http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/29/pf/bank_of_america_debit_fee/index.htm

[size=14pt]Bank of America to charge $5 monthly debit card fee[/size]
By Blake Ellis September 29, 2011

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Get ready for a new wave of bank fees. Bank of America will begin charging a $5 monthly fee at the beginning of next year for customers who make debit card purchases. Whether you use your card for one purchase a month or 20, you will pay $5 per month starting in 2012. It doesn't matter if you select "debit" or "credit" at the point of sale.

If you don't use your card at all, you won't be assessed a fee, and you can still use ATMs as much as you want without getting hit with the new charge. Plus, customers with certain premium accounts will be exempt from the charge. Other banks have been flirting with the idea of introducing a fee for debit card usage, but Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) is one of the first major institutions to announce that it will make this a reality for active debit card customers. The move coincides with the implementation of new rules limiting the revenue banks will be able to get from merchants. Beginning this weekend, a cap on the fees banks can charge retailers every time customers swipe their debit cards will take effect. While banks used to charge an average fee of 44 cents, now the maximum fee is only 21 cents. This is expected to cost the banking industry billions of dollars. The Federal Reserve introduced the cap this summer, despite protests from many financial institutions. "The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations," said Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess, adding that customers will be notified of the change at least 30 days before it takes effect.

Last month, Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) said it will test a $3 monthly fee in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington beginning Oct. 14 for customers who use their debit card for purchases. At the end of last year, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) announced a similar test, in which it charged customers in northern Wisconsin a $3 fee for using their debit cards. A Chase spokesman said last month that the tests were still underway.
But Senator Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced the swipe-fee cap in an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, said the cap simply evens out the playing field for retailers because the fees Visa and MasterCard had set for banks "grossly exceed the cost of processing a debit card transaction by some 400%." "After years of raking in excess profits off an unfair and anti-competitive interchange system, Bank of America is trying to find new ways to pad their profits by sticking it to its customers," Durbin said in a statement Thursday. "It's overt, unfair and I hope their customers have the final say."

I'm not upset about the democratic legislation that led to BOA instituting a new fee because these reckless corporations many of whom have received bail-outs, need to be reigned in - I am upset at the insatiable greed of banks who instead of cutting operating costs to offset whatever losses they incurred from the bill (losses btw which were been unfairly ripped from merchants in the first place, much like cellphone corporations charging $10 for text msgs that cost >20c to process) decided to pass it on to innocent consumers.

I use my BOA card for practically everything as I'm not a fan of carrying cash and debit cards are just so much more convenient. Needless to say, I am going to find a new bank asap. $5 just to swipe your card?  this is worse than daylight robbery, they couldn't even start small at $1 or something. Them greedy buffoons are not getting a dime of my money, I'd rather donate to Obama's re-election campaign  so that more regulations of this kind can continue to squeeze them where it hurts and consumers take their business and money elsewhere. They should'nt have been bailed out by Obama in the first place. Let them go bankrupt jor. Nonsense.