Walmart and American Express will be rocking the foundation of the banking sector with the new Bluebird banking service, scheduled to begin next week. They are promising not to charge overdraft fees, a minimum balance will not be required and an array of other services will be offered, according to Credit Union Times.
The collaborators said in a statement that the product – which will be available at some 4,000 Walmart stores and also online – is aimed at “tens of millions of consumers” who want advanced banking services but do not want to pay high fees.
“Our customers tell us that they’re tired of navigating a complex maze of do’s and don’ts to avoid the ever growing list of fees found on checking products. Bluebird solves this problem,” said Daniel Eckert, vice president of financial services for Walmart U.S., in a prepared statement.
Dan Schulman, a group president at American Express, added in the same statement, “The financial services landscape is changing. Technological advances, regulatory changes, and evolving consumer needs are redefining payments ranging from prepaid, to checking and debit. Bluebird is our solution to help consumers who currently may be poorly served by traditional banking products. It allows them to easily and safely move, manage, and spend their money. In an era where it is increasingly ‘expensive to be poor,’ we have worked with Walmart to create a financial services product that rights many of the wrongs that plague the market today.” http://www.cutimes.com/...
I hope this will be the beginning of a new era in commercial banking where the focus will be on saving. Banks have become service providers and fee collectors using accounts to upsell a number of pricey services with the sole purpose of skimming as much of your hard earned money as they can. For the privilege of being fleeced, they demand that you pay them a monthly fee while they earn a cut of every debit and credit card transaction you make on your account.
I recently opened a bank account and I had to endure an hour of rigorous upselling for an array of expensive add on service to my account, from credit monitoring to overdraft protection among others. The goal was clearly to get some type of monthly fee added to my 'free checking'. I will be one of the first in line to check out Bluebird banking because my bank is way behind the times in responding to real world needs.