Smiley v. Citibank, 517 U.S. 735 (1996). Fees (though not the exact ones you mentioned) were included within the definition of interest under the national bank act by OCC regulation. The BOA is probably headquartered in a state that allows such fees. Therefore, the banks can charge you a fee that is against your state’s law.

However, if customers regularly left, and moved on to the small local bank that didn’t charge the fees, then the big banks would change their policies.

Many folks today want “someone else” to fix the problem, whether the problem is bank fees, bank size, politicians too long in office, whatever. The more we expect someone else to fix the problem the more passive we become and the process continues.

I bank with a mid-sized bank with few fees and excellent service and I have been with them for many years. I stay away from the big banks because of their poor service.

If all of the retail customers of the “too big to fail” banks left it would send a signal. They probably would not go out of business, but I’m sure they would notice the trend. And banks with great service would be rewarded for offering great service.

Golly, wouldn’t that be capitalism at work?

It’s just like voting. My one single vote out of millions is probably insignificant. But the combination of those millions makes it significant. That’s why I have never missed an election.

Or, you can just whine about poor service and hope someone else does something about it….

Everyone else: https://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail/index.asp

“We needed an insurance policy to continue to provide the products and services we provide to commercial banks,” said Bill Mitchell, CEO of Bankers’ Bank of the West.

Mitchell’s bank serves 350 community banks in 11 states by buying their loans and managing lines of credit from the Federal Reserve. Yet it went ahead with a government investment, obtaining $12.64 million from the Treasury earlier this month.

The bank issued the government preferred stock that pays 5 percent interest, plus another batch of preferred stock, equal to 5 percent of the amount requested, that pays 9 percent.

Considering the costs of the stock, and the fact that the interest it’s paying the Treasury is not tax-deductible, Bankers’ Bank of the West figures it’ll pay $4 million in interest over the next five years for participating.

“It’s extremely expensive capital, but we did this as a good-faith investment for our banks,” Mitchell said. “The government will do very well on this program.”

I was with Wamu when they failed; and Chase bought them. Because of bad experiences with Chase back in the late 1990’s, when they credited a payment on a credit card one day late, and hit me with late fees and interest (the balance was paid in full for $15, the fees were something like $29 late fee at the time, quite usurious, and they would not drop it, so I dropped them.) I decided to close the account.

Or so I thought…

Apparently, there was some double-secret paperwork I didn’t file, which allowed Chase to assess low balance fees, then NSF fees on the low balance fees. I’ve since hear this is not an uncommon practice when people close accounts… I ended up being dunned by a collection agency for $135.

When you close your account, make certain it is closed!

i have decided i will not place any funds with any bank that accepted tarp money. if everyone else did the same…. this particular problem would be solved.

i am very happy with bank of the west, where i moved my funds. as james mentioned, they dont charge me for exceptional service and special requests.