A Letter Request

[Boyd]

There is no getting around the fact that a debit card immediately removes money from your account and you must take action to reverse that. With a credit card, you must pay the bill before any money is withdrawn from your account.

By all means, do whatever works best for you, and vote with your feet if you are unhappy with bank fees.

 

[bobpbx]

Are you referring to the new $5 monthly fee that will start on Jan 2012 for debit-card purchases or do you mean something else?

Yes, that's what I mean. BOA is crying about the new regulations. The analysis says that they won't lose money with the new regs, but instead of 3 billon a year, they'll only pull in 1.5 Billion a year, and that is not fair to their share holders, so guess how gets it where the sun doesn't shine?

 

[Boyd]

Did you also see the story that BOA plans to layoff 30,000 employees? Could that $1.5b have saved some of them? How many big pension funds have been impacted by the huge drop in banking sector share prices? Real people work for the banks, and real people are impacted by their stocks. Many analysts think that the economy isn't going to improve until the banking sector rebounds. Full disclosure: I own shares of evil BAC, C and PNC.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Up until summer of last year, I was in the credit/debit card industry for 30-years. You would not beleive some of the stories I could tell you. This is BOA's attempt to get around or recover from the recent Durbin Admendment. Every industry associated with credit and debit cards are making so much money, it would make your head spin. Even being in this industry all those years, I still touted the use of cash. There's something to be said about cash. No one has ever charged a fee or service charge to someone using cash. Cash is good just about every you go. You'll almost never have someone turn down a cash payment. The exception that's coming to mind is the rental car industry. You're screwed without a CC. I've actually had my main CC for many years now and pretty much use it exclusively. I pay off the balance each month and earn rewards (cash dollars) for every purchase I make.

 

[Boyd]

There's something to be said about cash. No one has ever charged a fee or service charge to someone using cash.

I agree completely, cash is king.... just be careful not to lose your wallet.

 

[46er]

Here is an very good interview about debt and credit, I forced my sons to read it. They then cut up the CC's and cancelled the accounts. I often wonder why anyone would use a debit card, no one has ever convinced me why it would be an advantage to me....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/interviews/warren.html

 

[this_is_nascar]

Think about. Some can not get a credit card, believe it or not. For those folks, the debit card can still be used as a Visa, etc., but is funding directly from the person's checking account. There's another group of folks who voe to never have a credit card. Their debit card allows them the convenience of purchasing, not going into debt and not need to carry "cash" on their person. It's also somewhat more secure than cash. The last I heard, no one ever required a PIN number or photo-ID to be presented when paying with cash.

 

[46er]

For those folks, the debit card can still be used as a Visa, etc., but is funding directly from the person's checking account. There's another group of folks who voe to never have a credit card. Their debit card allows them the convenience of purchasing, not going into debt and not need to carry "cash" on their person.

I would not consider that an advantage, a convenience yes. More a disadvantage financially as the money is taken at the point of sale. Advantage to the debit card company, and if the BOA fee catches on folks will be charged to have their money taken from them. A check works just as well, is more secure and you get a bit of a float. If you absolutley need a piece of plastic for a transaction, the prepaid cards make some sense.

 

[bobpbx]

Did you also see the story that BOA plans to layoff 30,000 employees? Could that $1.5b have saved some of them? How many big pension funds have been impacted by the huge drop in banking sector share prices? Real people work for the banks, and real people are impacted by their stocks. Many analysts think that the economy isn't going to improve until the banking sector rebounds. Full disclosure: I own shares of evil BAC, C and PNC.

But Boyd. that makes no sense for me to pay a higher than necessary fee for a service so that they can have 30,000 more employees on the rolls. There is nothing productive about that.

 

[bobpbx]

Here come those days boys....glory halleluja!

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ECIR4.html

 

[bobpbx]

You are my sunshine...my only sunshine!

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ECIR4.html

 

[Boyd]

Your letter was answered today - it was beautiful, with a nice breeze that helped to dry things out. It was nice to go into the woods without getting wet for the first time in over a week.

 

[Boyd]

Speaking of that...how about that Bank of America fee?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Citi-announces-new-fees-on-cnnm-215283524.html?x=0&.v=6

Citi's fee hikes come just days after Bank of America announced it would charge a $5 fee for debit card purchases. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Sun Trust and Regions Financial have all also rolled out similar fees in select markets in recent weeks.

I guess this fits the "careful what you wish for" category...

Citibank said it chose not to charge a debit card fee because its customers did not want it. "There's a reason why we structured it this way," said Catherine Pulley, spokeswoman for Citi.

No worries, we won't charge you $5/month for your debit card. Instead, we'll just charge you either $20, $15 or $10 a month depending on your type of account and balance.

 

[bobpbx]

Thank you Lord, very much. You've strung them together quite nicely!

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ECIR4.html

 

[Boyd]

Wow, we're headed back up into the 80's again....

 

[MarkBNJ]

Up until summer of last year, I was in the credit/debit card industry for 30-years. You would not beleive some of the stories I could tell you. This is BOA's attempt to get around or recover from the recent Durbin Admendment. Every industry associated with credit and debit cards are making so much money, it would make your head spin. Even being in this industry all those years, I still touted the use of cash. There's something to be said about cash. No one has ever charged a fee or service charge to someone using cash. Cash is good just about every you go. You'll almost never have someone turn down a cash payment. The exception that's coming to mind is the rental car industry. You're screwed without a CC. I've actually had my main CC for many years now and pretty much use it exclusively. I pay off the balance each month and earn rewards (cash dollars) for every purchase I make.

There's a lot to be said against cash too. You have to get it from somewhere. It can be stolen, lost, or destroyed. It can be a vector for transmission of disease agents. It's expensive to produce and replace when it wears out.

I was in the card industry for a long time too, on the software side. I think it's an amazing system that has grown up almost entirely through the organic relationships between the service providers and consumers, who find payment cards very convenient. Some sort of cashless system will remain the future of payment, imo. I've always gotten a kick out of countries like Canada and Britain (and the U.S. to some extent!) who try to ameliorate the high cost of producing paper money by getting people to carry more metal around in their pockets. You break a $20 in Canada and you get three pounds of alloy back. I'll take a card any day.

 

[piker56]

Wow, we're headed back up into the 80's again....

My anual "birthday" trip is Sunday. I'm hoping to take a customery dip wherever we (TomM) and I end up. It's a tradition I hate to break. Will definitely post pics.

 

[this_is_nascar]

I'm really tired of this heat and humidity. These last two days have been terrible for me. Even the mornings have been humid. I can't wait for the colder weather to come and stay for awhile.

 

[Boyd]

That seems strange, the weather has been quite nice here. Afternoons have been warm and a bit humid but not as much as before. The mornings have been really pleasant and the temperature drops quickly in the evening. Was out working in the woods again for awhile yesterday afternoon and it really didn't seem bad. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I'm closer to the ocean?

 

[this_is_nascar]

It could be. I'm finding as the years go by, my body is less tolerant to the heat and humidity. From what I recall, it's usually the opposite, meaning the older you get, the colder you are all the time.