Editorial: About time the banks listened
A Bank of America ATM in Hialeah, Fla. (Oct. 14, 2011) Credit: AP
Consumers have spoken about the monthly debit card fees Bank of America and others were about to impose. The message was loud and clear: Enough already.
After bailing out Wall Street firms whose risky business precipitated the financial crisis that plunged the nation into recession, consumers did not take kindly to this move by some banks to fatten their bottom lines. A flood of complaints from customers mobilizing to move their money to credit unions and community banks forced a quick response.
Bank of America said Tuesday it was scrapping plans for a $5 a month fee, days after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. canceled plans for new debit card charges of their own. Those were good decisions on the heels of colossally bad ones to impose the fees.
Bankers should have gotten the message in 2009 when Congress enacted a credit card holders' bill of rights that banned profiteering, such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on existing card balances. They had a second chance for enlightenment last month when the Federal Reserve capped fees on debit card purchases.
But banks are fairly adept at circumventing government regulation, which is what they attempted to do via the new monthly debit card fees. This time customers who felt used took matters into their own hands.
Their angry backlash sent a powerful message. And if banks now try to turn to some stealth approach to extract more fees, that message will likely grow even more deafening. hN
