BofA to Charge Debit Card Users $5 per Month

by NowPublic Staff | September 29, 2011 at 09:20 am

123 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Bank of America to Roll Out Monthly Debit Card Fees

Your BofA debit card will no longer be free come 2012. Bank of America will start charging debit card users $5 per month for the privilege of paying for stuff by debit.

BofA spokesperson Anne Pace said, ""The economics of offering a debit card have changed." Well, yes, because BofA changed them.

So, since BofA can't nickel-and-dime you quite as much with debit-card swipe fees anymore due to the Dodd-Frank Act, it will nickel-and-dime you with debit card monthly fees.

You should probably question the overall competence of a bank that needs to charge you five bucks a month to use a debit card: you should not be your bank's source of income.

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.

The fee will not be charged for using the card to access the bank's ATMs, Pace said.

The fee will be introduced early next year.

JPMorganChase and Wells Fargo will be doing the same thing. The term they use is "testing new fee schedules", which means "rolling out permanent fees".