More Debit Card Follies and Abuses

New York Times (June 10, 2012)  The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs to bring transparency to debit card banking. The Federal Reserve made a good regulatory start in 2010, when it required banks to get account holders’ consent before enrolling them in overdraft “protection” programs that could cost them $35 each time they used a debit card and overdrew their account — the cards provide no warning of insufficient funds. Customers who did not opt in would have their purchases declined.  The regulations were sound, but consumers immediately complained that some banks failed to explain the opt-in policy or even pressured customers into taking it by saying that their debit cards might no longer work.

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FINANCIAL SERVICES INNOVATION COALITION

MODERN ECONOMIC JOURNAL