Newsday from New York, New York • 15

I A15 Helpings For The Homeless Cards Banks charging fees for debit buys By Cynthia Needham imnwinn Convenience may be coming at a price far many New Yorkers who use their debit cards officials said yesterday According to a recently released study almost half of 1 New York state banka charge a fee for debit card pur-chases And unlike ATM fees which are disclosed be-fbre the transaction takes place debit card surcharges are almost never broken out for the consumer to see The study found that 47 percent of 81 New York banks surveyed charged fees that averaged 86 cents per purchase with some as high $150 Some of the larger banks that charge include Apple ($150 per purchase) Bank of New York (50 cents) Chase (50 cents) and Emigrant ($1) Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) mumnnail day that he will propose new congressional legislation requiring stores to notify customers ofthe extra charges at the time of each purchase juat as banks do for ATM fees under a law Brimmer wrote That law passed in 1988 also called on bonks to indude a breakdown of debit fees in monthly statements rather than in the fine print of a yearly policy summary banks do notify customers each month" said Susan Craine of the New York Public Interest Research Group which conducted the survey they don't break it down in a way easy to spot" not the fees themselves that Schumer opposes but the way in which banks hide them from customers he said He also emphasized that not all transactions such as using credit cards will incur a fee can swipe and you get charged or you sign and you don" Schumer said stores like it when you swipe because when you sign they pay a credit card students he said are likely targets for card because so many schools now encourage debit card use on But anyone whose bonk charges a fee stands to lose and lose a lot "If you use your debit card once a Schumer said can end up being $40 or $50 month Tables above are filled with homeless people who dined at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan yesterday in a meal that included sloppy Joes potato salad pasta salad white beans lemonade and Jell-O At left: volunteers dish up a second dessert banana split popular among the more than 1100 guests served yesterday The soup kitchen located in Chelsea has been serving meals to the homeless for the past 21 years Long Island City Ferry Is Back in Service terway the largest private ferry compa- were upset that their way of getting to ny abandoned the service concluding the route work was getting taken Gioia said yester-waant profitable day a very pleasant way of getting to Stacey Sherman a spokeswoman for New York He said he made no guarantees to New York Water Taxi said the new operator expects to turn Water Taxi that the service would be profitable a profit She said the new boats would be smaller but offered to cut red tape in securing an agree-with a capacity of 74 passengers compared with ment with city end state officials He noted that 97 on New York Waterway he plans to increase housing in the waterfront Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Woodside) said after area which could generate more customers New York Waterway ended service Aug 29 constitu- getting in on the ground he said ontsArtiigwl him with requests to restore the line of New York Water Taxi By Joshua Robin BTAvrmrra Ferry service between Long Island City and Mwilwttini will resume today as one company tkw over a route dropped by a competitor New York Water Taxi baaed in Manhattan will run a shuttle between Hunters Point and two stops on the East Side: East 34th Street and Pier 11 Wall Street The ferry runs every 30 minutes during rush hour and coats $5 The service comes just days after New York Wa i.