If you are a Bank of America customer with a debit card, get ready for a new mandatory monthly fee.
Bank of America announced that beginning next year, it will charge its debit card customers a mandatory $5. monthly fee, regardless if they use their card 1 time per month or 1000 times per month. The new policy will force customers to either carry cash for their daily purchases or pay up to $60 a year in fees. Customers may also avoid the fee by keeping a minimum $20,000. balance in their combined accounts.
Bank of America risks losing thousands of customers to competing banks, as they introduce new fees and new ways for them to make money off their customers. Analysts predict customers could flee to other institutions in the droves, where they would have convenient debit card access to their own money without financial penalty. But Bank of America is not the only bank with a new debit card fee. Wells Fargo and Chase have also announced they are testing a $3 fee in a few states.
CitiBank may gain the most in attracting disgruntled Bank of America customers, as it says it will not charge a debit card usage fee. Instead, Citi will begin charging a fee for checking accounts, unless customers keep their monthly balance at a certain minimum level, depending on the type of account.
