Bank of America To Charge $5 Monthly Fee For Debit Card Usage

[garbon]

My credit union is for the families of employees or former employees of a large pharmaceutical company.

[Eddie Teach]

I used to have an account at a credit union for employees at my grandfather's company.

[Habbaku]

Credit Unions are a stellar example of successful social democrat principles in action

That they are.  Primarily because they're based on voluntary cooperation rather than coercion. 

[Jacob]

Credit Unions are a stellar example of successful social democrat principles in action

That they are.  Primarily because they're based on voluntary cooperation rather than coercion. 

Indeed

It almost suggests that it's worthwhile to voluntarily engage in other forms of socialist organization.

[garbon]

My mother just sent an e-mail to all us kids about this - telling us to look into getting a debit card from our credit union. Tomorrow she is to inquire as to whether or not we are part of the exceptions to BofA's new policy.

[Habbaku]

Credit Unions are a stellar example of successful social democrat principles in action

That they are.  Primarily because they're based on voluntary cooperation rather than coercion. 

Indeed

It almost suggests that it's worthwhile to voluntarily engage in other forms of socialist organization.

I have never denied it and, in fact, heartily encourage things like cooperatives, profit-sharing agreements, worker-ownership, etc..  I just despise any government force (outside of contract enforcement) coming in to make things that way. 

[HisMajestyBOB]

Since credit unions are, by and large, far better than banks, why does anyone use banks, at least for personal accounts?

[Habbaku]

Advertising.

[garbon]

Since credit unions are, by and large, far better than banks, why does anyone use banks, at least for personal accounts?

Well banks certainly have better geographic reach. Also aren't a lot of credit unions more exclusive - as in you have to fit specific criteria in order to be allowed to join (whether that be location based or company affiliation based - extended to kin).

[HisMajestyBOB]

Since credit unions are, by and large, far better than banks, why does anyone use banks, at least for personal accounts?

Well banks certainly have better geographic reach. Also aren't a lot of credit unions more exclusive - as in you have to fit specific criteria in order to be allowed to join (whether that be location based or company affiliation based - extended to kin).

Ah, that makes some sense. I've heard some credit unions are now open to anyone, but I suppose having a nearby office is pretty important.

[Maximus]

Well banks certainly have better geographic reach. Also aren't a lot of credit unions more exclusive - as in you have to fit specific criteria in order to be allowed to join (whether that be location based or company affiliation based - extended to kin).

This seems to be the case in the US. It wasn't so in Canada. There credit unions collectively had a national reach, although each credit union individually was local. Some were very good, some quite terrible.

Of course, Canada also doesn't have local banks like here.

[MadImmortalMan]

5.25 per share.

Soon, one share of BAC won't be enough to keep a checking account open for a month.

[DontSayBanana]

Up to $60 per year per card doesn't seem like it'll do much to offset any actual loss from card charges, especially when factoring in potential loss of customers.  It sounds more like a disincentive to me, and I've been hearing some rumblings that BoA might be doing it to convince customers on the borderline to carry a balance on a Bank of America credit card.

[DontSayBanana]

Also, something that's always confused me: retail banks charge low-balance people an arm and a leg when they're orders of magnitude more likely to need to count pennies.  The regressivity is insane, much steeper than any tax regressivity in the United States.  I understand the rationale is that the low-balance customers are high-risk, but by waiving the fees for high-balance account and putting the operation fees on the shoulders of the high-risk, low-balance accounts, aren't the banks basically taking a big gamble and making it even bigger?

[Eddie Teach]

I understand the rationale is that the low-balance customers are high-risk,

Risk of what?

I believe the rationale is that the high balance customer is loaning the bank money for free, which the bank can turn around and loan out with interest. So they are already off-setting their service costs.