Released: October 16, 2011

Online banking keeps customers on hook for fees

Source: Nelson D. Schwartz, The New York Times

Customers frustrated by banks’ controversial new fees are finding out what industry insiders have known for years: it is not so easy to disentangle your life from your bank. The Internet banking services that have been sold to customers as conveniences, like online bill paying, serve as powerful tethers that keep them from jumping to another institution. Tedd Speck, a 49-year-old market researcher in Kent, Conn., was furious about Bank of America’s planned $5 monthly fee for debit card use. But he is staying put after being overwhelmed by the inconvenience of moving dozens of online bill paying arrangements to another bank. “I’m really annoyed,” he said, “but someone at Bank of America made that calculation and they made it right.”

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