Bank of America to Charge Monthly $5 Fee for Debit Cards

Credit Unions!!!!!

60 bucks a year, and there are people that are going to pay. I have got to come up with a scam like that, easy money.

Go back to using cash like I have.

More bonus money for those under paid and over taxed CEO's

Looks like that 5 billion investment in BoA by Warren Buffet wasn't such a good idea after all! But I'd be fine if he had a little less money to create mischief with.

My advice: bank locally, and bank progressive.

If I was an emperor, I would burn each one of these banks that destroyed the American economy down into the ground.

Do people even still bank with BofA?

And to think that I was going to switch banks and become one of their members.

There are so many banks out there, and yes, a lot of them are just as bad as BOA, but I don't understand why anyone stays with BOA. They are laughably awful. Their deposit policies are crazy, their check cashing policy is crazy too. They are horribly abusive to their customers. Yet, I'm sure they'll still be the largest bank in America after this takes effect.

BOA Website crashed today!

One more added item; with the laying off of 30,000 employees they will be closing many of their branch offices. So, no service for the folks who live outside the city is my quess. Appears to be a very poor business decision for BOA - so long BOA.

I think that is nonsense. It is hard to believe how much companies especially banks are trying to stick it to the customer.

"Customers who use the debit card for purchases will be assessed the fee. It will be waived for the bank's premium or platinum privileges accounts tied to the Merrill Lynch brokerage."

They wouldn't stick the lowest earning group with a fee and exclude the richest from it, now would they? With interest rates like they are, your money does just as well in a jar somewhere. This will really hurt Internet shopping (jobs, in other words), and bring in millions of dollars for the banks, right out of the pockets of working class Americans. Very patriotic of them.

As a business owner this fee really makes me angry as the credit industry withdraws their monthly fees from all business's who accept these cards.
They charge us everytime you swipe your card yet claim to make no profits from its use??????

Yes, I'll be closing my checking account even though I don't know if I'll be affected. I will also let them know why because this is no way to treat customers and if they don't want customers - well, I'm glad to oblige.

And another reason to boycott B of A. Cash is the answer.

If my bank goes this route, there's a simple solution. Lines of people, out the door, cashing checks at every branch. Get cash, use cash, and make them waste expensive teller time giving you cash every time you need some. It's inconvenient as hell for you at first, but I suspect the policy would be revisited in short order.

my "Free checking" @ Key Bank now has a $5/month charge for debit also :( will be closing my account.

This is unnecessary. What they want to do is to get people to complain about regulations. I'm not falling for it. I'll move my money elsewhere if I have to, but I won't pay this fee. Anyone remember when debit cards were completely free? They encouraged us to use them back in the 80's then laid off a bunch of tellers and other staff that became unnecessary and started charging fees for using debit cards. Just like drug dealers, first one's free.

Haha Skank of America. Can't banks just invent money out of thin air when they give loans? Why do they need to gouge us.. oh yeah, they don't have to. They just want to. I don't use this bank. If I did, I'd take my money and go elsewhere.

Is that in addition to the $12 for checking and $5 for saving per month that they are currently bagging me?

I received a free calendar in the mail from my bank...they can't be all bad, can they? d;)- ~

Oh , the many guises of thievery .....

I am so F------ pissed!
I did switch to a credit union a year ago, bu what about all the people who didn't. I guess they Are All fu----.
i am really sick of people being abused!

Demand that your State create a State Bank, until then shift your money to a Credit Union!

If you have the cash (and obviously you do if you're going to use the card) to cover what it is you wish to purchase, why use the damn card? Take the money out with a check and use the CASH to buy the item. When did people become so lazy that it is too much trouble for them to walk into a bank branch and cash a damn check? Stop giving these banks more income to screw you with. It is up to us to shut them down. I say, close your account with these skanks and go to a local bank or a credit union. That is how you bring these arrogant bastards down. And their "overdraft" protection is another scam that needs to go bye bye. It's nothing but loansharking.

Good post, thanks for posting.

Are you kidding me, Bank of America got a $1.9 billion Tax refund last year, although they made $4.4 billion in profits and took $1 trillion in bailout funds. So with all of that their going to charge a monthly $5 Fee for Debit Cards. Cut up your cards people. If you can't pay with cash, you don't need it.

Other banks to. This is some bullshit.

These guys encourage the use of electronic means to do the banking then hike the fees because of the reduction in revenue due to their desires. I don't like banks, wish I could do without them. Credit unions are a good idea. If enough people leave BofA and go elsewhere perhaps they will change their model.

I just dumped my BOA checking account. About two months ago they sprang a $10 / month fee for using Quicken now the $5 / month for debit card. This bank is so sad. If you are military go to the USAA bank it is outstanding and no fees.

pretty stupid BoA....course it should do wonders for Credit Unions. Ohhh, I just used that dirty word U N I O N....tsk tsk.

Boycott this criminal enterprise ....

B0fA has to be the worst bank, EVER!

charging you money to use your own money? Screw you, Bank of Greedica

Well, then I'm closing my account with them.

I'm not about to be charged a fee to use my own damn money.

F B of A. Join a credit union. I'm so glad I did.

Nickle and dime the working poor some more, huh, BofA?

Coffee cans. I have plenty if anybody wants one for their $$. Decades ago, the Deputy State Auditor for the State of Montana, looking over what the banking industry was planning to do, advised us to put our $$ into coffee cans and bury them in the yard, where they would be safer.

SO glad I dumped them. Worst business evar!

great now every one on wallstreet hates you even more haha... i don't have a BoA account and never will

you shouldn't be using one of those things anyway, i figure out what i need for the week and withdraw from the bank on friday afterwork, simple system that has allowed me never too say the words "im broke" having access to your life savings at any given moment breeds bad habits, because you buy without thinking, i'd bet money that, those 64 percent of americans without a 1000 bucks to their name would have a few grand more in the bank if they had time to think if they really need what they are buying.

Honestly this is blessing in disguise to those who choose to toss their cards entirely, in this economy there will be quite a few.

Boycott Bank of America. If you have accounts with BofA close them and move your accounts into a credit union.

Yaawn. This is what is supposed to happen. They were previously making this money on overdraft fees that overwhelmingly got charged to the poor. Now everyone chips in. Dodd-Frank was successful.

That being said, I wouldn't keep an account there, anyway.

I have a savings account that I use to cash my checks and only keep the bare minimum in. My checking account is reserved only for paying bills. Everything else is cash.
That way the bank only has a little of my money at a time. I just don't trust em anymore.

Two words: credit unions.

THANKS FOR POSTING THIS. I WILL START USING CASH FOR NOW ON.

My bank is a state bank. I would never go to one of these big banks.

Yet another reason to stop using debit and credit cards and go back to paying for things with cash, or checks for larger amounts. It also keeps the retailers from having to pay HUGE accumulated transaction fees each and every month.

The easiest way to kill financial terrorists is to starve them!

From ZeroHedge:

Just when we thought we had seen every imaginable form of stupidity out of Bank of America, they go ahead and stun us all over again. The latest shock is that starting next year, the repository of hundreds of billions in underreserved (apparently the SEC finally figured out what was obvious to Zero Hedge readers since October 2010) toxic Countrywide mortgages, instead of shoring up capital, will do the opposite and start charging anyone with a debit card $5 a month fee for said card usage. Needless to say, this is obviously a collusive attempt by all the big banks, who are so desperate to generate some revenue (with the 2s10s flatter than at any time in the past 2.5 years) they are willing to drive away millions of paying customers. The problem is that the bulk of depositor clients will simply walk away from Bank of America (which had $1,038 billion in deposits as of June 30), and any other institutions that piggy back on this (and from a game theory perspective, everyone has to do it, or nobody will do it), and instead pull cash out of any and all checking and time deposit account forms. As a result, the key buffer that big banks have had during the entire financial crisis, cash from deposits, is about to disappear. This comes at a time when every US bank is fighting tooth and nail against Basel III implementation which forces banks to have more not less tangible capital (read cash, up to and including deposit cash). Alas, doomed for failure such idiocy can only come out of the US banking system which should have long been insolvent and replaced, but instead the Fed's policy of intercontinental Moral Hazard continues to encourage such "survival of the anti-fittest" decisions with pride. It goes without saying that we urge any and all of our 5 million monthly readers to pull any funds they may have from Bank of America in retaliation for this insanity.

From Dow Jones:

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the largest U.S. bank by assets, plans to charge customers a $5 monthly fee for making debit card purchases
starting early next year, according to an internal memo sent to bank executives Thursday.
The fee will apply to customers with various checking accounts during any month they use their debit card to make a purchase. The fee will not apply to customers who do not use their debit card to make a purchase or who only use it to make ATM transactions.
Bank of America is trying to cushion revenue losses it expects to incur from new caps on the fees merchants pay when a customer uses a debit card at their stores. In June, the Federal Reserve Board finalized rules capping such fees at 24 cents per transaction, compared with a current average of 44 cents.
Bank of America has said it expects the caps, which take effect Oct. 1, to erase $2 billion in revenue annually. Industrywide, the caps, which apply to banks with $10 billion and more in assets, could wipe out $6.6 billion in annual revenue for banks, according to an August report from Javelin Strategy and Research.
"The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations," a spokeswoman for Bank of America said in a statement Thursday.
The fee will apply to various consumer checking accounts but will not apply to customers in certain premium accounts, the bank's memo said.
"This new fee allows us to continue to offer the convenience of a debit card with the full range of added features customers have come to expect," including fraud protection and monitoring, special savings programs and other services, the bank's memo said.
Other banks have introduced or are testing new fees in response to the debit fee caps, which stem from a provision known as the Durbin amendment in last year's Dodd-Frank financial regulation overhaul legislation.
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), said it will charge a $3 fee for debit and ATM cards in several states starting in October if customers use the cards to make a purchase under a pilot program.

So, yes: if one is a preferred customer (read rich), they will be spared. 99% of the client base however won't be.

All joking aside, we give this retarded proposal about 2 months before it is buried in congressional hearings that make a mockery out of the executive who came up with it.

However, the take home message is that BAC is now willing to perform amputation in order to desperately raise capital. We are certain what little is left of the bank's shareholders will not fail to notice this...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/boycott-bank-america-which-about-institute-5-debit...