So the folks at Bank of America have decided to start charging $5.00 a month if you use your debit card for purchases. If I do the math correctly, that’s $60.00 a year, or in layman’s terms, a tank of gas.
Quite frankly, I think the folks at Bank of America are a bunch of bastards. Because now that they’re doing this, the rest of the banks will jump on board and start doing it too. I’m so happy that we bailed them out of bankruptcy.
I asked Earl if he had any interest in moving us to a local bank. I was surprised when he agreed. Since we have two sets of accounts at BOA and HSBC (the world’s local bank!), there will be some legwork involved with direct deposits and the like so I’m going to wait until HSBC’s planned desertion of the area is completed and then we are going to move everything to a more local bank. Maybe a credit union. Maybe we’ll just start paying everything with money orders or PayPal or something. I just love the fact that the banks have been pushing to move everything to debit and credit cards and now they’re going to start socking us with extra fees.
It’s time to start stuffing the mattress with the millions.
Hi JP, It’s been a long time since I’ve commented, but I’m still a frequent reader. 🙂
Yes, the big banks are constantly looking for ways to “stick it” to the consumer. And until more customers vote by moving their money, they will continue to do so.
After a similar situation with one of the “local” big banks, my partner and I moved our accounts to Ally. We never looked back. They refund all ATM fees, and the interest rates are higher than any of the local credit unions. Since we both have direct deposit through work, it hasn’t been an issue not having a local branch of the bank to go to . Any problems we’ve had (and there haven’t been many) were resolved very quickly with over the phone or on-line. I recommend giving them a look.
When Chase took over Washington Mutual (where I’d had a pleasant, decades-long relationship) they immediately fucked me over by my account getting hacked and drained. Less than two weeks! I immediately closed the account. “WHY?” they pleaded. And moved to a local credit union. Haven’t looked back, haven’t missed the uncaring ineptitude. If the entire country would do that these bend-over-and-grab-your-ankles fees would come to a very quick end.