Grown Up Banking

MSNBC has an op-ed on the use of overdraft fees, including pending legislation that would make a bank notify you if your account is low. The op-ed strongly favors said legislation.

I really dislike paying an NSF fees, and in my banking lifetime I’ve easily dropped $1000 on those suckers. Real waste, I’d love to have it back.

I’m biased, because I see my own bank’s income statement every month, but most of the outside world views those fees as a penalty for overdrawing your account. Fact is, the bank – without a loan application, credit check, or any due diligence on your repayment ability other than a really low deposit account – is giving you their money. It's a service, not a burden.

The article almost admits that this is only an issue in a debit-card centered deposit world. If we still wrote checks for everything, the customer eagerly pays for a fee for an NSF check. Somewhere between the end of checks and the beginning of debit cards, did we lose sight of the need for personal management? It sounds like consumption-happy Americans loathing the status quo choice between taking responsibility for their account maintenance, or paying a bank for acting like a transaction hound.

I really don’t care if the bill gets passed. I just wish we’d grow up.