Big bad banks

Are banks using the recession as an excuse to rip off their customers? Normally you pay fees, such as interest, only if you borrow money. And you earn interest if you keep money in a savings account. But recently US banks have started charging people for having too little money in their accounts, even if they’re not borrowing anything. So poorer people are paying for not being rich. What?!

Last week I read about a teenager who had to pay his bank almost $230 for having money in his account. The teen, Daniel Ganziano, had a savings account at TCF Bank in McCullom Lake in Illinois. When his balance dropped to $4.85, the bank charged him a fee of $9.95. This fee made his account overdrawn, which resulted in another fee, of $28 a day. By the time Daniel got a letter from the bank and went to close his account, he owed $229.10 in fees.

I know lots of people who have closed their bank accounts because of these fees and now keep their money in other places. If the banks don’t stops treating their customers so badly, they could go out of business for good.