Okay, a couple things:
1- It's just $2!
That $2 is one of dozens of hidden and unnecessary fees instituted (including rate hikes, cellphone service plans are among the highest profit margins in the world. This is simply a 'straw that broke the camels back' situation, where we need to stand up and say NO, and remind these companies that capitalism votes with the dollar, and we'll take it elsewhere.
2- Just use automatic bill pay!
Well, if your like me, you don't keep alot in your checking account. I keep most of my money in a savings account, where it earns the best interest. I then tke out a little at a time as I need it. So, if the bill is higher than usual, it actually is possible I could go overdraft. Granted, with my bank, you have 3 days to replenish the funds and then there are no fees, but it's still a HASSLE. And finally, as someone else mentioned, what if you need to dispute your bill? I'm with AT&T, and they are notorious for sneaking in little fees. Then there's spam that gets put on there, once I got a text from some sort of 'text yes to receive free message tones for $19.99 a month', well I deleted the message apparently ignoring it let them put the item on your bill, so that was an hour phone call to AT&T to dispute it. Imagine if it was auto-pay and they already had my money? I'd never get it back.
And finally, as far as justification, here's what I've got to say;
These HUGE, multi- BILLION dollar banking corporations claim to need to add all sorts of fees to 'cover their costs'. I call bull. They need to add these fees because, due to the recession, they are earning less PROFITS than previously (not losing money, just not making as much), and that makes shareholders unhappy. Shareholders are gonna really be unhappy when the bank has no clients. Anyway, I live in a small rural town, and there's a little bank that's been here since the 1930's. It's small, it's family owned, it has 3 locations, pretty simple. I still have online bill-pay, I can manage my accounts online, move money between accounts, I have a debit mastercard through them, you name it. I have just about everything you can get from any of the big banks (except maybe an iPhone app or a bazillion locations). This bank has NEVER charged me a fee EVER. To open my accounts were free, they don't charge me for those accounts, I still have my original box of checks from years ago (I never write checks), which they gave me for free, and when I had to replace my debit card because it had worn out and become unreadable, it was free.
Know how they're making their money? Like a bank should, lending. I was so impressed with how awesome the banks customer service was and how little hidden fees and surprises (aka none) I've had over the years, when I decided to finance a portion of my motorcycle, that's where I went. In and out in a few minutes, they wrote the check, I was on my way. That's something I DO have setup with auto-pay, but that's because it's the exact same amount each month, but then I can make an extra payment online very easily. And, unlike the big banks, there are no fees to make payments, no fees for paying early, and since I'll likely have it paid off a year or so early, it's nice that I didn't go to a big bank and have to pay an early payoff fee.
So, if this little mom and pop bank can do quite well in a little rural town where not alot of people have alot of money, and heck, they are very much 'pay cash or don't buy it' type people so even the lending side of thing must be thin, I don't see why bank of america, verizon, or any of these other massive companies can't survive without these fees!
