And so "The Truth Is Out There!" begins...
Yesterday I discovered my bank had charged me to "monitor" my account because I fell below the minimum dollar amount they allow customers to have before charging for banking account usage. They actually call these charges "maintenance" fees. They figure they should be able to charge these fees because customer money takes up space in their bank vaults. On the other hand, if you take too much of your money out and prevent them from using as much of your money as they want, they should get to charge you for not being able to use "more" of "your" money...
What a crock!
Banks charging customers to "use" the customers' money!
This has to be the biggest scheme since the creation of monetary devices!
It used to be that banks actually "paid" customers for the "use" of their money... It was called "interest". People could go to the bank, put their hard earned money in an account, and receive 5% or 6% returns for allowing the banks to "use" their money. Banks competed for customers, during those days, by offering more interest than the bank across the street.
These days, banks not only find as many ways possible to forgo paying interest to their customers, they also scheme and connive to find as many ways possible to keep customer money for themselves once those deposits are made.
There are so many banking fees these days that most customers cannot keep up with the charges. This is because the banking industry is a much bigger financial whore than the credit card industry.
Whereas the credit card industry lures customers in by promising them blocks of money, for which the credit card companies receive certain amounts of interest in consideration for the loans, the banking industry lures customers in and then provides them with tons of information that customers often do not realize means they are about to "lose" their money without receiving anything in return! Might as well put the money under a burning mattress!
At least with credit cards, customers actually "purchase" something or take "cash advances" for which they can actually "use" the money. With the banks, however, customers put a certain amount of money in and often wind up with less to take back out because of the fees. What is worse is that the customers have nothing to show for their lost money. Usually, not even an ink pen with the banks name on it!
Today, the only "interest" greedy banks are concerned about is how much more they can take from the little guy so as to continue gorging their already steep pockets. I mean, after all, until their pockets touch their socks, they have plenty of space to crumple in more dollar bills and insert more coins. Never mind that they practically "steal" those dollars and cents from their supposed to be customers - all the while using the customers' money to finance their banking expenses!
In case you did not know... Banks use "your" money to finance "their" corporative activities. If they need to build a new banking building, they use their customers' money to erect it. Then they charge the customers to use the buildings by means of the so called maintenance fees they snatch if you are too poor to keep a certain amount of money in your account.
Perhaps I am just going off for nothing... Perhaps banks have every bit of right to charge customers fees for using their money. After all, every time customers pay their banks a visit, they get to enter immaculately kept buildings that are kept clean by using customer deposits to pay for janitorial services. Besides, when customers choose to use ATMs, they should be grateful that their deposits paid the banks to make the ATMs available to them. In furtherance, there exists no reason on earth why customers should not be happy that their deposits go to pay for the security banks provide so they can use their (or is it the customers') ATMs safely. If that's the case, however, why is Bank of America now going to charge their users $5.00 a month to use debit cards for making purchases? HUH!? WHAT!? What are debit cards for?
If you are fed up with the banking industry smooching off your hard earned money, tell me about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Insightful, respectful comments appreciated :}