If you’re a bank customer, you could soon be facing higher ATM fees, a $50 spending limit on your debit card, or a 30% late payment penalty on your credit card. And those debit rewards you’ve been enjoying? Say goodbye to those.
These are just some of the changes banks have made — or threatened to make — in recent months.
Why? Because consumers are quickly becoming collateral damage in the “swipe fee war” raging between the banks and the Federal Reserve.
“Swipe fees,” are the fees retailers pay banks every time customers swipe their debit cards. These fees — also called interchange fees — currently average 44 cents per swipe and bring in billions of dollars in revenue for the banks each year.
But the Federal Reserve has proposed capping these fees at 12 cents — a more than 70% cut.
And the banks aren’t happy about it.
