Starting next year, Bank of America will charge you $5 a month for the privilege of paying for purchases with your debit card. It’s the latest of a pile-up of new and increased charges for bank services before new consumer regulations go into effect limiting how much banks can charge for their services. Already, charges for bounced checks are the highest ever — an average of $30.83, according to Credit.com. And using an ATM from a bank other than your own, or one those free-standing kiosk ATM machines in delis and malls, can cost as much as $3. What’s next? Charging you $10 or $15 to do your banking with a real, live teller, instead of which a machine? This is a NYC on the Cheap thumbs down on Bank of America. According to the Wall St. Journal, banks collected $20 billion — that’s billion with a B — last year from merchant fees on debit cards. At least BofA isn’t planning to charge you a $5 fee for using your debit card at one of the bank’s ATM machines to withdraw cash.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.