Consumers need to keep their guard up as financial institutions increasingly impose new fees and charges.
Banks and credit-card companies have gone on the offensive in advance of new consumer protections the Obama administration is asking Congress to enact. For many consumers, that could mean an unexpected financial sting.
"The fee income is becoming increasingly more important as interest income is falling as a percentage of total revenues," says Bob Hammer, chief executive of bank-card advisory firm R.K. Hammer.
Late fees, loan-origination fees, over-the-limit and overdraft charges helped generate 53% of banking-industry income in 2008, according to R.K. Hammer, up from 35% of income in 1995. The average bounced-check fee is $28.95, up about $1 from last year, says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com. And it's a charge that rises every year.
- Wall Street Journal
Rates for 30-year home loans inched downward this week, but still remain above record lows posted during the spring, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.32 this week, below last week's average of 5.42 percent. Last year at this time, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.35 percent, Freddie Mac said.
Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low of 4.78 percent earlier this year. But then they rose as high as 5.6 percent in June after yields on long-term government debt, which are closely tied to mortgages rates, climbed as investors worried that the huge surplus of government debt hitting the market could trigger inflation.
- Newsmax