I have a confession.
What I’m about to reveal is a secret I’d rather keep to myself, but I sense there are others who struggle with this problem.
Before you read on, promise you won’t judge me. To a certain extent, I don’t have much control over the issue.
That said, I’m rightfully afraid I’ll tarnish my credibility as a personal finance blogger once I tell you.
The thing is, my boyfriend has a checking account with Bank of America.
I know. It’s shameful, but you can’t control who you fall in love with.
For the most part, he’s a stand up guy. He’s really bright. He’s a hard worker. I think he’s hot, but I can’t, for the life of me, understand why he puts up with Bank of America’s crap.
I mean, who charges their customers $5 a month to use a debit card? What’s next, Bank of America? A per transaction fee?
It’s like you’re begging your customers to go somewhere else.
Maybe where my baby cakes does his banking is none of my business, but I liken my feelings to those you experience when you learn your boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend is butt fugly. You ask yourself, “Am I ugly?” (Admit it, dammit! I know I’m not the only one.)
Now I’m wondering if I’m an abusive, greedy little monster. After all, those are the type of entities my boyfriend associates with.
Well, I for one, will not sit silently by while people I care about are nickled and dimed into oblivion.
I hope my guy reads this and sees the public spilling of my guts as what it is – a cry for help.
If you or someone you love has a debit card with Bank of America, here are some alternatives.
Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking - I’ve used this as my primary checking account for a few years now. There are no minimums, no monthly fees, and ATM fees are refunded to your checking account. As an added bonus, whenever I call Schwab (because I’ve screwed something up), amazingly, they answer the phone, almost immediately. A fully coherent human being actually picks up. In one word, this checking account is awesome.
ING Direct Electric Orange Checking – ING Direct is a fine institution if there ever was one. I’ve been with them for years. Although I stopped using my Electric Orange Checking account a while back, I never had any problems with it. One time ING Direct did me the favor of declining a debit card transaction because I would’ve overdrawn my account. Many banks would’ve gladly cleared the charge in exchange for a $35 overdraft fee.
Use websites like CheckingFinder and BankRate to learn which banks offer free checking. Unfortunately, now that Bank of America has made the asinine move to charge their customers for debit card use, other idiots will surely follow. Look for the warning – I mean disclosure – in the fine print.
Do you bank with Bank of America? If so, why? For the love of all things sacred, why?!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I used to bank with a big bank (not BOA, though), but their fees started adding up, so I went to a small, local bank with Free Checking. I loved that bank. Then it was taken over by a larger bank that I loved a lot less. Which was taken over by an even bigger bank that pi$$ed me off one too many times.
Now I use a local credit union and love them to pieces.
It's hard to trust big banks these days. I used to really like Washington Mutual, but then they were acquired by Chase. That's when I opened a Charles Schwab checking account. I knew what was coming. It took Chase about a year or so before they sent the letter informing their customers they'd start charging $12 fees for accounts that didn't meet their minimum balance. I promptly closed that account after that.
First off…love your blog! Secondly
Ok… Not sure why my entire Comment refused to post but I wanted to say thanks for the info. I closed down my BofA accts and opened an acct at my local credit union! Every bit of money saved counts!
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment! Glad you closed your account with Bank of America. They need to learn how to treat people.
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