Watch Out for $50 Billion in Bank-Fee Replacements
According to the Wall Street Journal, consumers should be on the lookout for newly imposed (hidden or not) fees on checking accounts, credit cards or rewards programs as banks need to make up for the nearly $50 billion dollars in annual revenue they will lose because of recent crackdowns by the Feds on their business practices....
"the nation's banks will be bombarding customers with new fees and products in 2010 as they try to replace more than $50 billion in revenue wiped out by new rules that clamp down on certain business practices."
Credit-card issuers collected $22.9 billion in penalty fees—such as those assessed for late payments—in 2009, up from $19 billion in 2008, said Robert Hammer, who runs a credit-card consulting firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
In addition to the credit-card rules, the government will crack down next year on ways banks charge overdraft fees, which are assessed when a customer overdraws an account. New Federal Reserve rules will require banks to receive customer consent before they can be charged such a fee. That is a significant change from the current practice, in which banks typically honor withdrawals and then levy a fee if the account is overdrawn.
The Fed estimates that banks generate $25 billion to $38 billion a year in overdraft fees.
According to the Wall Street Journal, consumers should be on the lookout for newly imposed (hidden or not) fees on checking accounts, credit cards or rewards programs as banks need to make up for the nearly $50 billion dollars in annual revenue they will lose because of recent crackdowns by the Feds on their business practices....
