Comments are due by April 2. The OCC has also aided and abetted the banks in their efforts to overturn local laws requiring banks to offer low-cost accounts or regulating usurious and predatory payday lenders affiliated with banks. First, it is unfair to charge consumers twice for one transaction. Second, big banks, with more ATMs, benefit more from surcharging than small banks and credit unions, which have lower fees in general, do. Surcharging exacerbates the trend toward industry consolidation.
Fewer banks means less competition and, ultimately, higher fees for all consumers.
PIRG urges support of state and federal legislation to ban ATM surcharging. Fee disclosure legislation is inadequate and will not work. 2 PIRG released surcharge surveys in April 1996, October 1996, April 1997, April 1998, and April 1999. We did not release a surcharge survey in 2000. Instead, we released a detailed white paper on ATM surcharge and bank fee issues.