Pew Study of Bank Fees Reported on in Hispanic Business News
October 28, 2011 by Marcy Einhorn, Esq.
This article is reprinted from the Hispanic Business News:
High Fees, Charges Cause Bank Depositers To Close Accounts
Oct. 27, 2011
Angela Carter, New Haven Register, Conn.
In Connecticut, 73,000 Households — or 5.3 percent — are unbanked, meaning they lack a checking or savings account, and the numbers are significant nationwide.
According to a 2009 survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 31 percent of U.S. households that closed a bank account...
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NYT’s Editorial on “Debit Card Predators”
January 25, 2011 by Marcy Einhorn, Esq.
The New York Times thinks that Congress made a huge mistake last year when it imposed new regulations on banks for credit card disclosures, but failed to create regs for debit cards. Although banks are required to give customers an opt-in choice before overdrawing a debit card, and charging huge fees, many banks have made this information confusing at best, and misleading at worst. “As a result,” states an editorial on 1/20/11, “low-income debit card holders are still being...
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Wrongful Debt Collection Tops NYC’s List
May 26, 2010 by Marcy Einhorn, Esq.
During 2009, NYC’s Department of Consumer Affairs erased more than $1 million in debt that New Yorkers didn’t legally owe but were being dunned to pay anyway. Wrongful debt collection topped the list of complaints received by the department for the second year in a row and last year the City received more than 830 complaints against debt collectors! Send article as PDF Read More →
Debit Card Fee Drama
September 24, 2009 by Marcy Einhorn, Esq.
Chase and the Bank of America report more user friendly debit card fees and processing of fees. But read the fine print on these changes carefully.
They have not eliminated these fees. Not even close.
Instead, they’ve added a floor of $10 or $5 in daily overcharges before they’ll start charging fees, will stopping clumping daily charges together to get the maximum number of fees per day, and will max out at 4 fees per day.
Both will also start offering an opt-out to debit card holders...
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