Bank Credit Cards and Fees
12.05.11
The Dodd-Frank Act in the US has shifted the cost of debit card payment services from retailer to consumers, and as a result customers may soon be paying their banks to use debit cards. Bank credit card and debit card transactions will be affected by the law, which requires the Federal Reserve to set fixed upper limits that banks can charge retailers for each card transaction.
The rule only applies to those banks with more than $10 billion in assets, and it goes into effect this October. This is causing banks to look for other ways to replace the lost revenue, and some have concluded that charging a monthly fee to customers for debit card use is the best solution. This is far from an industry standard at this point, but large banks like Wells Fargo have announced that they will begin charging their debit card users $3 per month, per account.