BofA drops plan for 5 dollars debit card fee

Bank of America, the second- biggest U.S. bank, announced on Tuesday it no longer planned to charge 5 U.S. dollars a month for debit usage in response to customer feedback and the changing competitive marketplace. The bank had planned to start collecting the debit-card fee as of January, but dropped it after listening "to our customers very closely and recognizing their concern with our proposed debit usage fee," said David Darnell, co-chief operating officer, in a statement. The bank said a month ago it would charge customers who used their debit cards for purchases if they had less than 20,000 dollars in total balances or lacked a mortgage or Merrill Lynch brokerage account, drawing broad criticism from customers and politicians that it would mostly hurt lower-income customers. Bank of America was the last among the biggest five U.S. lenders to scrap the fee after JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co decided to cancel similar charges. Banks began designing the monthly charges to redeem revenue lost due to the limits, mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act law, which slashes the fees banks charge retailers when consumers swipe their cards.