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Comment on PayPal to add $20 inactivity fee in Canada

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Inactivity fees are bullshit. The marginal cost of generating a periodic (edit: electronic) statement for an inactive account is essentially zero anymore, as is the cost of storage.

While I'm at it, minimum balances on plain old checking and savings accounts are also bullshit. All of these things are just excuses to take money away from people, primarily those on the poorer end of the wealth/income spectrum, who are the least able to afford it.

Inactivity fees are worse than that. You're not using the account? Maybe you're not paying attention to it, so we'll try to siphon some money out while you're not looking.

The least cynical take is that they're a charge because you're not letting them make money from you in other ways, and even that's totally indefensible. They don't have a divine right to make extra fees on your account.

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