[Thanks to TheOtherMaven for correcting my mistake. The Holmes mystery is The Silver Blaze, not the Hound of Baskervilles. Sorry for my mistake].
Hope I am not spoiling it for people who are still planning to read Arthur Conan Doyles The Silver Blaze. The most significant observation by Sherlock Holmes that unraveled the mystery was that the dog did not bark. I see a dog that did not bark, or the invisible hand not doing its job when it comes the ATM fees charged by the banks.
Most people hate the fees. Many continue to work with a bank they hate because the small credit unions they would love to patronize does not have a large enough network of ATMs without fees.
Classical economists will say, "This will create incentives to create a large ATM network. Because when there is demand, the free market will meet it. Eventually the fees will be tamed, but it would take time to build and deploy a large network". But how can they explain the existence of a huge, millions-of-ATM network sans fees which is already deployed but is going largely unused? The owners of these "ATM"s are not shouting to ask customers to come in? Especially these owners are in businesses like grocery stores that operate on razor thin margins? How do they explain that?
What? Millions of "ATM" machines? Under utilized? Want to know what I am smoking? Follow me, dear reader, across the squiggly.
Most savvy shoppers know that if one pays with a debit card at a retail outlet, most of them, depending on the store policy ask the customers, "Do you want cash back?". You can just ask the clerk to ring up an additional $20 or $50 and get that money as "change" from the till. There is no foreign ATM network fee here. Most stores will limit the amount to $50 or so to avoid having to store too much of cash at the till. This is the large fee-free "ATM" network that is going under utilized.
So all that a savvy shopper has to do, even while traveling where no home ATM is available is to take these cash backs, 30$ at the restaurant, 20$ at the coffee shop, may be $50 at the mall and avoid the ATM fees altogether. Some times it helps to avoid an additional trip to the ATM machine and saves gas too.
But the ATM fees are going up, and expected to go up even more!
Many of these retailers are spending tons of money to advertise their wares, trying to set them apart from their competitors, double-coupons! Buy-one-get-one-free etc etc. So one would be expecting at least a few to be shouting, "Beat the ATM fees, $50 cash back with $10 purchase!", "Why don't you get a cup of coffee for your ATM fee, Visit Papa Joe's Coffee Shop". But they don't. Curiously like the hound of the Baskervilles that did not bark, these retailers are silent. Even though they are fighting the swipe fees, even though the banks are trying their best to squeeze them.
May be the banks have gag-order agreements with the retailers or may be the first retailer trying take a bite out of the 7 billion dollar fees the banksters are raking in would in for a harsh treatment, may be they are just fearful, may be they did not think about it.
You know what, let us do the barking for them.
First we need a good name for the process of charging a few dollars more than the tab and getting the money back as change. I think FHB is a good term. Friendly Human Being, instead of the Automatic Teller Machine. These retail clerks at the cash registers are friendly and they are human. And they don't charge foreign ATM fees.
Next we should educate the public about using these cash registers as FHB. Most TV stations and newspapers have segments where they give consumer tips. Things like, "you don't have to order check books through the bank at $15 for a set, Save $8 by using mail order check printing service!". Contact these reporters who are scrounging for ideas and suggest this could be a tip of the day or something.
Then we can use FHB to persuade people to move money to smaller banks and credit unions. "Yes Bob, the Educational Employees Credit Union of Fort Worth does not have that many ATMs here. But you know what? you can draw 20$ in Balck-eyed Pea and 50$ in Albertsons, places you go anyway. So ATM fees would not be a big deal breaker for you."
We can also contact large chain of retailers who are allegedly fighting these swipe fees and ask them standardize the policy and prominently display it in the store. Like "$5 cash back for every 1$ of purchase, $100 maximum". If they help their customers save Seven Billion Dollars in fees, they might get some customer loyalty.
Of course, for people who want to strike back at the ungrateful banksters who took our bailout money and then insist on sticking it up to us, we can find such big bank ATMS, find the FHB policy on near by stores, make fliers, and hang around and educate individual users of the ATM. "Are you paying foreign ATM fees Sir? Or have you driven more than 5 miles to avoid paying one? You could use FHB instead of ATM. Or at least have a cup of coffee and a cookie for the $3 the machine wants to stick you up for at Jimmy's Diner, across the street."
This seven billion we save for the customers will be rolled right back into the economy. It might not be a big stimulus to the economy. But people who are getting their unemployment and food stamps in the form of debit cards, this could could save them a bundle. May be eventually the banks will learn to treat us as customers once again.