Stop Paying Convenience Fees and Save Money

Seems like a smart idea right?  Well consider this, years ago, you may remember, you may not depending on your age but I remember the little jingle that Landmark Bank in Florida used to get us all hyped up about their latest technology to give us quick easy access to OUR money.  It was the ATM Machine and her name way Maryanne.   I remember being sold on “convenience” and not having to pay any fees.  Now, years later, there are ATM machines everywhere, all giving us quick electronic access to our money.  All we have to be is willing to pay a $1 or $2 or $3 dollar “convenience” fee to get “convenient” access to our own money from anywhere.

We were a generation sold on the fact that these machines would save the banks money by reducing the “manual” staffing to process such requests at the bank.  They would allow us twenty-four hour access to our money and it would save everyone money and time.  It’s essentially the same bill of goods we were sold with cable television.  Cable television was originally “marketed” as non-commercial television, providing uninterrupted programming and giving the public a much needed break from the advertising so prevalent on regular broadcast television.  Do you remember when you could watch the great Muhammad Ali box on television without having to “pay-per-view?”  For years we watched sporting events alone on any of the big three networks and didn’t pay to see the action.  We just simply turned on the television and watched the action.

Now, we pay generously for cable television and are even more inundated with the marketing and advertising cable sought to eliminate and WE PAY FOR IT.  But I digress…

It’s the same with all the convenience fees and additional charges we pay to “electronically” pay our bills, purchase services, and yes, access our own money.  We continue to pay recurring fees to deposit money in the bank. We continue to pay fees to withdrawal money “conveniently” from the bank. Are you listening PayPal?

I don’t know about you but I have grown weary of all the fees and charges we pay for convenience and advancements in technology for it only to be manipulated and twisted into the very thing we essentially wanted to avoid.