Fees: Easy money for merchants and government

The editor of Consumer Reports wrote a column in the July issue about bank fees and how they nickel and dime their customers into serious profits for bankers. He talked about other types of businesses and their easy-to-hate fees, then asked readers for their thoughts.

Here's my response:

The fees involved with paying one's taxes: hiring an accountant or buying expensive software. I use Turbo Tax, and pay an extra fee for auditing insurance ($35 per year). If you e-file, you pay another fee for that "convenience," and if you don't, you pay the postage on returns going in different directions - federal, state, school, city - with the federal return requiring extra postage.

The hidden fee on bank charges is the one that allows banks to hold payment for on-line checks for a certain number of days (5?) before they drop their checks in the mail. Thus can they facilitate making the payer miss his due date while they use his money for 6-10 days or more. That practice alone must amount to massive profits. I think this is customary throughout the industry because I've shopped for on-line banks and they all seem to hold to this practice - so it could be a federal banking rule.

Finally, there is double charging of fees - in Ohio at least - for emergency squad transportation to hospitals. Though we already pay taxes for such transportation the city will now bill insurance companies for millions of dollars which will be paid for - again - by higher premiums. Double-dipping at its worst.