Banks Starting To Charge Debit Card Fees!

The online articles say that you should check your receipts to make sure that you are not being charged a fee for using your debit card!

It seems that since President Obama wants to crack down on the ways that banks charge for credit card fees the banks have found an alternative source of generating some income for themselves and that alternative is to charge people for using their debit cards.


It seems that this year more people used their debit cards than they did their credit cards which has been the first time that this has happened.

It seems that a number of banks are coming up with something called "loyalty" programs for their debit card users. However the terms still require either a fee or that the debit card user meet specific terms to be eligible for the loyalty program.

According to one online site:

"Consumers need to have an eyes wide open perspective when it comes to financial services. Fees are going to be cropping up, but that also gives you a chance to comparison shop. There may be just as many good deals at the other end of the spectrum."

To read more about this and view the article, just click here.

Avoiding Those Banking Fees - Tips!

I'm a very big fan of Selfgrowth.com and I found this article about tips to help one avoid those high banking fees!

I thought that I knew almost everything about how to avoid high banking fees - you know things like not using ATMs that are from another bank, etc.,....... But after reading the article I found some interesting stuff - especially about overdraft protection!

I always thought that overdraft protection was a good idea BUT I didn't know that there was a charge to have it!

It seems that there is a lot that I don't know!

Personally, I, myself, try to avoid banking fees but I have had them! I do have to make it a personal financial goal to stop incurring those banking fees! I have used other ATM's - mostly because I was in a rush and not able to get to an ATM that was with my own bank - so I used the ATM at the store I was at even though the ATM wasn't with my own bank. There was a charge for using that ATM plus there was a charge from my own bank for using that ATM! It does add up!

I realize that there may be instances where emergencies come up and you have to use an ATM that isn't with your bank but now in today's economy you have to try and save all the "pennies" you can - especially when it comes to those (high) banking fees!

I hope the article provides useful information for you all.

Another Fee That Farmers May Have To Pay?

As a person that does grant research for a living, there have been times when I have had to defend them but here is a strange story!

It seems that there is a proposed new fee that farmers may have to pay for some of their farm animals! Here is an excerpt:

"An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to combat air pollution from flatulent farm animals would require farms with large number of animals to pay annual fees of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog."

If this proposed fee becomes law, it is estimated that some farmers could pay as much as $30,000 per year!

Farmers (as well as mostly everybody else) are struggling now as it is and as you can well imagine some farmers are not happy with this proposed fee!

You can read more about this proposed fee by going to the link below:

Making Farmers Pay For "Gassy" Animals?

Direct TV - Did You Know?

If you have Direct TV, then as a subscriber you should know

• that if you pay your Direct TV bill by phone there is a $5 extra charge for doing this. Direct TV encourages you to pay either by mail or online
  
  
• if you do not pay your Direct TV bill then they will start to bill you for their equipment - something like $50 per each receiver box that you have installed. Subsequently Direct TV will send you mailing boxes so that you can disconnect your Direct TV boxes and mail them back to Direct TV so that you won't be charged for still having their equipment
  
  
• if you can not pay your total Direct TV bill - pay at least something - even if it is only $10 because this will show that you are making the effort to pay your bill.

Banks Pull In Over $1 Billion Dollars In Overdraft Fees!

Another interesting article that I found online!

Banks are certainly making a lot of money!

According to the article most of these overdraft fees come from atm transactions and debit card purchases.