It's official. No fee.

They'll probably try to get you some other way, but it worked out this time.

TD bank has stopped allowing customers to withdraw money for free at any other ATM's. To use your debit card and receive cash, you must go to their branch.
I'm done. I found a CU that I can join and will be doing so very soon.

ha! ya beat me to it.

so, to me, the moral of the story is if you *tell people* what the costs of a particular service are, they can make informed decisions. And the business can make subsequent decisions about the costs of the same service. This is how markets work best, not free, not laisez-faire, but mixed markets. Markets that have some sensible regulation, in this case, a requirement for disclosure of the fees.

Is there anyone here that holds the opinion that BofA is suffering because of this arc of events? Certainly they'll have to look further and harder for a replacement for the reduction of revenue from the results of these events. But is there anyone who would contend that the consumers were harmed by these events? That anyone could not get the banking / money services they need because of these regulations?

I don't think so. And I think the real but relatively tiny harm suffered by BofA is insignificant compared to the benefits to their customer base. Indeed to the customers of other financial service institutions who will also heard what the market has spoken.

Good!

How much of these banks revenue is drawn from these accounts versus home, car, business loans?
I was under the impression the loans were where they made more money.

Yes, the CU's are putting on more staff for the HCT.

Merc, will we see you there on Saturday ?

Not a freaking chance! :D

So, while everyone is arguing about five bucks here and there, it seems B of A is positioning to pillage the treasury. Again. Or maybe not. I'm not absolutely sure.

This article from Bloomberg describes the situation quite dryly - disagrement bewteen different regulators about B of A transferring huge amounts of derivatives (you know, the highly volatile toys financiers love to play with) from the investment bank to the retail bank.

But I learned of that from this article from "The daily bail" (partisan, one sided, but not necesarily false). Their interpretation:


Even Bloomberg is not positive about this.

I don't properly understand all this, but it seems the banks are attempting another round of privatise-the-profit, socialise-the-loss; on a much larger scale than last time. This is in the several tens of trillions of dollars range.

Suppose BofA announces, hey Washington, pony up three trillion or everyone loses their savings....

This was the whole point of the Glass-Stegal act (The American Banking act of 1933) - to separate retail banks from riskier invetment banks to prevent 1929-33 style crashes. That act was repealed in '99, disaster rapidly followed. The system was band-aided, but now the banks are trying to game the system.


What was that someone was saying about credit unions?

That makes the news that TD Bank is now charging a $9 savings account fee almost meaningless. CNN

What is the full name of TD Bank ? The website is non-disclosure

Oh, a reminder.
Saturday is "Bank Transfer Day" at your local credit union.
Merc sends his regrets he will not be attending... he will be missed.

It is a plan right out of the cigarette industry playbook. When state taxes on cigarettes increased (due to inflation), the cigarette industry would also increase their profit margin significantly. State taxes rose so little that the actual tax (with inflation) was decreasing. But cigarette profit margins eventually exceeded 50%.

To put that into perspective, Wal-Mart's profit margins are closer to 2%.

Now that 'evil' government has required more sensible fees on debit cards, then raising all other banking fees can be blamed on that 'evil' government. Cigarette industry played the exact same game. And most people foolishly thought higher cigarette prices were due to state taxes.

Banking industry has a long history of stifling innovation while reaping massive profits? Productive industries do not increase costs when always innovating. Remember what they teach banking executives in business schools. Only profits are important. The product be damned.

Bank of America is quite profitable in all sectors except one. The one that Ken Lewis spent $billions on without doing any due consideration. His ego was proof that the expense was justified. He bought Countrywide Financial for $4billion. Due to that expense and much more $billions in bad loans, BoA must screw everyone else rather than admit a grossly overpaid executive is the reason for this next decade of losses.

Lewis did exactly what is taught in the business schools and advocated on Wall Street. Since so many banks are so ill managed, fees must be charged to you. As Obama said before he took office, we will be paying for the next decade what was openly advocated on Wall Street and in Washington in the 2000s. I believe we call that Mission Accomplished.

TD Bank, NA (formally Commerce Bank and Portland Savings) is somehow related to TD Ameritrade (the discount broker) and TD Waterhouse.

Here are the facts on Reg D:

You may make any number of other transfers IN PERSON without incurring a penalty imposed by the government. Of course, some banks charge you to see a teller, which I consider evil. Hie thee to the nearest Credit Union POST HASTE.

I have sometimes bumped up against this Reg D. I have sometimes had the fee waived. The fee does NOT apply to checking accounts, but only to savings and money market accounts. The intention, to my mind, is to discourage using the interest bearing accounts like checking accounts.

So I can use any name I want for TD...

Tweedle Dum
Tweedle Dee
Tottering Drunk
Toronto Dominion

TD Bank = Toronto-Dominion Bank

Yes Classic, I found it via tw's post.
Check out my link on TD Bank.