lol. Like the Federal Government has any control over its masters: the Federal Reserve, the banks, and the Robber Barons behind them. This is the same establishment that gets on its knees and prays to the all-knowing Federal Reserve, begging for answers when things they don't understand make them scared.

I remember B of A being one of the first large US banks to promote ATMs. They did this via a series of commercials showing a little old lady getting used to the idea of using them rather than going to a live teller. I think there were from the early 80s. In that time, BofA's ATMs have changed little. They are probably some of the most technically primitive ATMs out there. Other banks now have features such as no envelope deposits and remembering your most frequently used commands. So where does BofA come off charging so much for their machines? They clearly are not investing into the machines themselves.

When did profit-seeking become a crime?

The cost of using an ATM has little, if anything, to do with the cost of operating it. The banks will charge what the market will bear. Free ATMs are not a right.

If you find the price to be unfair, find another bank! It's very simple, and shopping around is a cornerstone of capitalist economies.

The claim that deregulation has hurt the consumer by decreasing competition might have merit, except that the US banking market is far from being monopolized. In my town, at least, there are easily a dozen good choices for consumer banking. Even my parents, who live in semi-rural Montana, have a handful of banks to choose from.

Hey, at least BoA's ATMs are providing a useful service when other banks' customers use them.

Much, much worse is when the "home" bank tacks on a charge when you use some other bank's ATM. They're charging you for *not* providing a service! "We're sorry we didn't put in an ATM at the mall. Pay us $2."

Perhaps this will start a trend. I hear Starbucks is going to start charging you $4.39 every time you buy coffee from the breakfast cart outside your office...

Someone taking out $200 is paying 1.5% compared to the 15% charge that someone on their last $20 is paying to get access to it. Assuming that their bank is not charging them a fee on top of that to access their account from another banks ATM, whjich can drive up the cost to a total of 25%.

That's not making a profit, that is, as usual, ripping of those who can least afford it.

Hiking its fees is no surprise to this former BofA customer.

A friend of mine works for BofA. She tells me that she is told to turn away customers with requests for small car or home loans because they don't want to handle anything that small, only the big ones.

When I first got a mortgage from them years ago, I got sloppy, uncaring service that had me paying double mortgage payments the first few months because the automatic withdrawal they set up for my monthly payments didn't work. Every month, they assured us the automatic withdrawal was set up OK and every month, we got a notice that our mortgage payment was late and wrote a check, after which the automatic payment would kick in. No one seemed to care and, indeed the attitude seemed to be that I was trying to pull a fast one on them complaining about the automatic withdrawal glitch. We pulled our mortgage from them after four months of double payments and have been happy at a credit union ever since.

That's why I belong to a credit union. My credit union belongs to a system and I can get cash or make deposits at other CU ATMs all around the city, state and country. Plus I get better service. No one is turning their nose up at my 'small' mortgage or car loan.

If you don't like BofA fees, do what I did and check out your local credit union.

qyn, I think you're missing the point. Banks, and other corporations do not have some natural right to exist and do business, they are man-made/organized constructions granted charter by the state, which in a democracy is supposedly a representation and vehicle of 'the people'. It goes something like this- we the people grant you a charter to aggregate wealth and power and pursue profit with the condition that you follow the various laws, rules and regulations that we the people enact. Free ATMs are a right, if the people decide to make it a right. Likewise a corporation's right to existence is granted by the people. Sure, the 'market' solution is to just find another bank (though you'll see that once one bank gets away with jacking the atm charge to $3 the others will all follow)- but the democratic solution is to enact a law or regulation to control these fees.

These are not modern conveniences. The idea that we have to retrieve paper money from a system, that we have decided, should "hold" our money for us, and that we would pay to retrieve our money...is more antiquated and riddiculous than carrying chickens around under our arms for barter. Instead of being incensed that the free market brings us fees for transactions, we should question the design of the whole system.

I foresee a future in which cash is no longer used. Our cellphones will wirelessly transmit authorization of purchase. Our funds will be held in money producing floating accounts around the world that take advantage of fluctuating currency rates and full time operation. Take a guess on which spectrum all this will happen? You can now pay for music purchases wirelessly in any Starbucks with your iphone or ipod. How long before you can also pay for your coffee? Google, Apple, Amazon, and other companies that have established themselves as digital marketplaces will boom when the real world becomes interconnected to the network. Just a matter of time. You'll look back on the days of paying to retrieve your "cash" and chuckle.