Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
Recent
Stories
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
21, 2003
Getting Gouged by
Banks
Fees
Are a Convenience?
By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
The shoe that fits one person pinches
another.
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a
Soul
It is easy to forget that next to dogs, banks
are man's best friend even though, from time to time, they bite.
That was brought to mind this spring when it was reported that
some banks in California were ignoring a California law that
requires them to notify customers in credit card statements how
long it would take to pay off credit card balances if only the
minimum monthly payment were made. California was asking banks
to put a short notice on credit card statements that would say
something like: "If you continue to make the minimum payments
on the above balance and the unpaid balance does not increase,
this account will be fully paid in 900 months." (Of course,
the number of months will vary from account to account. Some
accounts may require many more months before they are paid off
depending on the interest rate, the amount owed and the minimum
required payment. Banks tend to keep required payments low so
that customers can continue to buy happiness with their cards.)
That was not the only disappointing news
from banks in 2003. According to a report in the New York Times,
at least 1,000 banks are encouraging customers with low balances
to overdraw their checking accounts. That practice enables banks
to skirt credit laws and collect billions of dollars in new fees
from the poor. One consultant advised his bank clients to open
branches in supermarkets that had middle to down market customers.
Whereas credit card credit interest charges
are typically 20% or less, the overdraft fees can be hundreds
of per cent, depending on the size of the overdraft. It is not
unusual to find banks that impose a flat fee of $20 to $35 for
each overdraft irrespective of its amount. Thus, if a $5 check
creates an overdraft and a $35 fee is charged, the interest is
700 per cent on an annual basis. Since the overdraft must usually
be repaid within a week or two, the rate is even higher. As bad
as that may sound, it's not being done out of malice.
According to Joe Gillen, CEO of Pinnacle
Financial Strategies, which helps banks create the overdraft
and other income generating programs: "It allows the consumer
to have another alternative to manage their funds." The
program allows them to avoid the inconvenience of bouncing checks.
In the old days banks said high overdraft fees were didactic
devices that encouraged people to use their checking accounts
responsibly to avoid the fees. Today the fees are described as
a convenience to customers. They are not without benefit to the
banks, however.
Bank fees have increased 24 per cent
from 1997 to 2001. Banks will earn $30 billion in A.T.M., bounced-check
and overdraft fees this year or 30 per cent of their operating
profits. Banks that aggressively market the service generate
as much as $150 per account in overdraft fees. Low and middle-income
consumers are the ones most likely to pay the fees since they're
the ones most likely to have overdrafts. Nonetheless, news of
customer gouging masquerading as institutional benevolence does
not prevent the truly compassionate from feeling a touch of sympathy
for banks when their own tactics are turned against them.
In early August it was reported that
Bill Cooper, CEO of TCF Financial Corp., the parent of TCF bank,
thought he was being held up by Visa USA Inc. He reported that
Visa plans to gouge banks in a way that can fail to offend only
the most insensitive among us, including banks.
Visa has advised TCF that it, and other
banks, may have to pay as much as $10 to $20 million if they
decide to switch to a competitor such as, for example, Mastercard.
The fee is called a "settlement service fee." Visa
has promised to impose the fee on any of its largest check-card
issuers whose sale volume drops by more than 10 percent within
a year. According to reports, a 10% drop could only happen if
a bank were to change its allegiance from one credit card issuer
to another and it is such a display of disloyalty that Visa hopes
to discourage. Another (but purely incidental) reason it is being
imposed is because of a settlement recently entered into by Visa
and MasterCard with retailers who successfully claimed that those
two companies were charging excessive fees on debit card transactions.
Visa is responsible for $2 billion of the $3 billion settlement
and in addition to encouraging loyalty, the service fee is designed
to protect it should debit card volume decline as a result of
the settlement.
TCF is one of Visa's top debit-card issuers.
According to Mr. Cooper, TCF enjoys $4 billion a year in volume
from 1.4 million debit cards. The settlement that the debit card
issuers entered into will reduce TCF's debit card fees by $15
million a year. Mr. Cooper does not think the fee is fair. He
thinks he should have the freedom to choose. MasterCard agrees.
Alan Heuer, a senior executive vice president for that company
said: "Restrictions of this nature take away members' freedom
to choose and are inappropriate and antithetical to free markets."
There is one thing to be said for imposition
of the fee. It will help banks develop empathy. Now they know
how we feel when we are being gouged by our banking friends.
It will probably make them more sensitive.
Christopher Brauchli is a Boulder, Colorado lawyer. He can be reached
at: brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
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