Zach LarkinsBANKING FEES
I never thought I'd ever agree with that left wing-nut socialist Jack Layton and his tribe, but that must have got hit by lightning or something because they have an idea that actually makes sense. As in ‘common' sense.
Jack and his gang are after the government to force banks to cancel the fees they charge to use ABM's or automatic banking machines. This is an idea who's time is overdue.
Currently, if you use a machine provided by your own bank, there is no charge. However, if you use a different bank's machine, there is a charge of $1.50 to $2.00 per transaction. Not a lot of money, right? But then, your bank will charge you the same fee for processing this transaction. So now you're paying $3.00 to $4.00 per transaction.
In today's era of downsizing, many banks have closed branches in small towns citing the lack of traffic through them makes them unprofitable. Now nobody's saying a business isn't supposed to make a profit. But when this happens, very often the remaining bank will also close it's doors and leave just an ABM behind for customers to use. Are you about to drive 10, 15 or even 20 miles just to find a machine that comes from your bank? I wouldn't either. So you can be left with service charges amounting to a minimum of $360.00 per year if you only visit the ABM once a month to do all your banking. Consider the elderly folks living on a fixed pension who use ABM's to pay their bills. Their service charges would be outrageous. I pay my bills on-line, but my parents don't. If their bank closes its branch and leaves no ABM, they would have to drive 10 miles to the nearest town to do their banking. Now, beside the service charges, they are spending money on gas ($4.54/gal as of today) and also contributing to the glo-bull warming crisis that has Gore all in a dither.
The banks say they employ thousands of people in high paying jobs. I don't know many tellers who are making a ton of money. Maybe they're just talking about their overpaid executives. They say each employee costs them $100,000 per year in wages and benefits. And that's just what it is, a cost of doing business. This has to be taken into account before you calculate profit. They say they give certain amounts to charity. It's good business to be a good corporate neighbour. However, this to is a fixed cost that must be accounted for before profit is determined. Any company that I ever called on had a set amount to give to charity or spend sponsoring teams or leagues and when that well was dry, there simply was no more to be had until the next year's budget was cut.
When you run any kind of business, you must remove all the fixed costs before you can come up with a figure that tells you how much profit you made that year. Some years you make a lot, other years not so much. That's how free enterprise works.
The service charges amount to a sneeze less than $500,000 per year. That's almost half a billion dollars. Have we grown so thick skinned with mega-lottery pots that half a billion dollars doesn't faze us anymore? Many people say that they only deal with their own banks and thus avoid the charges. Good for them. I'll wager they live in urban centres where banks seem to be on every other corner. They don't care about the problems it causes people in rural areas.
And with banks constantly reporting record profits, how can they justify this rip off? The half billion they are taking from the consumer is akin to theft. The USA and UK used to have these fees and got rid of them. And in Canada, the credit unions don't charge these fees. What makes the banks so special?
Layton finally has an idea I can agree with. Here's hoping he shames the government into taking some action.
Jack and his gang are after the government to force banks to cancel the fees they charge to use ABM's or automatic banking machines. This is an idea who's time is overdue.
Currently, if you use a machine provided by your own bank, there is no charge. However, if you use a different bank's machine, there is a charge of $1.50 to $2.00 per transaction. Not a lot of money, right? But then, your bank will charge you the same fee for processing this transaction. So now you're paying $3.00 to $4.00 per transaction.
In today's era of downsizing, many banks have closed branches in small towns citing the lack of traffic through them makes them unprofitable. Now nobody's saying a business isn't supposed to make a profit. But when this happens, very often the remaining bank will also close it's doors and leave just an ABM behind for customers to use. Are you about to drive 10, 15 or even 20 miles just to find a machine that comes from your bank? I wouldn't either. So you can be left with service charges amounting to a minimum of $360.00 per year if you only visit the ABM once a month to do all your banking. Consider the elderly folks living on a fixed pension who use ABM's to pay their bills. Their service charges would be outrageous. I pay my bills on-line, but my parents don't. If their bank closes its branch and leaves no ABM, they would have to drive 10 miles to the nearest town to do their banking. Now, beside the service charges, they are spending money on gas ($4.54/gal as of today) and also contributing to the glo-bull warming crisis that has Gore all in a dither.
The banks say they employ thousands of people in high paying jobs. I don't know many tellers who are making a ton of money. Maybe they're just talking about their overpaid executives. They say each employee costs them $100,000 per year in wages and benefits. And that's just what it is, a cost of doing business. This has to be taken into account before you calculate profit. They say they give certain amounts to charity. It's good business to be a good corporate neighbour. However, this to is a fixed cost that must be accounted for before profit is determined. Any company that I ever called on had a set amount to give to charity or spend sponsoring teams or leagues and when that well was dry, there simply was no more to be had until the next year's budget was cut.
When you run any kind of business, you must remove all the fixed costs before you can come up with a figure that tells you how much profit you made that year. Some years you make a lot, other years not so much. That's how free enterprise works.
The service charges amount to a sneeze less than $500,000 per year. That's almost half a billion dollars. Have we grown so thick skinned with mega-lottery pots that half a billion dollars doesn't faze us anymore? Many people say that they only deal with their own banks and thus avoid the charges. Good for them. I'll wager they live in urban centres where banks seem to be on every other corner. They don't care about the problems it causes people in rural areas.
And with banks constantly reporting record profits, how can they justify this rip off? The half billion they are taking from the consumer is akin to theft. The USA and UK used to have these fees and got rid of them. And in Canada, the credit unions don't charge these fees. What makes the banks so special?
Layton finally has an idea I can agree with. Here's hoping he shames the government into taking some action.
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