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Currently, banks are raking in nearly 16 billion dollars worth of transaction fees via the usage of credit/debit cards. This 16 billion dollars is paid to the banks by the stores that we make our purchases at. Currently, the rate is about 1.14% according to money.cnn.com.
The Federal Reserve has put forth a cap on those transaction fees; the cap is $.12 per transaction, regardless of the amount of the transaction. Banks are now saying that this will keep them from being able to cover the operational costs associated with the transactions.
In a sparring match with the Fed, the banks are now threatening their consumers with caps on transaction amounts. JP Morgan Chase is saying that $.12 per transaction under $50-$100 is sufficient to keep the operation going and will cap purchases at $50-$100.
While I understand there are costs associated with allowing transactions to take place, I also see 16 billion dollars as an extremely large number. These banks are making profits beyond our imagination via the transaction fees, and I find it hard to believe that $.12 will break them.
This is just another way that banks will stick it to their consumers. First they caused a global economic collapse by using their customers money for ignorant investments, and now they are going to make it harder for us to go about our daily lives as usual.
I’m not too worried about it though, because I still know how to write a check, and I can also head to my bank and withdrawal the money directly and just use cash. It’s not a huge deal, but it just goes to show who the banks actually care about, and it isn’t their customers.
Related Articles
- “Debit Cards: $50 Spending Limit Coming?” and related posts (theyeshivaworld.com)
- “Banks Considering Capping Debit Card Spending At $50″ and related posts (thelifefiles.com)
- Why banks are fighting over 12 cents (money.cnn.com)
- Chase could lower ceiling for debit card purchases (knoxnews.com)
- Banks may put $50-100 limit on debit-card purchases (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
