NewsBreakingOnline

First it started with ATMs, which banks used to cut their workforce. Then it was debit cards, which automatically processed transactions that used to be done manually. Every step of the way, banks have figured out how to get us to do the work for them, and now they’re looking to charge us for the privilege . And yet, the administration doesn’t understand why we want Elizabeth Warren running the financial consumer protection bureau? Because we need someone who’s on our side: For years, banks subsidized most debit card holders by levying heavy fees on retailers and overdrawn consumers. Merchants paid a processing fee averaging 44 cents every time a shopper swiped a card. And careless cardholders at major banks typically got dinged $35 every time the bank covered an overdraft. Last year the nation’s banks collected more than $50 billion from merchant fees and overdrafts, including checking and ATM balance-busters as well as debit card transactions. That’s likely to decline, however, thanks to new rules Congress mandated after the financial crisis. Starting next month, merchants will pay just 12 cents for debit processing, unless bank lobbyists persuade the Federal Reserve to tack on a surcharge for fraud prevention. Even then, the fee would probably not exceed 18 or 20 cents. In addition, new rules that took effect last year prohibit banks from automatically charging consumers for debit card and ATM overdraft protection on everyday transactions; instead, cardholders now must opt in. The bottom line is that banks stand to lose more than $10 billion a year in merchant fees and more than $6 billion in overdraft fees. They’ll be looking to make it up somewhere — and it’s likely to be from the mainstream debit card users, not just the sloppy ones. Already, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and many other banks are reducing or phasing out rewards programs that gave users cash back for using debit cards. Chase has been testing a monthly $3 fee for debit cards in some states, and Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. have added new fees to some checking accounts. Consumer advocates are steamed. Electronic debits are much less expensive to process than checks or cash; banks have saved billions in operating costs , said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. But the industry has largely pocketed those savings rather than pass them along to customers, he said, and now they’re looking to charge users for the convenience. “We were trained to use cards, and now they’re telling us it’s not enough, wanting to charge us for the privilege,” Mierzwinski said. “It’s diabolical.”