RE: Exactly. Back to my question above . The banks spent years matirekng debit cards to us because they wanted us to get away from checks which have higher costs and are less efficiently handled than card transactions. Checks required clearing at the local federal reserve , storage, imaging, handling, Identity/signature verification, and float .Debit transactions are superior to check transactions, except for the errors or fraud mentioned several times above. I am aware that financial institutions lobbied Congress against the Dodd Frank amendment on the grounds that Banks needed the debit fees, while small merchants such as coffee vendors testified that .44 fees on a coffee or newspaper purchase were killing retailers. The lawmakers decided after the hearings to slap the banks down. Like me, I think the lawmakers didn't believe the banks' argument.So, here we are. Some bank executives have made the hard choice to institute debit fees. I'm dying to know what the inside calculations are. Is it greed as SWE states above. Is it foolishness/incompetence by management, . or a simple mathematical business decision? and if the latter is the case, I'd like it explained to me. Any bankers out there on the inside? Rate this comment: 0 0