NEW YORK - The New York Public Interest Research Group, aconsumer organization which has a track record of raising card feeissues, has taken aim at some of the cards and card practices whichhave been among the hottest new entries in the bank and creditunion card industry. Specifically the group, which is the New Yorkaffiliate of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, hasrecommended banks and credit unions which charge fees for so calledpoint of sale transactions in which cardholders use a personalidentification number disclose those fees to the consumer at thePOS. The group also decried the high fees in place on many pre-paidcards as well as the fees and policies which are being applied tomany gift cards. According to the group's Pricey Plastic report,89% of the New York banks and credit unions surveyed charged a feewhen cardholders used their debit cards at POS terminals andentered a PIN. The growth in PIN debit has meant that consumersneed more information about these transactions, the group argued."Congress should pass legislation to require that consumers getinformation at the point of sale about the costs of using the feesfor using their ATM card for online and offline transactions," thereport urged. "Moreover, Congress should require that consumers geta rolling and end-of-year tally of their ATM surcharge and debitcard fees so they can keep track of their card usage in ameaningful way." Susan Craine, a consumer advocate with NYPIRG andone of the authors of the report, admitted that the survey was notscientific and reported that the organization had not sought toseek credit unions out in the survey. "We just told our surveyorshow many financial institutions we wanted them to cover around thestate," Craine said. Four of the 40 New York financial institutionswhose policies on POS fees were surveyed were credit unions: the$493 million Americu, headquartered in Rome; the $85 million HudsonRiver Credit Union, headquartered in Corinth; the $1.2 billionState Employees FCU, headquartered in Albany, and the $1.4 billionVisions FCU, headquartered in Endicott. Americu and Hudson werereported to charge $0.25, while SEFCU was reported to charge $0.95and Visions $1.50. The average overall for the 40 surveyedinstitutions was $0.70. But two of the four disputed how the reporthad reported their fees. Susan Commanda, CFO of Hudson River,reported the credit union did not charge a fee for its POS debittransaction where a PIN is used. "We don't even charge if they getcash back," Commanda said. Jayne Searles, marketing manager forVisions, reported that the report was accurate in that the creditunion does not charge for the first five POS transactions with PINsper month. But the group's report had said that Visions charges$1.50 per transaction and Searles reported the additional chargecould be as low as $0.50, depending on the member's balances.Visions' policy highlights what critics of the report said is thebiggest problem with the report's debit recommendation:feasibility. "From the point of view of the financial institutionit's just not workable," said Cindy Ballard, executive vicepresident with PULSE, the ATM and EFT network headquartered inHouston owned by both banks and credit unions. Ballard notedNYPIRG's suggestion closely mirrored a previous suggestion thatwould have mandated that banks and credit unions reveal at ATMs howmuch they charge their own cardholders for transactions atso-called foreign ATMs. That suggestion died, Ballard explained,when it became clear that such charges were part of relationshippricing and were thus very difficult to pin down. "Some creditunion members or bank customers might be charged, some might not,"she said. "It's very difficult to put a disclosure policy intoplace when there is no uniformity in the information." Ballard alsonoted that there were technical difficulties in building adisclosure announcement into the hardware and software of the POSterminals, many of which have very small screens and are set up totake only the most minimal of transactions. The PULSE executivealso questioned how many consumers who are charged a fee are notaware of the charge. "Most consumers are aware of what a bank orcredit union charges," she said, an observation that Searles backedup. "We are very explicit about our policy on charges because theyare part of a strategy to help change cardholder behavior," Searlessaid. "The policy is meant to back up our lobby signs, newsletterarticles and statement inserts which tell our members to choosecredit not debit at the POS terminal," Searles said. "We want themto understand that whenever they hit that credit button, it'sdefinitely free," she added. Searles reported that Visions' alsoused a positive approach to help lead members to sign their debitreceipts by holding a monthly drawing for prizes for members whoused their debit cards with a signature in the preceding month. Thegroup also reported that most prepaid cards which are increasinglypopular among people without bank accounts are among the mostexpensive card products in the industry. According to the group'ssurvey of 15 most common pre-paid cards in New York, cardholderswere charged an average $50.12 in activation fees, $69.70 in annualfees, $0.86 cents every time the cardholder used the card at a POS,$1.64 whenever the cardholder used the card at an ATM and $1.44whenever the cardholder added more money to the card. No creditunion issued prepaid cards were included in the [email protected]