Bank of America Plans New Debit Card Fee

Bank of America announced that it will charge its customers $5 a month for making purchases with debit cards, and Wells Fargo, Chase and SunTrust are poised to follow suit.

The fee — which will be waived for the bank’s premium or platinum privileges accounts — is a way to recoup revenue that will be lost from the limitations that the Dodd-Frank Act will place on overdrafts and fees that banks charge merchants for debit card transactions.

“The economics of offering a debit card have changed,” a Bank of America spokeswoman said Thursday. BofA is the largest U.S. bank by assets. –ARK

The Guardian:

US banks have been looking for ways to increase revenue as regulations introduced since the financial crisis limited the use of overdraft and other fees.

… Senator Richard Durbin, the architect of debit card interchange fee reform, bashed the proposed monthly fee. “Bank of America is trying to find new ways to pad their profits by sticking it to its customers,” he said in a statement.

“It’s overt, unfair, and I hope their customers have the final say.”

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