Bank of America should change its name
By Ray Hanania — Bank of America really doesn’t deserve to carry that name. They are not very American. Or at least, they don’t seem to care much about the American people.
The bank announced it would impose a $5 monthly fee on its bank customers to use their ATM cards.
For those few out there who don’t know what an ATM card is, it is a Debit Card that takes your money out of your checking account without writing a check.
Why would they do that to their customers, you might ask? Greed? Stupidity. Greed? Greed?
Ironically, the Bank of America decision to impose the $5 fee comes right at the time when the U.S Congress is seeking to limit the outrageous profits the banks have been making off of most Americans. But worse, it comes at a time when most Americans are using Debit Cards as an alternative to credit cards as they struggle to get out of credit card debt.
Credit cards have become the driving force behind most bankruptcies. When the economy was good, unlimited credit card spending was good. Well, at least when the economy was good, consumers could earn at least enough to pay the minimal monthly payment due on their credit cards.
But now that the economy is headed towards a depression – we are long past the point of recession – many consumers have turned to the Debit Card (or ATM card) as a solution.
It’s very simple. I’ve done it to eliminate all of my credit card debt. Just one month, you need to be able to set aside the amount of money you normally spend on a credit card and have it available in your checking account. Basically, you replace your credit card spending with debit card spending, while still making your monthly credit card payment.
You need to be able to pay more down on your credit card than the minimum if you want to make a dent in what you owe. And if you can do that – many Americans apparently can – you can eliminate the credit cards and the debt and the huge interest that the robber baron banks are making off of your hard work.
Imagine that thebank gives you 1 percent interest on your savings, and then they turn around and loan out your savings to credit card users at 14 percent to as much as 23 percent (Discover Card is the highest and worst).
But credit cards are owned by the banks. So they are seeing the credit card debt slip and that is hurting their outrageous profits.
So, to punish Americans for trying to get out fro, under their debt, Bank America has decided to take the money from the ATM charges in the form of a $5 monthly fee.
It’s a scam. And Bank of America deserves much scorn for taking advantage of the public just when they need the help.
For too long, the banks have gotten away with economic murder. They have squeezed us with outrageously high interest rates, while providing less and less services. They give us less an less in terms of interest for our investments. And, they have been giving credit card users larger and larger debt limits, regardless of whether consumers can afford to carry large debt.
The banks like to blame everything on the consumers. No one forced them to spend money, the bankers argue.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist. Reach him at www.themediaoasis.com.)
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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