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Article: D'Amato fight against ATM surcharges is good theater, bad policy. (Senator Alfonse D'Amato, automated teller machines)(Column)
- Article from:
- American Banker
- Article date:
- August 7, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 SourceMedia, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If Sen. Alfonse D'Amato was looking for good theater and lots of publicity the other day, he got them. The media gave extensive coverage to the Senate Bank- ing Committee's hearing on fees charged by banks for use of their automated teller machines.
I happened to be in the Republican senator's home state of New York at the time of the hearing. I sent about a dozen E-mail messages from my hotel and was charged $3.91 to $4.65 per call. When I send similar E-mail messages from my home, the long-distance charges average about 50 cents.
This particular hotel was better than a lot of them. It didn't charge for local calls, calls to "800" numbers, or credit card ...