Prime Rate Credit

We all hate to pay them, some more than others, myself included admittedly. What am I talking about? Those darn ATM fees that eat up a couple bucks, and sometims up to three to four dollars at some ATM’s, for the privelege of accessing and withdrawing money that belongs to you anyways. It’s kind of the way that a lot of banks are making money when you withdraw your money, but they would never own up to that. Instead they say that is covers administrative and maintenance costs for your account, the machines that dispense the money, and keeping tabs on your account balances properly.

But we all know that’s something that needs to happen anyways, so I personally take those excuses with a grain of proverbial salt. I’ve seen the recent ATM fees go up as high as five bucks, which if it were me, unless I were in dire need of that money, I probably would not pay based on the sheer principal alone that it’s a rip off to pay five bucks, which equates to a perfectly good meal at a fast food restaurant, just to withdraw my money.

Then there are the fees that you have to pay to use an ATM that isn’t actually owned by your bank. For example, my sister is in town from California right now, and just for her to withdraw money from an ATM that was within her network, but owned by my bank and not hers, which is a small town bank from where she lives, she was charged a 3.50 fee for withdrawing her money.

This one is particularly baffling because I’m not really sure why they put that extra fee on when it’s “outside your network” or from another bank. Sometimes your bank may actually charge two separate fees, one from them for using the ATM, and another one if that particular ATM is out of their “network”.

It’s really highway robbery if you think about it, considering banking fees are also going up just for your monthly maintenance fees as well. Heck, I pay six dollars on one account every month, and ten on another, just for them to keep my account going. I think these fees are really getting out of hand, but they can get away with it because you “need” them, and you need checking accounts and savings accounts often times to establish credit. Bummer.