The Federal Reserve recently issued a report (PDF) on availability of services, saying that larger banks charge more fees and that services are declining:

"Of the fourteen fees for which comparisons are available...multistate banks charged significantly higher fees in eight cases and in no case charged a significantly lower fee...Of the twenty-four measures that may be considered indicators of service availability, six changed a statistically significant amount, and five of these were in the direction of less service availability."

This is happening the world over. I actually wrote a paper on how this is happening in New Zealand, of all places. Banks merged like nobody's business in the 90s. Banks also try to up their profits by getting rid of employees and shunting all sort of things over to the internet or phone, and by shutting down branches in less populated areas, thereby stranding rural residents. Overhead is down, profits have been going up, but so have fees...with fewer banks due to mergers, conscious parallelism results, which futher allows the banks to gyp customers. Banking is not an 'easy entry' industry in the best of times, and now, with the economy still shaky, banks really don't have to worry about new competition coming in to undercut them. In New Zealand, it got so bad that the government had to open up its own non-profit bank just to jolt the sector back into a competitive mode.

I agree, banks like universities are charging more fees and cutting back services. Bank of America has grown so big that customer loyalty means nothing to them. I have seen them close accounts of people whom been with them for several years (and through many of their name changes). I understand that banking is a business but charging a fee for every simple service is just out of control. Granted, I either Wachovia's ATM or website to conduct most of my business but I would at least like the priviledge of having to see a CSR with out being charged in my next monthly statement.

Just one visit to BOA's website was all it took to offend my sensibilities. I would never do business with them. Why so many people continue to use them for personal checking or savings is beyond my comprehension.