Banks earn most of their profits from fees. The whole fee thing feels a little like a shell game to me. The bank advertises free checking and online bill-pay but, in fact, those services aren't free to the bank so -- it follows logically that they can't be free to the consumer.  So, the cost of "free checking and bill-pay" is moved from one shell to another which, of course, gets lifted whenever I, or someone else, stumbles on any of the tripwires the bank has set up to recover the actual costs of "free checking and bill-pay."  The problem is that this gauntlet of fees doesn't do much to foster customer trust -- which decreases the probability of gaining new business from the existing customer base.

Given the choice, would you give more of your business to a bank that lost your trust? 

The problem here is that someone has to pay for all this online banking technology we enjoy. Right now, the cost is just moved from one customer to another and back again in the form of "hidden fees". What we could use is another source of income that helps offset the real costs of online banking and bill-pay that builds trust and understanding.    

I think our KulaMula cash-back bill-pay system can help. Our system is merchant-funded, pays online bill-pay customers to customize offers, including offers from their own bank, to their own tastes, and provides a revenue share for banks. That sounds like a different and better game to me.