After Abandoning Debit Card Fee Banks Look Elsewhere to Raise Money

Banks have been looking for ways to generate cash to make up for the "billions of dollars in revenue that is expected to vanish as a result of new restrictions on credit cards, debit cards and overdraft policies."

The ill-fated debit card fee was a massive flop and so they've been forced to look elsewhere.

What else could they possibly charge?

Here are some of the different money raising methods that some banks are planning on using (as bullet pointed by Business Insider):

• Bank of America is charging $5 to replace a lost debit card, and $20 if you want rushed delivery.
• U.S. Bank Corp. is charging $0.50 for checks deposited via mobile phone.
• Incoming domestic wire transfers will cost #15 at TD Bank starting in December.
• Bank of America raised the fee to use a MyAccess checking account by more than $3 a month earlier this year.
• Citigroup upped the monthly fee to use its basic account from $8 to $10 a month.
• Chase raised the fee to monthly use its basic checking account to $12.

Remember when it was reported earlier on The Blaze that Bank of America (among others), in the face of fierce criticism, decided to drop its much-maligned $5 debit card fee?

When that article was published, it pointed out that:

“Banks have been adding charges in an attempt to make up for billions of dollars in revenue that is expected to vanish as a result of new restrictions on credit cards, debit cards and overdraft policies. A provision in last year’s Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law halved the amount that banks can charge merchants for accepting debit cards.”

At the time the Blaze article was written, it’s author noted that, “Generally, when revenues are sinking, a business will raise its rates to make up the difference." Obviously.

"However, as in Bank of America’s case, if customer dissatisfaction is great enough, the business will have to find a different method for generating capital,” the article added.

This was followed by a question:

...if Bank of America plans to make up for that “billions of dollars in revenue” that vanished with new restrictions, and they found out the hard way that they cannot just impose card fees, how do they plan on raising the money?

It appears that the banks that tried (and dropped) the debit card fee strategy were asking themselves the exact same question.

And now it looks as if they have found other ways to charge customers. However, these newest capital-generating solutions may prove to be infinitely more unpopular than the debit card fee.

A final thought: the nationwide 'banxodus' was born from customer dissatisfaction over the debit card fees. One can only guess how customers will react to the banks latest initiatives.