FYI Bank of America users...Follow

Bank of America Corp. is dropping its plan to charge customers $5 a month for making purchases with their debit cards, a person familiar with the situation said.

The move is a dramatic retreat following decisions by several rivals in recent days to drop customer tests of the new fees. SunTrust Banks Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. also said Monday that they will stop charging customers for debit-card transactions.

Bank of America decided against the fees due to negative customer feedback on the plan and the moves by rivals, which left the Charlotte, N.C., lender as the only big bank planning to levy the fee on some customers next year.

I'm with BoA and right now, our checking account is free as long as there's at least one direct deposit of $250 per month made. Not saying they can't or won't change that, but hopefully they'll leave it alone.

I'm sorry to hear you're with Bank of America.

It's getting silly all of the rules they're making up to get your checking account free.

They've been fine for me too. Some very minor/nitpicky issues (I had an incorrect $1.50 balance on a card, which turned into a $1.50, credit when I tried to get it removed. It took like two months to finally close it out), but those're to be expected with a big company. I like the convenience of the locations, and they were easy to work with in Europe, too. The local rep I deal with is friendly and helpful.

I haven't had to deal with a paper check in a long time, but when I did, their ATM is better than just about anyone else's. You can deposit checks or cash and the machine scans it all so you can't lie about how much you're putting in. And as long as it's in before 8 p.m. that day, it's credited to the same day.

I was about to say that my bank has the same ATMs with the scanners and just bothered to look up what the BMO in Harris BMO stands for. Bank of Montreal. Go figure.

How sad is it that I'm relieved to learn my bank is owned by Canadians?

Edited, Nov 2nd 2011 6:32pm by Jophiel

I'm not mocking Canada, I'm lamenting the US.

Today's kids will never know how (or be able) to float a check.

Back in college, I kept $40 floated between two banks and a check cashing counter at the grocery store for about a month.

Those were the days.