Lose money by putting them in banks

basic finance theory states that transaction or service charges diminish the value of a financial asset. so according to what i've learned in school, if investors, savers or depositors discover that such charges are made on their bank deposits or stock transfers, there is a greater likelihood that they'll shift their investments to forms which are cheaper and more profitable.

it is this principle that long governed the imposition of service charges on routine and mundane banking transactions that has long kept banks, at least here in the philippines, from making their clients bear transaction costs.

but it seems that banks recently no longer observe this principle of costs. a couple of years ago they imposed an 8 peso charge for every withdrawal made through the ATM. now, i've discovered that they've also imposed a 1 peso charge for every balance inquiry transaction. this move is apparently done to make up for the losses banks have been incurring from their main source of revenue, loans. losses from non-performing assets have been the scourge of the local banking industry lately.

for a casual observer, such costs look insignificant, but for a frequent ATM user, such costs are a heavy burden. and in my opinion, they simply defeat the purpose of keeping money in the banks. and being one trained in finance, i'm interested to discover the extent of the impact of the introduction of charges to ATM transactions. but as a small depositor, i'm more interested to see that such charges are removed and that banks reimburse all their depositors, for such charges are, in my view, unfair.