One of the realities of banking is that there are fees involved. And, interestingly, the bigger the bank, the bigger the fees. It is rather frustrating to read about bailouts of big banks, only to find that very large percentages of their profits come from fees. So, not only are your taxes going to help prop up these big banks, but you also prop them up through the fees you pay. The Service Employees International Union estimates (since banks don’t reveal it) that J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America all make more than 70% of their profits from …read more

Get private student loans through credit unions.

Government ready to help smaller banks with TARP. But the smaller banks probably don’t need the help.