Capital One Checking Acct Maintenance Fee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

While I don't have a lot of sympathy for banks (I'm the pro-CU poster above), I will say that those swipe fees apply to community banks and credit unions too - institutions that did not get us into the mess we are in. And, when they stop getting those fees from those big merchants like WalMart, etc. you can bet the services you get for free now from just about any financial institution are going to start costing you something. And trust me - WalMart isn't going to start lowering their prices in response to their lower swipe fees.

It is much more likely that retailers will lower their prices if there interchange fees are lower, because consumers are much more likely to follow the low price on shopping (which they do weekly) than on banking (how often do you change banks?).

There were no-fee banking options before there were debit cards. They may have had fewer services (you might not have gotten interest on your checking accounts, for example), but they were there, and they will continue to be there.

Doing things electronically is cheaper for the financial institutions. They seem to think that the savings should go to executive bonuses. I don't agree.

Sure, but those fees also pay for fraud protection, setup and maintenance costs, costs of the cards, etc. None of that is free either. So when you go from earning a percentage of a transaction to a capped fee, you are going to have a significant loss in revenue. And while I could care less if the big bank execs lose out, this is going to impact community banks and credit unions just as much. That is a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:switch banks. Everyone I know who had a Chevy Chase bank account when Capital One bought them out got hit with all these fees and switched to another bank as fast as they could.

I don't recall seeing any fees. I'm assuming they would show up on the bank statement, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

While I don't have a lot of sympathy for banks (I'm the pro-CU poster above), I will say that those swipe fees apply to community banks and credit unions too - institutions that did not get us into the mess we are in. And, when they stop getting those fees from those big merchants like WalMart, etc. you can bet the services you get for free now from just about any financial institution are going to start costing you something. And trust me - WalMart isn't going to start lowering their prices in response to their lower swipe fees.

Just sayin.

It is much more likely that retailers will lower their prices if there interchange fees are lower, because consumers are much more likely to follow the low price on shopping (which they do weekly) than on banking (how often do you change banks?).

There were no-fee banking options before there were debit cards. They may have had fewer services (you might not have gotten interest on your checking accounts, for example), but they were there, and they will continue to be there.

Doing things electronically is cheaper for the financial institutions. They seem to think that the savings should go to executive bonuses. I don't agree.

Doing things electronically, while possibly cheaper, is hardly free. It takes an immense investment of resources to be able to manage technical and security aspects of these cards, not to mention maintain capital for fraud losses.

On a penny for penny basis the change in interchange fee rules is about the equivalent of the cost of most rewards programs plus a little extra. So we can expect most debit rewards programs to go bye-bye. Issuer's who are ridding themselves of these programs but also introducing new fees are not being honest with their clients.

Finally, as a general rule, credit unions usually do not have the "fee based" revenue model of many banks. They operate on the traditional "interest based" revenue model -- you make a deposit and they lend on it and make their money that way. As a result, you can usually avoid some of the hefty banking fees at a credit union. Also, institutions under $10B in assets are exempt from interchange fee changes and it is likely you will see a continuation in most credit union debit rewards programs for some time (only a handful of credit unions have more than $10B in Assets -- Navy Federal Credit Union for example).

~Industry Insider

[Anonymous]

My Capital One direct deposit checking is free, same as with Chevy Chase. I'm hoping that doesn't change or I may change banks. Capital One's online bill paying annoys me.