Ah, insanely crazy debit fees, we hardly knew ye…
Earlier this year, Bank of America announced plans to charge debit card customers a $5 monthly fee for simply existing and then tried to pass off the fees as a tax. The backlash was swift and painful.
Just last week, Bank of America’s competitors, Chase and Wells Fargo, backed off of plans to implement a similar fee after fearing a similar fate listening to customers. Bank of America, for its part, promised to consider “options” for its customers. And by “options” they meant they were trying to gracefully get out of a PR fiasco.
Today, Bank of America bit the bullet and ditched the fees altogether.
In what was an extremely short and clearly a carefully worded statement, David Darnell, a co-COO (I know it looks funny but it’s shorthand for a co- Chief Operating Officer) said:
We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.
Until they think of the next big money-making scheme on the backs of their customers. Yeah, I said it.
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