenue stream. US banks aren't exactly doing well these days, so their need to replace that revenue with something else is understandable.

[pavel_lishin]

Sure, just like a lion's need to eat zebras is understandable. But the zebra is still going to be pissed, and will probably switch to another bank or credit union.

[hugh3]

And the zebra won't miss it at all, because the zebra wasn't making the lion any money.

This metaphor is severely broken at this point, but you get the idea.

[Florin_Andrei]

You folks are so blindly enamored with the "free market" that you'll keep singing them praises even as they go about skinning you alive. Pavlov would be proud.

[Jach]

I don't consider myself a heavy supporter of traditional free market idealism, but it's clear to me that the credit and banking industry has long been in bed with the government. The government says X so company does Y, the government says don't do Y so company does Z, and they're all probably winking and nodding behind closed doors. With a government separated from such industries, I believe we'd actually have some decent choices instead of "Visa or MasterCard?" and "BoA or Wells Fargo?" (Of course there are credit unions but they're only bandaids.)

I don't know of anyone who supports free market ideals saying you should let sociopaths skin you alive, let alone singing praise. Some of the meaner people in the crowd do say "let the stupid people be exploited, it's their own fault if they don't realize they're being skinned and their stupidity keeps these things in power." I don't particularly agree with that sentiment, though it is rooted in another one: if customers are truly pissed, they'll go somewhere else [in the absence of government/monopolistic forces preventing them from doing so].

[eli]

Yes, and now instead of making a killing, debit card purchase fees are merely very profitable. I don't see how limiting these fees required BoA to institute a new monthly charge, nor do I assume that they wouldn't have added it anyway.

[Duff]

Something like 75% of Americans don't have $2,000 to their name. So the bank isn't making money in the ways that they traditionally did (lending deposits).

Basic banking services are not profit centers for banks at all. They only offer those services at low cost because the government forces them to. Basically, the upside to a checking account for a bank is that the bank has a platform to spam you for loans and other services.