Would you leave your bank over new monthly fees for debit cards or checking accounts?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Take a good look at your bank statements, because financial institutions are tacking on new fees as fast as they can.
Bank of America has come under a lot of fire for a planned $5 monthly charge for debit card use.
The only way to avoid the fee is to have a mortgage with the bank, keep a $20,000 minimum balance, or use the debit card only for ATM transactions.
And Bank of America isn't the only one going the way of debit fees:
Wells Fargo says it's testing a $3 monthly fee in several states. and JP Morgan Chase announced a similar test last year.
The banks are blaming new fees on Wall Street reform enacted after the bank bailouts, and more specifically the so-called Durbin amendment.
The measure - named after Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois - limits banks to charging $0.21 per debit card transaction. They used to charge an average of $0.44. The new rule is expected to cost the banks about $5 billion a year.
So naturally they are looking for somewhere else to make that money up; and what better place than the consumer, right?
But Durbin himself claims that debit card usage costs banks less than $0.12 per transaction - far below the new cap of $0.21. He says consumers should consider switching banks to where they're treated better because of fees like this.
Meanwhile, Citibank - which bashed Bank of America on debit fees - will soon be charging many customers monthly fees for their checking accounts - unless they maintain much higher balances.
Here’s my question to you: Would you leave your bank over new monthly fees for debit cards or checking accounts?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How likely do you think it is that the U.S. would elect two black presidents in a row?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
"Black walnut isn't a flavor of the week." So says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. The businessman and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is talking about his own surge in the polls.
As Cain sees it, he just might be the second black president of the United States.
Several new national polls show Cain closing the gap with front-runner Mitt Romney - as Texas Gov. Rick Perry falls off a cliff.
In one poll, Cain is even tied for first place with Romney.
Just this hour, CNN is out with our first poll of polls on the 2012 Republican horse race.
It shows Romney at the top of the pack with 20%. He's followed closely by Cain at 17%. Rick Perry, who was briefly the GOP front-runner, is now at 15%.
The rest of the candidates are all in single digits.
Cain, who's picked up steam since his surprise victory in the Florida straw poll, is laying out his path to victory.
He tells ABC News that his goal is to finish in the top three in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then win in South Carolina and Florida. Might happen.
Meanwhile, as Cain gets stronger, President Obama is getting weaker.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that four in 10 Americans "strongly" disapprove of how Obama is handling his job. That's a record high.
The poll also shows that 43% of independents and 47% of seniors strongly disapprove. You can't win re-election with numbers like that.
Even many Democrats aren't supporting this president. Just look at Congress: Harry Reid blocked a vote on the president's job bill in the Senate, because Democrats don't have the votes to pass it.
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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