This was a huge item in the media a couple of years ago. Read this. Fees for credit transactions and debit transactions were about the same in 2001. Then the electronic processing fee was going to more than double - almost triple. Companies such as Walmart wanted to drop the debit form of using your check card since the fees were just too high (forcing you to sign all purchases instead of using your PIN). Lawsuits ensued. Fees changed repeatedly. Now we are in the mess that #6 says.
Not always. Banks tend to occasionally offer fixed interest rates on savings. Which may be in their favor when interest rates are high - but when interest rates plummet it dramatically benefits the consumer. I have a 4% fixed savings account and a 2.5% fixed checking account at one bank (no fees for anything on either). I doubt your man on the corner (or many of the other items on your list) has been paying 4% interest on savings the last couple of years.
$100 minimum. It was Columbus Federal (mostly Nebraska based). The bank was for a while #1 in the nation for home loan ratio ($ loans to $ in savings the bank had). There are federal laws stating the maximum ratio which is allowed (to prevent bank failures), so they desparately needed more $ in savings in order to be allowed to make more loans. They were selling the loans to other companies just to keep up with demand, but that is a whole lot less profitable than just increasing the interest paid for checking/savings. Hence the great rates that were fixed. The bank has since been sold, renamed, and the deal was immediately ended with the new owners (although current people with the accounts can keep the deal going - hopefully forever).
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