September 13, 2007
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Would you tip your ATM? (Bank of America rips you off)
It’s true! Bank of America has raised their ATM fee to $3 for non-BofA customers.
So if you withdrew $20, you’d be paying a 15% surcharge. That’s like a restaurant tip! To mitigate that percentage-wise, I always withdraw a hefty amount. June asks, “Why do you want to have that much cash on you?” And I say, “So I can be our own ATM for a while!”
Full story in the first comment below: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/money/14104141/detail.html?rss=bos&psp=money
Comments (8)
BOSTON — The nation’s largest bank is raising its ATM fees and it’s not just their customers feeling the pinch.
NewsCenter 5′s Gail Huff reported that the Bank of America is raising fees at three-quarters of its ATM’s to $3.
That’s what non-customers have to pay to withdraw cash from Bank of America’s ATM’s and that’s on top of what fee their own bank may charge.
This is the highest ATM fee of its kind ever imposed by a major bank, nationwide and consumer advocates fear the increase from $2 to $3 for cash withdrawals will encourage other banks to raise their fees as well.
Recently, many banks raised fees for other services like overdraft, late payments and when customers exceed limits on credit cards.
But consultants say banks are increasingly relying on fees as a more stable and predictable source of income than revenue tied to loans.
i came across something recently about the optimal amt of cash to carry and how often to go to the ATM. the conclusion was that we take out way too little cash at a time. pretty interesting: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-much-cash-to-hold.html
I have a BoA account…so I don’t get charged!!! I think a lot of those privately owned ATM’s usually located in Costco or gas station convenience stores charge about $2-3/transaction too. Sucks.
A lot of internet banks will pay the $3 charge for you.
I see it as a privilege actually. BOA could disallow non-customers from using their ATMs!
Many internet banks refund fees… USAA refunds up to $20, I think. I don’t use cash that much, otherwise I might withdraw more at a time too. I’m all about credit card rebates (yes, the charge likely gets priced in, but I’d happily pay cash if they gave a discount.)
My suggestion… Use the supermarket as an ATM.
If you’re shopping anyhow, it’ll save you a trip to the bank, and since ATM’ transactions, usually have lower fees (25-35 cents, to the merchant) than Visa (~1.5%) or even Amex (~3%)
The most offensive part about the ATM fees is that there’s no real justification for the cost, outside of the fact that they’re trying to generate revenue. It’s amazing.
I’ve hopped from bank to bank since the late 90s–the best years were during the dot com boom when internet banks were giving really great deals. I generally consider it a bare minimum requirement that they give me free checking, online bill pay and banking, with no min balances or maintenance fees. The additional nice perk to look for (that used to be standard for online banks, but is harder now) is foreign atm surcharge reimbursement.
A lot of those banks have either pared down the list of nice things they provide, or they’ve been eaten up by some larger bigger bank (and then ultimately turned into worse things). I’ve been at two separate banks that have been eaten up by Citizens (and have closed the resulting accounts twice) and another bank that folded into Brookline Savings.
So these days, I bank soley at FCUs. As non-profit entities, they can never be eaten up by a larger bank. And they exist for the purpose of serving its members, rather than making a profit. And they give you all the nice things, like free everything, plus in my case, something like $8/mo in surcharge reimbursements. Who cares that they only have two ATMs in the world (my previous online banks had zero).
I suppose the BoA rate hike means though that I should limit my non-SUM ATM visits to 2 per month instead of 3-4.