Kardashian Kard kancelled

Aw, shucks – the horrifyingly-bad Kardashian pre-paid debit card has been cancelled because of sky-high fees:

Those fees included a $1.50 fee for ATM withdrawals, a dollar fee if the ATM withdrawal or point-of-sale transaction was declined, and a $9.95 fee to replace a lost or stolen card. And canceling the card would have cost you $6.

With the Kardashian Kard, which was actually a very pricey prepaid debit card rather than a credit card, consumers had the choice of either a six-month plan that would have cost $59.95 or a 12-month plan the would have cost $99.95. The cost of each plan included a purchase fee, minimum deposit and monthly fee for the plan period.

A pre-paid debit card comes loaded with funds to spend, and seems like a great idea for travelers or as an alternative to gift cards. But add in all those fees, and they become a budget buster.

This is a good lesson to keep in mind for credit and store charge cards as well. No matter whose name or logo is on the card, watch out for fees and rates. Is it worth your budget to have someone’s name on the card?

Bank of America: No more free checking

Trying to find any source of income they can, Bank of America is waving bye-bye to free checking accounts – and saying hello to charging customers for face-to-face service, says the AP:

Bank of America, which does business with half the households in America, announced a dramatic shift Tuesday in how it does business with customers. One key change: Free checking, a mainstay of American banking in recent years, will be nearly unheard of.

…To make up for lost fees, [Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan] also started thinking of new products. In August, the bank introduced a new “eBanking” account, where customers were offered a free checking account if they banked online. The catch: If they opt for paper statements, or want access to tellers for basic transactions, they would be charged a monthly fee of $8.95.

Did you catch that? If you want to interact with a real human being, it’s $9 a month. Amazing.

Credit One Bank: slimy new annual fee practice

Credit One Bank (not to be confused with Capital One, even though they share a similiar logo) has raised the annual fee to a whole new level of under-handed: they’ll charge it to your account in monthly installments.

That’s what we learned when one member received a Credit One Bank Platinum Visa solicitation – complete with a $7 “premium design” option.

Credit One offers “no enrollment fee” (whatever that means), but they do charge a hefty annual fee: $75 for the first year, and $99 each year after that. For your convenience, they’ll include that in your monthly bill at $8.25 a month. So no matter what, you have something to pay each month.

Isn’t that thoughtful?

But then being thoughtful isn’t part of Credit One’s business plan. There are plenty of complaints about them on the Web. Add this monthly annual fee charge to that list of complaints.

WSJ: Banks roll out new fees

The Wall Street Journal reports that banks are finding inventive and creative ways to charge their customers more fees:

Credit-card companies already have been racing to slip new fees and practices into customer contracts ahead of the [Credit CARD Act]. Issuers are closing accounts, switching cards with fixed interest rates to variable rates and introducing cards that have an annual fee…The changes come against a backdrop of rising anger at the nation’s banks—having been largely supported by hundreds of billions of public bailout dollars in late 2008 and 2009.

This is mostly a result of the Credit CARD Act, passed and signed earlier this summer, which puts limits on bank credit card policies and puts a $50 billion hole in banks’ revenue.

Banks will attempt to fill that hole by charging new fees, or resurrecting long-neglected fees. So beware.

Bank of America pays more bonuses

If you haven’t heard, now that Bank of America has repaid the government for its bailout, its sending plenty of bonuses to its bankers.

The blog 24/7 Wallstreet reports:

Bank of America will also pass out handsome bonuses to its bankers, just a few months after its repaid the government $45 billion in aid that it got to stay in business through the credit crisis. The Wall Street Journal reports that the bonus pool at B of A will be more than $4 billion. Traders will collect an average of $300,000 to $500,000, according to the paper.

The bonuses are a return to 2006 levels, says the New York Times.

So if you’re a Bank of America customer or credit card holder, you’re helping to reward the bankers who played fast and loose with your money.

Good advice: Move Your Money

Laurent Belsie of the Christian Science Monitor has a bit of good advice regarding big banks:

Take your money out. That’s right. Take your checking and savings account out of that big money-center financial institution and move it to a community bank or credit union.

There’s even a movement afoot to help consumers make the switch, called Move Your Money, with a well-timed message and a good video.

Move Your Money is a project from the Huffington Post, Institutional Risk Analysis (IRA), and the Roosevelt Institute, says Salon.com.

Move Your Money’s objective? Simple: move your money out of the big, out-of-town banks and put it into a local financial institution. They’ll even help you find one.

The project has received media attention since its launch, which is timely considering all the bailouts and credit card shenanigans big banks are involved in.

Check out the video, which uses “It’s a Wonderful Life” to make a good point about big, out-of-touch banks and how they can affect everyday Americans.

NYT: Banks put squeeze on credit card customers

Ahead of the new Credit CARD Act, the New York Times reports sobering news on bank credit card practices:

About 50 percent of the banks responding to the Fed’s survey said they were increasing interest rates and reducing credit lines on borrowers with good credit scores. About 40 percent said they were imposing higher fees. The banks also said they were demanding higher minimum credit scores and tightening other requirements.

…A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, released late last month, concluded that the 12 largest banks, issuing more than 80 percent of the credit cards, were continuing to use practices that the Fed concluded were “unfair or deceptive” and that in many instances had been outlawed by Congress.

Consider all this a last-ditch effort by big banks to get your money – before the CARD Act stops them from these deceptive and gouging practices.

Big banks get desperate on credit cards

So that big Credit CARD Act that’s due to hit financial institutions next year? Big banks are scrambling to set up more fees and more interest rate hikes to get your money before the act goes into affect.

Bank of America is testing an annual fee on 1% of their cardholders (that’s 800,000 people, all together).

“We’re testing this to see what the feedback is,” said Bank of America spokesperson Betty Reiss. “In terms of any plans going forward, we haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Here’s a clue, Betty: feedback is going to be negative.

Lucky for them, BoA has chosen not to raise their card rates, but an annual fee means if you’re holding a Bank of America card, you could be paying more.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo is going to raise rates on its card-holding customers, says the South Florida Business Journal, by up to 3%. The new ouch-worthy rate will affect “most” of Wells Fargo’s credit card customers, whatever that means. “Most” usually means “more than half,” so it’s going to hurt a lot of people.

Exposed: American Express raises fees

One of our employees here at the credit union received this letter from American Express informing them that – guess what? – AmEx is raising rates and fees.

Big surprise, right? We’ve seen this before.

AmEx calls it a “price change notification,” which translates as “you’re going to pay more to use an American Express card.” For example, our American 1 employee will pay prime rate plus 21.99% APR on any cash advances, which – as of today – equals 25.24%. Here at American 1, our cash advance rate is the same as our everyday Visa rate.

This letter is another example of big bank credit card companies raising their fees and interest rates to bail themselves out of the mess they got themselves into. And you pay the price for their mistakes.

For more information on big bank credit cards, visit our Top Secret Visa site.