Wells Fargo to Start Charging for Debit Cards; Is Your State Affected?
August 16, 2011
Wells Fargo in a letter to cardholders in five states announced its plans to assess a $3 monthly fee beginning October 14 for purchases made via debit, according to MyBankTracker.
Customers in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington “will be charged the fee for each month a purchase is made regardless of whether ‘debit’ or ‘credit’ is selected,” the site continued. ATM usage will not activate this charge, according to a Wells Fargo representative.
More than 40 million Wells Fargo customers would be affected if the new debit charges end up being applied nationwide. Wells Fargo is the second largest issuer of debit cards in the United States, estimates an April 2011 Nilson Report
“During a conference in May, Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf said that consumers will end up suffering if there was no delay to the industry-changing debit card swipe fee rules,” reports MyBankTracker. “The rules, that have since been finalized and set to take effect on October 1, will limit debit card interchange fees from at 21 to 24 cents per transaction, down from 44 cents per transaction.”
Experts predict Wells Fargo could lose around $812.5 million annually in debit swipe fee revenue; an improvement from an estimated $1.3 billion loss when the Fed was considering a 12-cent interchange limit.
Click here to read the full article.
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Comments
don't they already charge a monthly fee for the checking account that would already cover some of these charges?
Posted by Craig Lawrance , 22/08/2011 12:33pm (9 months ago)
Agreed Rick. Banks will most likely lose customers to financial institutions who don;t charge the monthly fee, such as credit unions. Or they will become part of the ranks of the unbanked as you stated.
Posted by Stan Balkema , 22/08/2011 10:12am (9 months ago)
Is this the first shoe to drop? Will the next shoe be charging for on line bill pay? If so, will this change the consumer behaviour to (a.) write more checks or (b.) use their credit cards?
Posted by GUY FRIES , 22/08/2011 10:08am (9 months ago)
Banks are in the process of attempting recoup lost interchange income by imposing new fees on checking accounts. This will likely drive more consumers into the ranks of the un-banked, and limit the amount of debit cards.
Posted by Rick Watkin , 18/08/2011 1:03pm (9 months ago)
I'm glad to see that people are purchasing and continuing to show confidence by using credit cards, but with the recent events in the market, MasterCard should be careful about major losses coming their way!
Posted by Credit Cards, 17/08/2011 10:17am (9 months ago)
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