Can someone explain to me fees on American banks? And the % card surcharges other comments are talking about? As someone from the UK I've never heard of banking fees except on debt facilities and the only surcharges I've seen are minimum spends or 50p charges on cards in small shops, which almost never happens anymore.
The card fees are on the merchant side and are priced into the overall price in the same way that VAT (usually) is. The customer never sees them.
The fees exist in the UK but the UK never had the cash culture that the US does so very few consumers made a fuss about it. Plus the UK has a much longer history of debit card use than the US.
The US banking sector is less regulated than the UK sector so can get away with adding fees. The UK banks would love to move to the same model but would get strung up by the public and regulators.
