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Bank fees suck. Profound eh? Also on the Calgary Herald Q
While looking over my recent bank statement, I came across the dreaded line: “Branch Transaction Service Charge”. Now, this isn’t the first time this charge has appeared – every month of the year I get charged the same amount. My trusted bank, of whom I have been banking with since I was old enough to acquire a bank card, charges me $29.84 a month ($354.48 a year – assuming the fees don’t increase over the year) to baby-sit my money. Now – something seems a little screwy here. The banks are making mad amounts of interest off my hard earned money and yet – they charge me to take care of my cash. The only other option I guess is to keep all my money is a glass jar under my pillow and hope no one robs me.  Thursday, NDP Leader Jack Layton called for legislation restricting bank-machine fees. And of course, the banks are up in arms about it; I would be too if I knew I would be losing some of my record profits. Layton figures that Canadian banks are making roughly $420 million dollars from charging people ATM fees and considering there is roughly 30 million people living in Canada… you do the math.I think most people would agree that there is really nothing worse than not being able to find your personal bank anywhere while you’re out and therefore forced to pay a $1.50 - $2.00 service fee to take money out from another bank. Not only does it make me cringe, but it makes me discouraged that I have to use a bank at all. When banks are posting annual profits of $19 billion dollars, yet feel that charging clients ATM service fees on top of their service charges that are magically taken out of your bank account during the month, it makes me shake my head a little. It feels like gouging to me. It would be nice to have access to my cash without the added charge of $1.50. But then again… we don’t have many options do we? Posted by Bella at 7:51 AM# 5 Comments: option 1: plan ahead By Oh for heaven's sakes.......use a credit union dearie!! By For the love of Moses don't ever use a credit union but what's the big deal about the bank machine? Canada is one of the world leaders in adopting debit and credit cards - use them, the place where you do the business will pay the fees - it's beautiful. And just take out big wads of cash at a time, and seriously get a better fee plan... that's horrid. By GST is a much bigger gouge for consumers than ATM fees. By Megan, How do I get the hook up for writing for the "Q"? Who should I talk to? Email? Suggestions? By
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