BANKS are eating up all the real estate in my neighborhood. I live on a basically residential street, and within three and a half short blocks of my house are eight banks: two Chase, one Wells Fargo, one Citi, one HSBC, one Bank of America, one Sovereign and one Capital One. Go two more blocks and there are 10 banks (one more Chase and one more Citi).

Why are the banks paying only 0.4 percent interest on a savings account if they can afford to open offices on every other block in Greenwich Village?

The other day I was catching up on balancing my account and realized that, for the last six months, I had earned about $4 in interest but had been charged $35 a month for service.

I went to the bank at the corner (the southwest corner). “This is insane,” I said.

The banker explained that I had a service charge because I didn’t maintain a high enough balance.