Thanks Bank of America for raising the fee… Posted by Michelle at 08/23/07 01:33 PM

You may soon discover, or have already discovered, that you are paying more cash to get cash. Bank of America has raised the fee to $3 for all non-customers who use their ATMs…nearly double what most banks charge. According to Bankrate.com, the average ATM surcharge fee is $1.64.

Where will this rise take effect? According to the American Banker:

“The 50% increase in B of A’s surcharge took effect in most markets Tuesday [July 31st] and will be extended to a few other areas, including New York, Massachusetts, Nevada, Illinois, and New Mexico at the end of August. Exempt, from the fee increase is Chicago, where the Charlotte company has set aggressive growth targets, is opening branches at a brisk pace, and plans to buy LaSalle Bank Corp.”

Bank of America is certainly raising the bar here. What’s Bank of America’s justification? A Bank of America senior Vice President told the American Banker the additional fees are to help “defray the cost of investing in its network of nearly 17,000 ATMs.” So, looks like there will be more ATMs to take more of your money!

Do something about it! Your voice is needed to make change in the marketplace.

Efforts have been launched at www.BankofAmericaBadforAmerica.org by SEIU (Service Employees International Union), who are concerned about this fee hike. Click here to Take Action and send a message to Bank of America

File a complaint with the OCC. Go to www.HelpWithMyBank.gov or click here
Complain to your bank (if you're not a Bank of America customer, or you don't bank with a national bank), we provide information on how to complain about your bank.

comments (26)

1 Posted by ursula mecking at 08/28/07 01:24 PM

Banks should work together to keep fees down and provide customer service around the nation at a reasenable charge amount.

2 Posted by julie franco at 08/28/07 06:29 PM

Why is Bank of America allowed to milk the public of every penny that they can. I am leaving this Bank at this moment because they have allowed people to remove money without my permission as well as allowing someone to remove over 10,000 dollars from my sister account after being told numerous times of the problem. It is time they be held responsible for stealing from honest working people.

3 Posted by Sabes at 08/28/07 07:51 PM

If you don't want to pay $3, go to a different ATM. Sounds simple enough to me!

4 Posted by Lewis J Hellerstein MD FACP at 08/30/07 10:58 AM

My wife has several accounts. Will not use this service if possible.

5 Posted by M at 08/30/07 12:26 PM

If you don't like the fee, don't use the ATM. BofA is within its rights to charge what it wants for people who are not customers (or even who are its customers) to use their ATMs -- ATMs are not a public utility.

If you feel you must use a BofA ATM, you could avoid the ATM fee by opening a free checking account, and by using BofA's free on-line banking to transfer money to the checking account so you can withdraw it at a BofA ATM.

It's called capitalism, people. If you don't like the fee, don't use the service, go to another bank.

6 Posted by Frank Fisher at 08/30/07 03:53 PM

Please do'nt raise this fee.

7 Posted by Katrina Pertruzzi at 08/30/07 04:05 PM

This is totally ridiculous why should we have to pay to get our money out from a bank that is not ours and especially over $3. Come on that is just helping that bank to get richer. Why should we be made to do this on our money. It is not right. I think if you want to get money out at another bank there should not be that much fee on it because you are getting a fee from your bank plus the other bank. If you take out $20 than you are getting charges of $5 or more just to take money out at a different ATM than your bank. What if you are in a town over 10 miles or more away from your bank and you are right there when and where you need the money. You are not going to go back to your bank just to get the money when gas costs so much too now days. It is just so ridiculous and unbelievable. I don't use the ATM much anymore because of all this. I live in a rural town and we only have like 2 banks in our area that is the name of my banks so if I am in a town like 15 to 20 mins away I am not going to go back to my bank just get money so I will go to Walmart or something like that and pay to buy something to get extra cash out because I am not going to pay for the extra fees. It is not right at all. This is why people are getting poorer everyday.

8 Posted by Mary Perdue at 08/30/07 04:58 PM

I guess I will have to stop putting my money in the banking system and just carry more cash.

9 Posted by Andy at 08/30/07 06:50 PM

I ahve a solution. Use YOUR bank's ATM to avaoid the fee! DON'T use BoA's ATMs! I find BoA's ATMs quite scarce in San Diego anyway. Who really uses cash anymore? I get by with $60 for at least wo weeks. Use your credit cards and get the cash back/airmiles!

10 Posted by Tyler Jiller at 08/30/07 07:02 PM

These comments are hilarious. It seems very simple. If you don't like the fee of the B of A ATM or any other ATM, then go to a different one. If you really want to use the B of A ATM, then open an account and avoid the fee. There banking services are great if working the way it should. There are always extreme cases out there, but I am very happy.

11 Posted by Chris NY at 08/30/07 07:30 PM

I guess BOA has to find a way to cover those potential losses they're bound to incur for allowing illegals without a social security number to open bank accounts and apply for credit cards. Again, we the people are footing the bill for the far left agenda.

12 Posted by A J at 08/30/07 08:20 PM

Go to different bank close your account and stop complaining like the whole world has to give you something for nothing.
most people are just stupid.

13 Posted by David K. Veenstra at 08/30/07 09:09 PM

I do not use BOA and now know why.

14 Posted by Erik Sumner at 08/31/07 06:19 AM

I am confused as to how a bank can offer "Free ATM Use" when you open up a checking account with them. On the other side of their mouth they tell you the fees are to maintain the ATM system etc. Bank of America is an excellent example of what Corporate Greed looks like (I wonder if Mr. Burns owns this bank? HUMM..) I though our government was of the people and for the people, seems like the people are the ones in the 1 to 2% income bracket and count more than the average American. Thanks B/A for showing me that I don't count!

15 Posted by Don Pressler at 08/31/07 09:57 AM

Everyone seems to forget Credit Unions. I have moved both personal and business accounts from Suntrust and BofA to credit unions. Plenty of ATMS and they don't "fee" you to death. Better rates all around than the big guys. Why fool with a bank?

16 Posted by Celeste Allen at 09/01/07 04:25 AM

Bank of America has to raise fees in order to support their massive program to solicit illegal immigrant bank accounts. I have moved all my accounts over to Chase even though I was a BofA customer for over twenty years (long before it was BofA). People should boycott BofA both for their ridiculous rates and for their even more ridiculous and dangerous policy of treating illegal aliens better than they do American citizens. I guarantee you it is easier to get a loan there if you are an illegal immigrant than it is to get a loan as a citizen of this country. I support LEGAL immigrants and believe we should do all we can to help them find a future in this country. ILLEGAL immigrants however, become criminals just by crossing the border or overstaying their visas. To treat them as anything different is only to encourage criminal activity. To charge ridiculously high ATM fees to help legitimize illegal aliens by soliciting them as customers is unconscionable.

17 Posted by ds at 09/01/07 09:51 AM

It costs money to provide service to customers. Why should BofA and it's customers pay for servicing non-customers. They should go to their own bank or open an account with BofA. BofA is in numerous states across the country. Chances are you will always find a BofA ATM where ever you go. Until then, pay up and shut up.

18 Posted by josicy at 09/01/07 06:40 PM

yeah cash only lets not get them banking system any more control

19 Posted by Irving Yaeger at 09/02/07 03:34 AM

If you don't like the fee, don't use the ATM. BofA is within its rights to charge what it wants for people who are not customers (or even who are its customers) to use their ATMs. If BofA wants to charge $20, why not? If BofA wants to make customers wear dunce caps and non-customers impersonate chimpanzees, BofA is within its rights.

The point is not that BofA is without its rights. Nor is this the end of capitalism. BofA is within its rights if it provides free ATM service to those customers and non-customers it considers sexy and if BofA requires janitorial work of the children of ugly non-members.

But I don’t have to like it. Now, I don’t want to open a free checking account, and by using BofA's free on-line banking, transfer money to the checking account so I can withdraw it at a BofA ATM.

The point is that charging customers $3 benefits customers and non-customers--anyone but bankers--not one bit. I want to choose to use BofA's free on-line banking to transfer money to the checking account so you can withdraw it at a BofA ATM. Instead, BofA holds me over a barrel.

You don’t have to be a Leninist to believe that consumers have rights. Consumers should be a force in and on the market. A market without significant pressure from buyers is bound to go bad. Or something. So let’s let BofA that this sucks.

BofA raising their ATM fees to $3 is not a good thing, considered in merely in terms of motivated self-interest.

Simply put, I have pride. If I understand that someone is coercing me, I resist. I’d rather be given a choice. BofA is coercing me into using BofA's free on-line banking to transfer money to the checking account so I can withdraw it at a BofA ATM.

If I feel that I must use a BofA ATM, it will be under the direst circumstances. I’ll avoid BofA ATMs like the plague. I'll recall the smell of pig farms every time I hear of BofA. Because someday I’ll get stuck having to use one of their wretched ATMs, and I’ll have to pay for the banker’s kid to go to Jamaica on spring break. But I will here have badmouthed BofA.

It's called capitalism, people. If you don't like the fee, don't use the service, go to another bank.

20 Posted by Elle Rayne at 09/02/07 09:21 AM

Occasionally a BoA ATM is all that's around. Which is why the fee hike is so unfair.
"If you feel you must use a BofA ATM, you could avoid the ATM fee by opening a free checking account, and by using BofA's free on-line banking to transfer money to the checking account so you can withdraw it at a BofA ATM."
You must work for BoA. Only a BoA employee would suggest opening a BoA account for the inconvenience of having to transfer money to get it out of an ATM. The purpose of ATMs is convenience. Opening a BoA account with its inevitable overdraft scams and unannounced policy changes pretty much undoes any convenience you get from using an ATM.

21 Posted by scott cady at 09/02/07 12:12 PM

In Europe and Australia there is no fee, and guess what? They still have banks there that make money!

22 Posted by Ray at 09/04/07 06:48 AM

Sounds like the people sticking up for BOFA have plenty of money. What do they care about 3.00 fees? Yes, people could use a different bank but this type of behavior spreads thru the industry like a disease.

23 Posted by Patrick Saint Fort at 09/04/07 11:06 PM

Do you have to use BofA's ATM? I don't

24 Posted by Matt at 09/13/07 07:27 AM

In Canada, most banks charge no ATM fees. You can use any ATM just like your own bank. I say we boycott U.S. banks until they make their system more customer friendly. Join a credit union, most of them are members of the CU network so ATM withdrawals are free at any 7 eleven.

25 Posted by Craig at 09/13/07 12:52 PM

The problem is that once a major bank like BOA raises it to $3..then very quickly, most other banks will follow suit....So they drive up the atm surcharge fees for most of the banks...

This way, after awhile, most bank atms will hit you for $3.....thanks to your friends at BOA!

26 Posted by ct at 09/17/07 12:02 PM

The problem I have with the new fee hikes is since I am a military member I, according to B of A, must have a B of A military account. B of A only recognizes commercial accounts (ie non-military) as B of A accounts for ATM withdrawls unless I use one of the on-base B of A's which are very limited. So now I am getting charged for not being a B of A customer when I am actually a B of A customer... that is not capitalism, that is thievery!