When faced with an unpleasant situation, there is a right way to handle it and then there is a wrong way.
First, the unpleasant situation:
Bank of America announced late last month that it plans to start charging debit card users a monthly fee starting early next year.
Now, the right way:
Due to the fee, Roger Goodwin is considering leaving Bank of America and getting an account with a local credit union.
“They do not have fees, and I also have an account with another bank that is also going to start charging for checking,”
Then, the wrong way:
U.S. Rep. Brad Miller said the fees should be illegal, according to WMFY.
Guess which way is going to produce the greatest change in the debit card market?
Gotta agree with you here. BOA is certainly within their rights to charge a fee. I’m a BOA customer (and I belong to a local credit union), and I’ll try to rationally minimize my fees. But in this case government intrusion is wrong.
BOA is certainly within their rights to charge a fee.
Not only that, but how are they expected to provide services unless they are reimbursed?
Anyway, glad to see you on board!
I do not support legislation to restrict the fees that BOA can charge, but I do believe the bank is trying to extract more than it really needs to cover costs and a reasonable profit.
How much does it really cost to move $2.31 from my checking account to the merchants account when I make a purchase with a debit card?
I do not know the answer to that, but I suspect it is almost too low to even measure. I also suspect that the cost to transfer $2.31 is exactly the same as transferring $2,310. It seems fishy to me that banks are charging merchants a fee based upon a percentage of the sale. I truly understand a percentage based fee structure for a credit card transaction. When a credit card is used, the bank needs to bring money to the table, and hope it can later recover it from the purchaser. With a debit card, the banks already have the money.
I have no plans to close my “premium” account at BOA, but I do think that the bank’s management is out of touch with its customers.
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