Thread: The Debit Card: Trap or Sound Choice?

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€

I am "Old" and I have NEVER bounced a check...I have a debit card that has never been used...I use a credit card that I check the balance on frequently.....when the balance reaches a certain point...I STOP spending....PERIOD....and I pay it off in full each month....I have a free credit card that I get 1% back on Everything....since I pay it off every month, I have never paid interest charges....I get close to $200.00 from the bank every year due to that 1%....I think the bank would like me to close that card ....."You have to take responsibility for your finances — you can’t rely on the bank to do that........." as stated above

Shortly after the separation from my now ex husband, "Somebody" had used my debit card to order untold things off the internet, many with recurring charges. I was signed up for credit reports taking 15 a month out of my account, but being emailed to an account set up in my name but unknown to me. I was signed up for a singles club and numerous other memberships. Not knowing that approximately 100 dollars had been taken out of my account, and no red flags being waved at the checkout, within 24 hours I had amassed over 300 dollars in fees alone. Not only did the bank refuse to credit these fees, I was told they could not stop any future fees or debits being taken out of my account. I closed that account and opened a new one with another bank. Because these fraudulent memberships continued to try to take money out of my old account, the bank turned me over to Chexsystems, even though I had instructed them that I never authorized these drafts. It took me nearly 6 YEARS to clear things up.