<p>What Bank of American and other banks should do is get rid of debit cards. People how can get credit cards should never need to use a debit card.</p>
<p>I don’t like BofA (even tho I bank with them) and there are many reasons to criticize them - for example awarding bonuses of $5mm to recently fired execs Krawcheck and Price - but in this case when they announce a $5 monthly fee in advance, and explain how the fee will be incurred and how it can be avoided, I cannot criticize them for that. I understand this fee is a direct result of recently enacted federal regulations that greatly reduce the fees they can charge merchants for accepting debit cards. </p>
<p>This fee will not affect me or my wife. We only use credit cards for transactions and debit cards are only used for ATM cash withdrawals. If you want to close your B of A account due to this new fee go right ahead. In my case due to the convenience of having branches here in NC and in Boston where my son lives, and online banking, and since I won’t get hit with the fee, I will probably stay with BofA for now.</p>
<p>I think most of us can figure this out on our own. We either bank with BofA or choose not to. What we don’t need is Senator Durbin telling us to “get the heck out” of B of A. What an outrageous thing for an elected official to say, especially the one responsible for the need for this fee in the first place. I was also very disappointed to hear Obama’s comments on the subject. </p>
<p>Banks charge all kinds of fees and I as a customer figure out how to avoid them. Last month my average balance dropped below a specified threshold and a $25 fee was posted to my account. I went to the branch, changed my account and the fee was backed out. It’s always been like this. What bothers me is when an unexpected fee magically appears on my statement. In this case, when they warn you in advance and it is clearly stated, I have no problem with it.</p>
<p>Debit cards were originally a way to access your checking account via direct draft as opposed to writing a check or using a credit card at point of sale. The modern incarnation is the standalone debit card where there isn’t an attached checking account. I believe that the intended markets for these are for those that can’t afford checking accounts and as electronic cash, for government benefits or things like rebates for purchases.</p>
<p>The banks initially looked at these as big sources of revenue but regulation killed this so the banks are going to fees to cover costs and make profits.</p>
<p>Charging me to spend my own money is what is outrageous Razorsharp. Perhaps if the CEO’s of big banks stopped giving themselves outrageous bonuses, people wouldn’t be so upset with this. You can’t keep hitting the middle class for everything, we don’t have any more money. I haven’t had a raise in 4 years, yet the cost of EVERYTHING keeps going up.</p>
<p>Razorsharp…you owned a mortgage brokerage firm many years ago…you’re kidding me? </p>
<p>I would never have guessed.</p>
<p>Right now…it is tough for mortgage brokers…</p>
<p>A few years ago…come on…</p>
<p>Mortgage brokers were peddling stuff…banks were peddling stuff that was toxic. It is not that hard to find this out.</p>
<p>Please tell me what the regulations were that forced Wachovia Bank to sell pick a payment loans?</p>
<p>[New</a> Bank Fees Push More Americans to Credit Unions - DailyFinance](<a href=“http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/10/04/new-bank-fees-push-more-americans-to-credit-unions/]New”>Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance)</p>
<p>We are also big fans of credit unions. We have used one for years. I think we were briefly with BOA - didn’t start with them but the bank we were with got taken over numerous times ending up as BOA. We quit them after they paid out my husbands alimony to his ex (so that was quite a while ago) several days early then started charging us fees because their mistake meant there were insufficient funds to cover some other checks. They did reverse the charges, but it was the last straw in a slew of lousy service, so we closed the account and changed completely over to our local credit union. Have never regretted it for a moment. You actually get personal service - so nice. And they call you if something is amiss, like when my husband deposited a check and forgot to sign it - rather than sending it to a head office in Timbuktu and it eventually making it back to you 3 weeks later. My son lives across country and also banks with a CU. Service - what a concept.</p>
<p>My HSA is with BOA. I think i will close that and open a different one. Their monthly charges are higher than most HSAs ($4.50). I opened it with them because their is a BOA in town so I thought I could access the money there when I had a medical bill to pay. Turns out I can’t use the HSA debit card there (it was the first year we had one) - so I think I will use someone with cheaper charges.</p>
<p>The thing that annoys me about the new fee is that over the past couple of decades the banks have pushed people to use ATMs to access their cash instead of going into the bank and getting it from a teller. They did this to reduce the need for tellers and thus save money. </p>
<p>So now that they’ve got everyone using the ATMs instead, they start charging for that too. I thought we were doing them a favor by helping them save labor costs? Are we to be charged for the privilege of saving them money?</p>
<p>coureur, there has always been a cost involved in the use of debit cards. What has caused these new fees for customers is new government regulation that limits the amount that merchants have to pay. When this was announced months ago, it was obvivous who was going to have to pay. In fact, I recall a discussion here on CC about it. Bank customers who do not utilize the ways to avoid these fees are the ones who are going to be picking up the slack. I’m not sure why people are surprised. If they are going to be angry at anyone, be angry at the politicians like Durbin who are appealing to the populist feelings of everyone who simply wants to hate the banks for anything and everything.</p>
<p>Not to defend B of A, but the charge, as I understand it, is not for using the ATM, it is for debit transactions at the retailer. ATM (at a B of A) use is still free.</p>
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<p>Obviously. But the costs involved with the use of debit cards is trivial compared to the costs of hiring thousands of tellers do it instead. We moved to debit cards to save them those costs, and now they are going to charge us for having done that. They are in effect charging us for the privilege of doing some of their work for them. I predict next will be a fee for on-line banking.</p>
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<p>So it’s your position that banks have no responsibility for due diligence? They should just lend to anyone who asks, as they did in the early 00’s?</p>
<p>I hope B of A hasn’t miscalculated, like Netflix did, in making changes to their fee structure. Do they really want a customer revolt on their hands?</p>
<p>I worked for thecompany for 14 years, and so this fee seems so far from their philosophy that I can’t help but to laugh. They worked for years as a compnay to get its customers to use the card rather than cash. Remember, they started the program “Keep the Change” to enitce people to use the cards so that it would “round up” the purchase and put it in a savings account, then BofA would pay a match to customers anually. They worked out a deal with VISA to allow 16 year olds to have full access debit cards. To now charge seems like a knee-jerk reaction to limiting what they can charge to merchants. The company is the largest debit-card issuer in the US, and they seemed to forget that customers stuck with them not because of excellent customer service, but because of convenience. </p>
<p>Not sad to close my account. I just hope they drop this before it is too late.</p>
<p>ellemenope, I don’t think it ever enters their heads that “the little people” won’t just swallow anything they care to do. Although this move seems unusually clueless, even for B of A.</p>
<p>“Blaming banks for lending money to people who promised to repay is outrageous.”</p>
<p>But they didn’t particularly want repayment, or need repayment. The point was to sell the loan. They would loan to dead people if they could (and did).</p>
<p>BofA is a non-player where I live. There is a branch, in an old building. The lobby is always empty. If they had decent management, they would have closed it a long time ago.</p>
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<p>Exactly my point! They moved heaven and earth to get us to use debit cards. And now that we’ve converted they want to charge us for it.</p>
<p>BofA has long been out on the cutting edge of Service Charge Theory, but they’ve outdone even themselves this time.</p>
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<p>Bank of America has the worst customer service on the planet…worse than motor vehicles. Did you ever try to find the local phone number of B of A in your phone book? Don’t bother…it’s not there. They put their 800 in Delaware or Texas or Charlotte or whatever call center you get.</p>
<p>Both of my kids have B of A accounts because of the convenience (branches here as well as branches where they went to college). They will both be closing their accounts. It’s bad enough that they started to charge a fee if you used the tellers in the banks (without a minimum amount in your accounts)…now they are charging no matter how you access your money. </p>
<p>One of my kids is out of the country. With my power of attorney, I’m closing her B of A account and opening a new account at our credit union. I will get her a credit card using me as a co-owner of the account. She won’t have fees and headaches…and she won’t fritter away $5 a month for a service she won’t be able to use until Jan 2013 (and yes, I did ask if they would waive the fee…answer was NO…). </p>
<p>Am I sick of B of A…you bet. Everytime I go there to put money in my son’s account for his college loan payment, they tell me how much easier it would be if I just opened an account there. I take great pleasure in telling the story of how it took three months to resolve a credit card fraud issue and how I would NEVER bank with them…and I don’t care how many other customers are in the line listening.</p>
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Not that I’m defending BofA or anything, but what I read indicated they will only charge the fee if you use the debit card for something other than ATM transactions during the month. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>We wound up at BofA after our account was “sold” to them by another bank after a takeover by a third bank, about 10 years ago or so. It took only a few months to figure out BofA is horrible, and have been happy credit union members ever since.</p>
<p>^^ Correct, they are not charging the fee for ATM-only users… yet.</p>
<p>What infuriates me is the knowledge that my $60/year is going into Brian Moynihan’s bonus kitty. I wish I could find it online but there was a cartoon this morning. The wife walks into the dining room where her distressed/befuddled husband is looking at the bank statement. He says:</p>
<p>“When did the bank start charging an “executive bonus fee” on the debit card?”</p>
<p>I would have no problem with this fee if B of A were to say, “Look, we need to do this and we’re sorry to do it. We recognize that we are asking a sacrifice of our customers, and those of you who are struggling the most will be hit the hardest. As a good-faith gesture to our customers, we are going to begin showing some restraint in our personal compensation and perks. Until the economy improves, there will be no more executive bonuses, no more conferences at 5-star resorts, no more private jets, no more lavish redecorating. We’re in this with you.” But of course, that sentiment is completely alien to them; they are the 1%. Immune from hardship, immune from restraint, immune from common decency, immune from reality.</p>