Bank Fees, Debit Card | featured news

Bank of America Corp. is scrapping its plan to charge a $5 monthly debit card fee. The bank's decision to drop the fee came after a roar of customer outrage in recent weeks over the fee. Other major banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., already canceled tests of similar debit card fees last week.

Bank of America is reconsidering its plan to charge $5 monthly debit card fees after public outrage has caused several other large banks to drop their own plans to charge similar fees.

Sometimes, the big banks can hear their customers. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has decided that it won't charge customers who use their debit cards to make purchases.

President Barack Obama launched a broad onslaught against banks on Thursday, tapping into public anger over rising fees to garner populist support ahead of his 2012 re-election campaign.

President Obama slammed Bank of America’s $5 debit card card fee in an interview with ABCnews.com and Yahoo on Monday, calling the charge “not good business practice.”

Few seem terribly pleased with Bank of America’s decision to charge its users $5 every month they use their debit cards. BofA blames Congress for passing the Dodd-Frank Act, claiming the law’s new regulations are responsible. The law, which was implemented in June, restricts the fees that banks can charge merchants when customers use debit cards to pay, lowering them from 44 cents to 24 cents.

Bank of America will charge debit card customers a $5 monthly fee for using their plastic to make purchases starting next year, a move to recover recently reduced fees paid by merchants.

First, Arthur Santa-Maria called Bank of America to ask how to check the balance of his new unemployment benefits debit card. The bank charged him 50 cents.