The Debit Card: Trap or Sound Choice?


By The Editors
New York Times
September 8, 2009, 7:30 pm



Debit cards fees have become a major source of revenue for banks as their profits from other business shrink. For consumers, the quickly mounting fees — as much as $35 for each overdraft — can become a financial disaster. Some in Congress have noted that this practice is particularly harmful for low-income and elderly consumers who often don’t know that they are being charged. But bankers say that overdraft service and fees can be easily avoided if consumers simply don’t spend more than what’s in their checking accounts.

Where does the responsibility lie? Is it with consumers who fail to balance their checkbooks and unwittingly rack up these fees? Or should there be tighter federal regulation of debit cards and overdraft fees?

Rebecca Borné, Center for Responsible Lending
John Berlau, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Samuel L. Myers, economics professor
Ronald J. Mann, law professor
Richard Briesch, marketing professor
Dave Ramsey, author and host of “The Dave Ramsey Showâ€