Banks getting ready to screw customers again

Have you been worried about the interest rates on your credit cards so much that you've been using your debit cards more to make purchases? Well, the nation's banks have been noticing this trend so they are about to put the screws to you for doing this.

Bank of America has already instituted a $5 a month fee for making purchases with debit cards and Chase has followed suit with a $3 a month fee plus it is about to institute additional fees for using its online banking services.

The banks' defense is that they used to be able to charge merchants 44 cents for each debit card transaction they processed. But the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law limited that amount to 24 cents. So the banks are getting even by getting that money back from their depositors.

Remember thost Frank Captra-styled movies of the 1930s and '40s in which the town banker was always the villain? I guess things don't change that much, do they?