Bank of America has actually listened to its customers. According to The New York Times, the company announced today that it was doing away with overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards, a decision that could cost the bank tens of millions a year in revenue and put pressure on other banks to do the same.
Bank officials said that effective this summer, customers who swipe their cards without the cash to back it up will simply be declined. I’m kind of shocked that BoA is making this movie, since debit purchases account for roughly 60 percent of their overdrafts. Maybe there’s a new trend in banking: common sense.
“What our customers kept telling me is ‘just don’t let me spend money that I don’t have,’ ” said Susan Faulkner, the bank’s deposit and card product executive, who said the overdraft changes were part of a broader push to build trust among its customers. “We wanted to help them avoid those unexpected overdraft fees.”
Of course, Bank of America isn’t doing this purely out of benevolence. Banks are bracing for a new federal rule that will require them to ask account holders to opt in to overdraft services for debit purchases and ATM withdrawals. That change was already expected to wipe out billions of dollars in overdraft revenue for the banks. New credit card legislation has also recently gone into effect.
Bank of America will continue to provide overdraft protection, for a fee, for checks and automatic payments.
This is all well and good, but what they really need to do away with is the dumb feel for using a non BOA ATM. I effing HATE that.