{"id":7912,"date":"2009-08-21T20:00:14","date_gmt":"2009-08-22T00:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=7912"},"modified":"2009-08-21T20:00:14","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T00:00:14","slug":"nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debit Card Fees are getting some scrutiny these days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The New York Times has an editorial<\/a> this week decrying the use of these fees to generate income.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They point out all of the small transactions above your account balance can come with a hefty over the limit fee.\u00a0\u00a0 They cite how\u00a0 “One college student whose bank records were analyzed by the center made seven small purchases including coffee and school supplies that totaled $16.55 and was hit with overdraft fees that totaled $245.” and that “According to a 2008 study by the F.D.I.C., overdraft fees for debit cards can carry an annualized interest rate that exceeds 3,500 percent.”<\/p>\n

This is pretty damning stuff.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s Daily Show is quick to point<\/a> out that these very same banks that are making huge profits off of “overdraft fees” are often the same ones that were bailed out recently.<\/p>\n

Where Does This Leave Credit Card Users<\/strong><\/p>\n

There really is very little difference between an “overdraft fee” and an “over the limit” fee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Both are essentially short term loans by banks, only the type of card is different.\u00a0\u00a0 Each carry quadruple digit <\/em> interest rates that would make a loan shark blush.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I have commented <\/a>on before, The New Republic entered the debate<\/a> by highlighting the injustice of not calling these loans and not disclosing an APR.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As they put it;<\/p>\n

Historically, the rules around the APR–overseen by the Federal Reserve–have not forced lenders to include all charges in this calculation. Why is this OK?<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not OK.\u00a0This would be like cereal manufacturers including only some ingredients on their labels.\u00a0Or makers of children’s toys not telling you that some dangerous chemicals are involved.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to agree.\u00a0\u00a0 I think that if you are using a debit card or a credit card, any fees on overdrafts or over the limit should be disclosed as a short term loan with their APRs fully spelled out, no matter how many digits they are.\u00a0\u00a0 The CARD act does make sure that credit card “over the limit” fees be opt in only.\u00a0\u00a0 In response, American Express and Discover have dropped them completely.<\/a> While they claim it would not be cost effective to obtain permission from their card holders, what they are really saying is that no sane person, when given the option ahead of time, would pay $40 for an over the limit fee so they can charge a $4 cup of coffee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This blows a hole in their claims that these fees were really a service to consumers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I turns out that it was a service that they didn’t really want.<\/p>\n

Friday Afternoon Humor<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is funny and thought provoking at the same time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Listen to this clip<\/a>, it is only two minutes long.\u00a0 I was laughing uncontrollably for a few minutes. \u00a0 It also\u00a0 really gets you thinking about what “identity theft” is, and how that seems to cover for a lack of security on the bank’s part.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is also another reason I prefer credit cards.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are so many more protections from fraud in credit cards than there is in debit cards and bank accounts.<\/p>\n

I would love to try this on a bank if they ever claimed my money was gone due to “identity theft”.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, that has never happened to me, and I hope it never does.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debit Card Fees are getting some scrutiny these days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The New York Times has an editorial this week decrying the use of these fees to generate income.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They point out all of the small transactions above your account balance can come with a hefty over the limit fee.\u00a0\u00a0 They cite how\u00a0 “One college student whose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNYT Goes After Debit Card Fees<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Debit Card Fees are getting some scrutiny these days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The New York Times has an editorial this week decrying the use of these fees to generate income.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They point out all of the small transactions above your account balance can come with a hefty over the limit fee.\u00a0\u00a0 They cite how\u00a0 “One college student whose […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/\",\"name\":\"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\",\"name\":\"Jason Steele\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees","og_description":"Debit Card Fees are getting some scrutiny these days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The New York Times has an editorial this week decrying the use of these fees to generate income.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They point out all of the small transactions above your account balance can come with a hefty over the limit fee.\u00a0\u00a0 They cite how\u00a0 “One college student whose […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/","og_site_name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","article_published_time":"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00","author":"Jason Steele","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Steele","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/","name":"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-22T00:00:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nyt-goes-after-debit-card-fees\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NYT Goes After Debit Card Fees"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/","name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597","name":"Jason Steele","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/"}]}},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}