Since announcing their decision to charge debit card users a $5 monthly fee on Thursday, September 29th, Bank of America has received great backlash from the angered customers. In fact, Bank of America, which is the largest bank in America by deposits, saw its stock plummet 2 percent on Friday morning, adding to the 56 percent decrease the bank's stock has experienced this year. Shares are down 44 percent for the quarter. Additionally, the bank faces multibillion-dollar lawsuits and financial losses from its questionable mortgage practices during the housing boom (Halzack). .
Bank of America's decision stems from Senator Richard Durbin's bill that overhauled the banking system by capping the amount of money that banks can charge stores for debit card uses. After announcing its plan to lay off nearly 30,000 employees, Bank of America sought other sources to cut the losses from the new government regulations, and immediately turned to consumers to gain back their profits (Dennis). Basically, Durbin's amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation takes money from banks and gives it to retailers, but retailers have announced no plans to pass on the savings to customers (The Chicago Tribune).
However, even Durbin disagrees with the bank's decision to maintain profits by charging customers. "Bank of America is trying to find new ways to pad its profits by sticking it to its customers," he said (The Chicago Tribune). .
The backlash from their most recent announcement about the debit card fee spans far and wide, showing up across the Web on message boards and social media, as well as on cable news channels. Gerri Willis from the Fox Business Network personal shredded her own Bank of America debit card on air, claiming, "Right here, right now, I'm going to show Bank of America what I think of their fees. The $5 fee may not seem like a lot, but it's the principle of the thing - more and more coming out of my pocket" (Halzack).
