Chuck Schumer: “This important amendment involves, very simply, disclosure on ATM machines of fees. As many may know, on April 1, 1996…”

“This important amendment involves, very simply, disclosure on ATM machines of fees. As many may know, on April 1, 1996, Visa and MasterCard, which run the largest ATM networks in the United States, ended their prohibition against surcharging ATM users. Before that, there could not be a second surcharge. This fee was in addition to any fee already imposed on a transaction from other bank customer withdrawals. Three years later, 93 percent of all banks are imposing ATM surcharges on customers. That is 31 percent more than last year. The bigger the bank, the more likely they are to surcharge and at a higher rate. What this means is, if you have a BankAmerica card and you go to a Bank One machine, you will pay two fees, one to the Bank One machine--which everyone expects to pay--and the other to the BankAmerica card. People are paying two fees. It is very difficult to figure out what they are. When the banks first started charging these fees, many of them didn't bother to tell their customers they would be charged. They had to figure it out by looking at the monthly statement. For anyone who has looked at their monthly bank statements and all the fine print, it is clear that the fees were not transparent. So, unsurprisingly, there was an outcry.”