Bank of America will be charging a one-time monthly fee of $5 next year, whenever a customer uses their debit card to make a purchase.
This new policy forces customers to carry cash to make purchases or pay up to $60 a year in fees. Regardless of how many times a customer uses their card per month, they will still be charged.
Brittany Fikre, a junior political science major, said she is shocked that Bank of America would now charge a fee for a service they promoted as free.
“It’s hard to always carry cash, the debit card made paying for things easier,” Fikre said. “What about when you run out of cash, but you’re at the gas station or something? It’s not fair to customers.”
There will be no fee charged if a customer withdraws money from a Bank of America ATM. Cal State Long Beach provides students with access to Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo ATMs at the University Student Union.
Bank of America potentially risks losing customers who are fed up with different fees to competing banks. However, 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.
“I wouldn’t want to go through the whole process of having to switch banks, but it’s an inconvenience to something that was supposed to make life simple.” Fikre said. “As a working student, I have too many other things to worry about financially. Now there’s an annoying little fee too.”
CitiBank said it will not charge customers for using their debit card but will be charging a fee for checking accounts, unless customers keep their monthly balance at a certain amount, depending on the type of account.
The way to beat the BofA debit card fee is to keep a monthly balance of $20,000 through combined Bank of America and Merill Lynch accounts or a mortgage with Bank of America.
“With all these fees, we all might as well keep our money in our pockets or piggy banks at home,” junior psychology major Brittany Clemons joked.
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