I'm a bit of an old-timer, but I remember when ATMs were rare. The primary reason they existed was to provide service when the banks were closed. There were no fees at that time. (Anyone recall the Canada Trust "Johnny Cash" machine commercials with Johnny Cash singing "I Walk The Line"?)
Then banks began to charge fees when you actually used a teller. The justification was they needed to pay the employees. But if you used an ATM there were no charges.
Then there were ATM charges. (now called a "convenience fee")
Then there were additional charges if you used an ATM supplied by a private vendor.
Then the banks started their own "private" lines with associated ATM fees.
Then using any ATM other than you Bank's ATMs is a fee.
And I haven't even factored in "no fees with a minimum balance".
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedHot25
The story is updated now, with the banks' view of things....
But the CBA issued a statement in response to Layton's announcement, saying the banks charge fees to help pay to maintain their ABM networks. Raymond J. Protti, president and CEO of the CBA, said in a release banks charge consumers a convenience fee when using a competitor's account to be fair to their own customers.
"It's like saying to clients of a gym, 'we're going to let customers of other gyms in to use the weight room. We're not going to charge them, and you'll be subsidizing their use of it,' " Protti said.
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<begin off topic rant>Maintenance of the network is the same as mopping the floors of the local branch - they are the costs of doing business. When businesses give me my bill with all their specific costs itemized (utility bills primarily) it is stupid. I don't care what their different fixed costs vs variable costs are; it all comes to one total for me and I don't care if the price/fee is network maintenance or your year-end bonus, I just know I need to work to pay that bill if I want that service. <end off topic rant>
And the gym membership is a stupid analogy for a few reasons. I'm not going to be inconvenienced is someone else somewhere from another bank is using a machine on my bank's network. If my gym is constantly busy and I can't use the equipment, I'll switch gyms. My original gym better get more equipment (and if they are that busy then they can afford it).
I HATE bank fees as well, but as long as there are services (such as PC banking) that offer no fee banking, I don't think the gov't should be regulating this.