This Is A Lesson In White-Collar Crime Fees Are Unfair Banks Should Holster Their Fleecing Shears.

Don’t look now, but the money-changers have found yet another way to fleece customers.

Not content simply to jack up fees for everything from bounced checks to telephone inquiries, the sharks are gnawing away at one of the few free bank services left: the automatic teller machine.

Beginning appropriately on April Fools’ Day, banks have permission to charge for ATM use and also to provide a small kickback to owners of rival machines patronized by their customers. In other words, Joe Bank Account could be held up twice for getting his money from a machine - less than a year after First National Bank of Chicago began charging customers $3 to see a live teller.

Until now, most banks have levied a fee only when patrons have used a competitor’s machine. Few have charged for their own ATMs though in 15 states, they were allowed to do so - because they wanted to encourage customers to use machines for routine transactions rather than turning to tellers, a more expensive service.

But now that we sheep have been trained to prefer ATMs and an assortment of fees accounts for more than 36 percent of record banking profits - banks have struck again. They did so by persuading Visa International to loosen rules on ATM machines, complaining that off-premise machines are expensive to operate. (Never mind that in 1994, ATM use allowed U.S. banks to increase profits by $2.1 billion.)

Of course, the moneylenders won’t flaunt their new license to steal. They’re greedy, not stupid. They’ll use the ol’ boiled-frog approach to ease customers (read, pigeons) into this latest scam. As you may recall, you can boil a frog to death by placing it in a pot of cool water and turning up the heat slowly.

The usurers will acclimate customers to their latest scheme by picking the pockets of vacationers first. They’ll levy their new surcharges - probably from 25 cents to $2.50 - at ATMs located at hotels and resorts, convention centers and highway rest stops.

Travelers probably will consider the new fees a small price to pay for convenience. So, they’ll be programmed to accept similar fees levied by banks closer to home.

Traditionally, banks have protected our money from fire and theft. But who will protect our money from the banks?

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