"Birmingham-based Regions Bank said two weeks ago it will add a monthly $4 debit fee for some accounts starting in October."

Some accounts = acct balance < $5K

All banks are doing this from my understanding.

Wells Fargo is doing it for checking accounts >1500

Swap to a credit union

They will only charge if you use the card as a debit card/pin number. And no ATM transaction will initiate the fee (regions). I'll just use mine as a credit card at all merchants.

I could be wrong but I think it has to do with VISA/Mastercard ect. companies changing the way they charge businesses and customer's who swipe cards connected to checking and debit accounts.

I assume a way to get around it would be to use credit only and then pay off the balance with a check; basically tempting people to go into more debt if we consider the intelligence level of the population as a whole.

Not since I joined the army, I now bank with USAA.

America's First Credit Union. Haven't heard them doing it. If they do I may just move to cash.

Telco Credit Union isn't charging.

All banks are looking for different ways to make money following the fallout from the last two years, just like airlines charging for bags, seat requests, etc.

So far APCO credit union has started this.

I thought most all banks got some type of bail out. Why do they need anymore money?

This is the result of the durbin ammendment. To summarize , when you swipe your credit card at a merchant location it goes through the interchange network to determine the rate the merchant will pay to process your transaction. ( if you have a rewards card it cost the merchant more ) debit cards don't have to go through this process but were still being charged a percentage on pin based debit. This was fleecing and the banks were making billions off this practice. Come Oct 1 the fees will be capped at 22 cents no matter the amount of the transaction. Some smaller banks are exempt and may still charge the percentage but all big banks just lost billions. You were paying for it all along but it just got passed on to you by the merchant.

Thats right, and the reality is that consumer costs will not go down but bank fees will go up.

Thank goodness for Southwest, bags and seats are free and now there are NO blackout dates for rewards. I'd fly with SW if it went 2 hours out of the way.......which it never does.