Bank of America broke the news last week they will be charging a monthly fee for their customers to use debit cards. It seems new government regulations are cutting into their profit margin.
Yes. You read that correctly. Bank of America will be charging $5.00 a month to use their debit cards. Trouble is-there are people who will get out of paying this fee.
- If you maintain a monthly balance of $20,000 (I believe this is what I heard on the Today Show 10/4/11) *Edited to add I later heard on my local news a balance of $6000* or
- have a mortgage with BOA (Bank of America) (I believe this is what I heard on the Today Show 10/4/11) or
- clients with premium accounts, including those linked with Merrill Lynch brokerage (source)
You apparently get out of paying this fee.
So-let me get this right. My house is paid off-therefore I have no mortgage. I do not have $20K in the bank at any given time. There are times I’m concerned about paying for my electricity–but BOA is going to charge me $5 per month to use my debit card? I don’t think so. This mama (and her family) will be moving their funds elsewhere. I cannot believe that these “bigwigs” at the bank (driving around in their expensive automobiles, eating the finest food and making truly needless purchases) can look at people who are barely getting by and pull money from their pockets that could be used to do other things-like
- feed their kids
- put gas in their vehicles to get to work
- pay medical bills
- help pay the light bill
Think about it. $5.00/month x 12 months= $60/year for each person with a BOA debit card. If you are a BOA customer for 20 years that’s $1200 to use your own money conveniently–like banks have encouraged us to do. Banks have been pushing debit cards for some time now–why didn’t we see this coming?
Better yet-let’s show this on a larger scale. Bank of America has approximately 38.7 million customers with debit cards. 38.7 million people x $60/year (per person)= $22 million dollars profit for BOA just in debit card fees. Per year. Only debit card fees. Talk about increasing your profit margin.
Unbelievable. Sadly, BOA is not the only bank moving to this. Other banks doing this include Wells Fargo, SunTrust, and JP Morgan Chase. BOA’s fees won’t start until January, some other banks have already started charging fees (or will begin charging in the next month or so).
There are ways to fight this. I personally will be changing banks. In the time I’ve been with BOA my “monthly maintenance fees” went from nothing to somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/month. Now they are adding more fees? CitiBank will not be charging debit card fees (but they do have a relatively high monthly maintenance fee). Check your local credit unions or smaller banks. Don’t forget to ask about all the fees involved and assess how convenient/inconvenient this bank will be for you. Really think about it before doing something rash.
I also wanted to help spread the word about a site that may help you find a better bank if you’re looking to switch. Find A Better Bank (FindABetterBank.com) may be able to help you. Look for a post coming about them soon.
Posts may or may not contain affiliate links. Questions? See my Disclosure & Disclaimer.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: ecoblog
October 4, 2011
Crazy shit! That is what all of this Occupy Wall Street is about and no one is paying attention!
You have no idea how much this pisses me off. I’m not a BofA customer, but I worked in their real estate loan department for a few years. NO ONE kept the files secure and anyone could go and look at high profile customers’ loan files. BofA had the mortgage on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. By the time I left, there wasn’t a single original signature document left. Why? Employees were stealing and selling them. Not me, obviously, but I had theories on who it was.
Now after the banks have essentially created our current economic crisis via bad home loans, foreclosed on people they shouldn’t have, “lost” the paperwork for modification requests or only come back with a mod of $100 and gotten bailed out by our stupid assed government, they want to charge customers to use debit cards because they have too many regulatory fees????
Can we have these people drawn and quartered? This should not be legal. And as my bank told me, “if the big banks do it, the smaller ones will follow suit.”
I guess it’s better than Wells Fargo charging me $1.50 to use my card at the grocery store which overdrew my account by $1.50 so they charged me a $35 overdraft fee!! No, I’m not kidding. This was back when the ATM Debit/Visa/Mastercards were still new. I wonder if they still charge a per transaction fee for that?
The banking industry either needs more regulation and rules against doing this kind of shit or we all need to start keeping our money under our mattress again.
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Yes my mom told me her bank was doing this and now our bank (wells Fargo) is starting to do this!! I think it’s BS! I told my mom she should switch even though they’ve used the same bank for years. We switched to a community bank! Much happier! We actually like them even better than Wells Fargo!
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Hi, I’m Rob Rubin, the creator of FindABetterBank. Thanks for the shout out. We track over 35 different fees that banks charge consumers. We also estimate the fees you can expect to pay for each account presented in the search results.
My advice to anyone looking to change banks to lower or avoid fees is to be honest with yourself. For example, if you’re the kind of person who winds up taking cash out of the nearest ATM then find an account that offers ATM rebates because those fees add up.
Twitter: UnknownMami
October 7, 2011
I am so angry at them. They suck.
Unknown Mami´s last post ..Fragmented Fridays
Twitter: UnknownMami
October 8, 2011
Please come by and check this out: http://su.pr/2ZiSlo
It’s my little protest to the fee.
Unknown Mami´s last post ..$5 Anti-Debt Card Fee Rant and Giveaway
My bank, USAA, recently faced the same issue. They asked us how they wanted us to handle it, giving us a series of options. In the end, we the clients (and also we the shareholders) chose to give up the feature where they reimburse us for using other companies’ ATMs. So all we lost was a feature pretty much no bank has anyway.
Still has free checking, monthly interest, dividends, and discounts up the wazoo. You have to be a veteran or dependent of one to get in.
It’s a pity when things like this do happen. debit and credit card holders got sweet promises from banks not knowing that there are certain hidden agenda on this.Just imagine how many debit card owner in America multiplied by 12months then multiplied by the number of users? That’s a big amount, and those people are on the bracket of the B’s and C’s population who sometimes got arrears on their electricity bills. So sad that this happen, for the rich man to live comfortably and for the middle class to meet both ends.
Thanks for the shout out. We track over 35 different fees that banks charge consumers. GREAT! |
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I guess it’s better than Wells Fargo charging me $1.50 to use my card at the grocery store which overdrew my account by $1.50 so they charged me a $35 overdraft fee!! No, I’m not kidding. This was back when the ATM Debit/Visa/Master cards were still new. I wonder if they still charge a per transaction fee for that?
I think those banking industry either needs more regulation and rules besides doing this kind of plan or we all need to start keeping our savings under our pillow again.