Jake Blumgart - Wells Fargo and Other Megabanks Don't Care About Your Business -- So Move Your Money!
March 26, 2012 Last month banking goliath Wells Fargo, the big bank with most branches nationwide, announced another round of fees on basic checking accounts. Customers in six states will have to pay $7 a month if they receive paper statements, $5 if they get them online. The fees can be waived if the customer direct-deposits more than $500 a month, or maintains a balance of $1,500.
Wells Fargo customers in Georgia, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania will be hit beginning in May, and the bank expects to expand it across the country in the coming months. While this fee is more narrowly targeted than the across-the-board debit card fees Bank of America attempted to enact last fall (until it backed down in the face of a wrathful public), it is part of a nationwide trend wherein Big Banks relentlessly penalize consumers for basic services. The banking industry, as Lynn Parramore noted on AlterNet, has become an oligopoly, with big players colluding to extract fees from customers, whether or not there is any justification for doing so.
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