Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Debit Fees to Disappear...

Chase, Citi and others have changed their minds about charging fees to their customers for using their debit cards to access their own money.

JPMorgan Chase has decided it will not charge customers who use their debit cards for purchases, joining a growing list of banks that will not follow the lead of financial giant Bank of America, which announced a $5 monthly fee last month.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, U.S. Bank, PNC Financial, and Key Bank have confirmed they are not planning to charge customers debit card fees when they make purchases.

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the country by total assets, began testing a $3 fee in parts of Wisconsin and Georgia in February. However, the bank decided it won't roll out the fee to the rest of the country, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

A person familiar with Chase confirmed with ABC News that it is not planning to charge debit card fees due to customer preferences.

Bank of America then stated that there were going to "revamp" their plan to charge $5/month to customers:

Bank of America Corp, after receiving heavy public criticism for a planned $5-per-month debit card fee, is likely to give customers more ways to avoid the fee, a person familiar with the bank's plans said Friday.

The second-biggest U.S. bank is reworking its plans as rivals Wells Fargo & Co and JP Morgan Chase & Co have decided not to charge monthly fees, ending test programs in certain states.

Bank of America is likely to allow many customers to sidestep the fee by taking measures such as maintaining minimum balances, having paychecks direct deposited, or using Bank of America credit cards, the person said.

Under earlier plans, customers might have needed balances totaling $20,000 across all their Bank of America accounts to skip the fee.

Then, today, BofA said this:

Bank of America is nixing its plans to charge a $5 debit card fee.
That's 1 for the little guy, 0 for the banks.

No comments: