And that's not even touching the issue of creating even bigger monsters that are too big to fail. Once this phase settles (improvement won't happen any time soon) Congress needs to address the larger problem so consumers have more choices and we're not once again stuck in a "too big to fail" situation.
The big banks consistently charge the highest fees and service? Well, if you're doing millions upon millions of dollars in business you can expect service but for everyone else, not so much. You will also probably pay lower fees if you're in the big leagues as opposed to a normal retail client. Once again, what some believe is free market capitalism is plain old favoritism for those who have the best army of lobbyists, free market, be damned.
Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said account holders should pay careful attention to the paperwork they receive from their new banks. Existing accounts at the banks that are taken over will be converted into new accounts at the parent, he said. "And most of the time the new account has higher fees and fewer features."
It's also important for consumers to keep track of online banking, direct deposits and other electronic transactions, because there have been cases where two banks had difficulty merging their computer systems, Mierzwinski said.
"It's turned out in many mergers there were a lot of burps involved," because the computer systems were not compatible, he said. "If your account number changes, your whole electronic banking world could have trouble."
