Bank of America, seemingly undaunted by last year’s consumer backlash after instituting debit card fees, is now trying out new charges on checking accounts.
While Bank of America and other major banks have now scrapped a widely-derided plan to charge customers a monthly fee for using their debit cards, a new survey shows at least 650,000 people closed their accounts with those banks in the past month and fled to more consumer-friendly credit unions.
In light of new regulations limiting what financial institutions can charge merchants when buyers swipe their debit cards, Bank of America — the nation’s largest bank — will soon impose a $5 monthly fee on customers who use their debit cards to pay for such transactions.
Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman, said the fee will only be charged when customers use their cards during merchant trans
On Monday, Bank of America announced that part of its plan to cut $5 billion in spending by 2014 includes the elimination of 30,000 jobs.
CEO Brian Moynihan made no mention of layoffs during an investor conference, and the bank says it expects the job losses to occur naturally through attrition and not rehiring when people vacate their positions.
In an effort to re-engineer a recovery and stop the massive sell-off of its stock, Bank of America reportedly plans to lay off 3,500 employees this quarter. Thousands more could lose their jobs in the coming months.