Not a member? Sign up now
Updated: Bank Of America ignores everyone, retains debit card fees
By Carlos CabreraNovember 1st, 2011, 12:30 pmComments (13)
Debit-card fees, one of the many new attempts your bank wants to implement in order to replace the revenue soon to be lost via recent restrictions on credit cards, debit cards, and overdraft fees, have been drawing heat across the country as of late.
But all is not bleak at the ATM, as a handful of institutions like JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo have publicly denounced the new charges they were only now in the stages of testing in selected states. For the moment, the only holdout seems to be Bank Of America.
After having just come dead last in a customer-satisfaction survey, Bank Of America is refusing to waive fees that many of its competitors have decided weren't worth the public backlash. Although select customers with direct deposit will be spared, those without that service will still be unwillingly filling B Of A's coffers with the $5 monthly fee. With a class-action lawsuit concerning overage fees already pending, the institution has already begun to lose thousands of customers to slightly less evil banks. Even President Obama has scorned the company for its complete lack of concern for anything but profits.
While it might be nice to think that movements like Occupy Wall Street sent a firm message to these institutions, those fees aren't going to go away — they'll likely just get shuffled around. What good is legislating against specific fees and charges when new ones will just take their place? It turns the problem into a shell game — "Keep your eyes on the $5 fee, ladies and gentleman. Where did it go? Take your guess!" The only way we can stop a company like B Of A is to remove ourselves from the equation — or as Senator Rich Durbin put it: “Vote with your feet. Get the heck out of that bank.”
UPDATE — Bank of America has just announced it will be doing away with their debit-card fee. Spokespersons from the B of A mentioned that this was in response from their customers, referring to the current exodus of accounts only as a "changing competitive marketplace."
Commentarium (13 Comments)
Just switch banks! Seriously...everyone, find a credit union. (www.ibelong.org) B of A will be begging for business when everyone leaves them for better, more just alternatives.
Couldn't agree more, RBW. If you don't like a businesses policies and you have choices - which you certainly do in the case of banks - tell them to change the policy or you're leaving. They don't change, leave. The market is a great equalizer.
Some enterprising person should start an OWS Credit Union.
"... a handful of institutions like JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo... "
You mean pretty much the only other major institutions, right? I saw a diagram recently showing how these three and B of A basically swallowed all other smaller banks. The banks are our modern day Robber Barons.
See the above - they may be robber barons but they can't make you patronize them. In virtually any case, there's a credit union out there in which you can qualify for membership. With ATMs, there's very little need for a brick and mortar building.
Move to a credit union - just as convenient and a lot less evil. . .
Can't win for losing.
They bought up the less successful banks. The ones that most likely were going to default and drain the FDIC, when all the depositors were due their money.
Big bad banks, took TARP money, paid it back with interests, bought up failing banks to keep them afloat, and saved the feds even more money by stopping claims to FDIC.
How long do you think you would have had to wait to get your money from the FDIC if that smaller bank had gone in the toilet?
They aren't the best corporations in the world but they certainly aren't the worst.
LA Times today, Tuesday, reports BofA has dropped the debit card fee
So, the $5 debit fee causes near-riots, and BoA backs down (as they should --they alrwady make billions off of their customers' deposits).
In the meantime, Obama pushes a multi-billion dollar tax increase on airfare (which could raise ticket prices by up to $100 each way) and... not a peep or a murmur, much less outrage. WTF??!!?!!!!!?!!?!???
People pay attention to what they want to, the media pushes the stories they want to (which serve to advance their particular viewpoint/agenda), so on and so forth... if people actually paid attention to what's going on around them, if they actually understood the full breadth of how we are being governed, there would be riots in the streets. The revolution is LONG overdue, but the sheeple of the USA are too apathetic to care anymore.
If people start leaving BoA, they'll put out more commercials rather than start behaving.
So? More commercials that don't result in more customers only hurts them both in terms of expenses and loss of business.
So is anyone complaining about the windfall the regulations gave to retailers.
Underlying all this was the reduction of the debit card fee of $0.44 charged to the retailer, down to $0.22.
The banks lost this income.
The retailers benefited from the change.
Are you seeing lower retail prices?
All Sen Durbin's bill did was hand the money from group of large corporations,(B of A, Wells Fargo) to another, (Walmart, Target).
Absolutely no benefit to we the people in the end, thanks Sen Durbin.
A very good point. What the hell does Congress think it's doing? If Durbin is involved, you can bet there was a large honorarium or campaign donation involved.