Live data from Hacker News

Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

bucks.blogs.nytimes.com

101–110 of 136 posts

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#101
post #92
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that in writing anywhere? The USAA website suggests otherwise. https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/pub_eligibility_task_entry Who is eligible? Active, retired and honorably separated officers and enlisted personnel of the U.S. military. Officer candidates in commissioning programs (Academy, ROTC, OCS/OTS). Adult children whose eligible parents have or had a USAA auto or property insurance product. Widows and widowers…

Yep, it looks like anyone can get a USAA bank account even if they are not military or a spouse/child of a USAA member. https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/why_choose_usaa_main USAA's investment products, most checking and savings products, credit cards, life insurance, and shopping and discounts are available to other individuals. The catch is that the remote check deposit feature is only available to people who are eli…

I thought remote deposit was available to folks with an insurance product or a line of credit (a simple credit card, for instance) with USAA? Or maybe it was an AND and not an OR?

Edit: I'm wrong. It does indeed require that you're eligible for property and casualty insurance, that you have a checking or savings account, and that you have or qualify for a credit card or loan through USAA.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#103
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of something I tweeted a while ago: "Something's wrong when its easier to earn credit card cash back than interest on savings..." http://twitter.com/#!/suanyeo/status/106413797811568640

Maybe from the mile-high view, but the reason cash rewards work is because the credit card company is essentially sharing part of the fee they extracted from the vendor with the customer. Fundamentally different than interest on savings.

It is just interesting seeing it at work. I get 1% cash-back on all purchases, and 2% on some others. I've already save up quite a bit on my cash-back, more-so than I have earned in interest on my savings account with 10k+ in it.

I am not even spending an absurd amount, just what I need to survive, and bills.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#104
post #17

Well, I'm switching (I don't have a credit card). What is a good alternative? I know everyone loves USAA, but none of my family has any relation to the military. BoA is "great" because it is everywhere , is there actually anything as wide spread in the (northeast) US?

Here is a list of online banks and credit unions you might want to consider: Ally: http://Ally.com INGDirect: http://INGDirect.com Fidelity: http://personal.fidelity.com/accounts/aong/fcma_learn.shtml Schwab: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking Everbank: https://www.everbank.com Alliant FCU: http://www.alliantcreditunion.org Incredible Bank: http://incrediblebank.com Salem Five Direct: http:/…

FWIW the US portion of INGDirect was purchased by Capital One.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#105
post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

Clearly time to go back to using cash! ;)

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#106
post #62
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you know cash has processing fees associated with it, right? Really. They're totally orthogonal to the cost of physically creating paper or metal currency, and they're mostly subsidized by merchants. Cash management is a hard problem. WalMart spends about 3 million every year moving pennies around -- that actual coin type. Every time a salon owner has to spend time driving to the bank or money leaves a cash regist…

> WalMart spends about 3 million every year moving pennies around -- that actual coin type I tried googling the data but I didn't find it. Is there a reference for that?

Yes. Google walmart "moving pennies" and click on the first result

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#107
post #28
post #17

Well, I'm switching (I don't have a credit card). What is a good alternative? I know everyone loves USAA, but none of my family has any relation to the military. BoA is "great" because it is everywhere , is there actually anything as wide spread in the (northeast) US?

PNC bank is fucking awesome. I'm not creative enough to think up enough good things to say about it: they just rock. PNC has a great website, the people are great (at least at my local PNC), they're very professional, and they're pretty smug about being the only bank left that has "free checking". http://www.pnc.com They even refunded me the $17 they charged for a box of checks. (I had gone in and asked for a truly-f…

Ehm, ING Direct does free checking, Schwab does free checking, plenty of smaller credit unions do free checking as well. They are definitely not the only ones.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#108
post #4

I think the thing that really annoys me about these kind of moves is that they're clearly targeting the less fortunate out there. If I want to avoid the $5 that's easy- I'll just switch to my credit card. But people who don't have enough credit to get a credit card now get punished twice. I read a fascinating passage in The Big Short (an excellent book on the financial crisis by Michael Lewis) that told the story of…

This is why I use the local credit union and avoid BoA like the plague.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#109
post #23
post #5

I fail to see why anyone selects a big bank like BofA/WellsFargo/Chase for their personal accounts, when they are known to have a plethora of fees and dubious ethics, and there are almost always better options in regional credit unions. What am I missing?

I'm with BofA simply because they have branches everywhere. I was in a situation where I needed to deposit checks in six wildly separated cities.

Clearly you have never had to deposit a check with them while in Colorado ... they don't have a single branch in Colorado.

Re: Bank of America to charge monthly fee to debit card users

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a list of online banks and credit unions you might want to consider: Ally: http://Ally.com INGDirect: http://INGDirect.com Fidelity: http://personal.fidelity.com/accounts/aong/fcma_learn.shtml Schwab: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking Everbank: https://www.everbank.com Alliant FCU: http://www.alliantcreditunion.org Incredible Bank: http://incrediblebank.com Salem Five Direct: http:/…

FWIW the US portion of INGDirect was purchased by Capital One.

True. Although if Capital One knows what's good for them, they won't change a thing about INGDirect (except maybe offering remote deposit!).

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it, but I don't expect any massive changes in the near-term.

Post reply on HN