Last week, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) slammed Bank of America’s new debit card fees. “It seems that old habits die hard for Bank of America,” Durbin said in a press release. Starting in 2012, Bank of America will charge a debit card fee of $5 for customers who use their debit cards to make purchases. Durbin’s comments on the new fees echoed the sentiment of many of Bank of America’s customers who took to Twitter and other forms of social media to slam the bank.
“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. It’s overt, unfair and I hope their customers have the final say,” Durbin said.
The fact that Bank of America received billions of dollars from the US Treasury in bailout funds and will now charge a $5 debit card fee has irked many of Bank of America’s users. According to CNN Money’s list of bailed out banks, Bank of America received $15 billion from the Capital Purchase Program in 2008.
Bank of America’s new debit card fees may benefit other banks without similar fees. According to a Time Moneyland poll, approximately 75 percent of 1000 participants will change banks as a result of Bank of America’s new debit card fees.
